Advocates
Our team of volunteer Talk Line Advocates are the heart of Backline's programs. These dedicated, diverse women volunteer their time, energy and compassion to staff our toll-free national Talk Line, answering calls every day of the year, and providing unconditional support to people who need to talk about their decisions, feelings and experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption.
Staff
Shelly Dodson became our Program Manager in June 2010 after serving on the Talk Line as a volunteer Advocate since 2007. Previously, Shelly served as an anti-violence advocate at shelters both in Southern Oregon and Portland, and worked with women and their families as a doula and midwife. Shelly is committed to maintaining a feminist empowerment and anti-oppression lens in our work to fulfill Backline's vision of a world that honors women's experiences and embraces the complexity of pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption.
Board of Directors
Amanda Allen is the Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she performs legal and policy analysis on bills that will impact women's access to reproductive health care services, particularly abortion, introduced in states across the country. Amanda lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her polydactyl cat Lucy, and enjoys baking tarts and riding her bike through in outer boroughs.
Sabrina Andrus graduated cum laude from Seattle University School of Law in 2008 and began her legal career as a legal aid attorney in Seattle, Washington. She left legal aid and Washington State in 2010 and is currently the Director of Campus and Community Programs for Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ), a non-profit based in Oakland, California. Sabrina is honored to serve as Backline's Board Secretary and appreciates its commitment to respecting all people's lived experiences.
J. Parker Dockray, MSW is the Board President of Backline and a longtime advocate for reproductive health and justice. She has a special passion for options counseling around pregnancy, contraceptives and childbirth, but finds that nonjudgmental options counseling is a useful skill in most life situations. Since 2007, Parker has been the Executive Director of the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom (CCRF), a statewide network of more than 40 organizations promoting sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice.
Heather C. Dorsey, MS, CGC graduated from Indiana University in 1998 with a Master Degree in Genetic Counseling and has been a practicing genetic counselor for 12 years, with most of her experience in the arena of prenatal diagnosis. Heather is proud that Backline's mission transcends the political sphere and provides a safe space for women and their families to discuss pregnancy, its outcomes, and its implications in real and meaningful ways.
Dr. Angel Foster is Senior Associate at Ibis Reproductive Health where she leads a program of work dedicated to reproductive health issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Her work at Ibis includes social science and health policy research on reproductive health, particularly emergency contraception and abortion, young women's sexual behaviors and practices, and health professions education as well as the development of Arabic-language health education materials for both patients and health service providers.
Shantae Johnson was a volunteer Advocate on our Talk Line for over a year before joining the Board of Directors. Shantae is a breastfeeding peer counselor, doula, midwifery student, poet, writer, social activist, and mother to five beautiful children. Her background in community organizing and outreach was grown with the NAACP Portland State University Student Group, Partnership for Safety and Justice and as the Oregon State Representative for the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) from 2006-2009.
