Our Mission
Supporting rural Southern women as human rights leaders to end poverty
Women uniting for change
Women combating sexism, racism, classism
Women tackling inequality
The work is guided by the belief that to truly empower women and end poverty we must build a political culture in the U.S. that promotes and protects human rights.
Pathways to Change
New Leaders
Supporting women and girls as agents of change
New Standards
Promoting human rights as the tool for change
New Approaches
Advancing new strategies to create change
Who We Are
Rachel Fowler
Project Director
Rachel Fowler, a native of South Carolina, is dedicated to deepening the human rights movement in the U.S. and to improving the lives of women and girls, especially those most impacted by poverty and other insecurities. Rachel has more than 20 years of human rights and non-governmental organization experience having served as Associate Director for the US Human Rights Network from 2008 to 2015 and prior having worked with The Carter Center Human Rights and Democracy Programs for 16 years, serving in many senior leadership roles. Rachel’s areas of expertise include human rights, democracy, and civil society capacity building, women’s rights, grassroots organizing, and NGO development. She served on Amnesty International USA’s board of directors, leading its strategic planning process.
Natalie Collier
Project Advisor
Natalie A. Collier, a native of Mississippi, is a writer, poet and fierce advocate for those most often ignored. After working with Mississippi’s only alternative newspaper and then earning a writing fellowship at Northwestern University, Natalie lived the life of a city girl working as the associate editor of a weekly publication. Feeling impotent to help the people whose stories she sometimes felt exploitive of, she changed careers. The south beckoned her back. She is the President and Founder of The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects supporting leadership development for Black girls and young women in the southeastern United States. Areas of expertise include women/girls rights, economic justice, grassroots organizing.
Rebekah Hudgins
Project Advisor
Rebekah Hudgins (M.A., M.P.H.), a native of Alabama, is a dedicated advocate for women, children, and the family. Rebekah is an anthropologist and epidemiologist currently working as an independent evaluation consultant and director of AnthroEval Consulting, LLC. She has worked with the Division of Public Health and Centers for Disease Control in active surveillance; conducted ethnographic research including extensive home visits in Jamaica; conducted drug studies in both Jamaica and the United States; and currently works with several organizations that are focused on community building and child and family well-being. In all of this work she has focused on the intergenerational and environmental aspects of women’s and children’s health, and the importance of the family and community context.
Johnaca Dunlap
Project Advisor
Johnaca Dunlap is a mother, working woman, SC Master Gardener, who volunteers with Ubuntu Institute of Community Development, a small collective of grassroots people investing their resources to affect positive change within their communities. Johnaca works with others to bring change and awareness through education, health, economics, cultural consciousness. When human beings experience trauma or serve life stressors, their lives can unravel. With that understanding and awareness of humanity Johnaca with friends created Carolinas Human Rights Organizing Conference, which brings together activists, organizers from diverse movements to provide a holistic understanding of human rights issues in North and South Carolina. Through facilitated conversations and interactive activity attendees build partnerships and develop collaborative strategies focusing on human relationships and human rights concerns - racial, social, labor, environmental, militarism, economic.
Rebecca Landy
Project Advisor
Rebecca Landy has over a decade of experience in US and international human rights work. Currently, she is the Director of Engagement at the Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN). Prior to joining HRFN, Rebecca was at the US Human Rights Network (USHRN), where she led their international advocacy and government accountability work while coordinating national and grassroots human rights groups. She has also worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Rebecca is a former High Court of Botswana Law Clerk and intern at the South African Parliament and Global Rights. She also served as a member of Amnesty International USA’s Women Human Rights Coordinating Group where she advised Amnesty in advancing a comprehensive gender justice human rights agenda. Rebecca earned her JD from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she was an Urban Morgan Human Rights Fellow and Assistant Managing Editor of Human Rights Quarterly.
