Rhiannon Carnes

Rhiannon Carnes, is the Founder and Executive Director of Ohio Women’s Alliance (OWA) & Ohio Women’s Action Fund, a statewide Reproductive Justice organization building power across Ohio. Rhiannon built OWA to share her hopes for an Ohio that prioritizes the well-being, prosperity, and liberation of women of color, gender-expansive folks, and young people. She envisioned a year-round organizing group that centers grassroots leaders in Ohio. To get started, she set out on a state-wide listening tour to identify the issues that impact Ohio constituents the most, the challenges we face, and the hopes and priorities we have for the future of our communities. The tour led to our Pillars of Prosperity—the values platform that laid the foundation for the official launch of Ohio Women’s Alliance in late 2019 and OWA Action Fund in 2020. 

Since then, Rhiannon’s accomplishments have been celebrated in Elle, The Nation, Harper’s BAZAAR, and Cosmopolitan; she was recently named a Woman of Achievement by YWCA Columbus; in 2024 she was named a Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision by the Ms. Foundation; and in 2022, she was named a Reproductive Justice Hero and a 2022 Jane Bagley Lehman Award winner by the Tides’ Foundation.

Prior to building OWA & OWA Action Fund, Rhiannon Carnes became the founder and leader of Ohio’s Women’s March, where she collaborated with national leaders and recruited over 100 volunteers. And on January 21, 2017, over 15,000 women, gender-expansive folks, and allies took the Ohio streets. After the success of the Women’s March, she became a field organizer with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, where she worked for two years.

Chere Hampton

Chere R. Hampton (She/Her) is a queer Black author/poet, activist, and philanthropist who lives in Columbus, Ohio. She has served as the Board President of Motherful, a nonprofit organization that supports single mother families in Columbus, OH for the last four years. Under her leadership, Motherful has grown from a budget of $50,000 to now having a budget of over $600,000. She is passionate about advocating for reproductive justice and women maintaining bodily autonomy. She is also passionate about social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, affordable housing, affordable childcare, and the safety and well being of children.

Tareya Palmer

Tareya Palmer serves as a Senior Advisor and Founding Program Officer for the Just Health Fund of the Tides Foundation. In her role as Program Officer, Tareya supports grantees and builds the infrastructure of JHF including launching a 12-month capacity building cohort for proximate leaders of Reproductive Justice organizations. Prior to joining Tides, Tareya worked at Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, where she partnered with individuals and family foundations to secure philanthropic gifts that assisted in expanding reproductive healthcare access for marginalized communities. Given her professional and lived experience, Tareya has advised local grassroots organizations, specifically around reaching their fundraising and developing goals and bolstering infrastructure. One of Tareya’s passion projects is recording the podcast she co-founded, Columbus Can’t Wait, which focuses on the intersections of politics and community for Black people and people of color in Columbus, Ohio. An alumni of Ohio University, Tareya currently lives in Columbus with her partner, Devin and daughter, Justice.

Traci Person

Bio coming soon!

Pierrette “Petee” Talley

Elected in 2002 as Ohio AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Petee became the first woman ever elected as one of two principal officers in the history of the labor federation. In 2019, she stepped down from her leadership role as Secretary-Treasurer, retiring shortly after being re-elected to her firth 4-year term.   

Prior to her elected position at the Ohio Federation of Labor, she worked for the National AFL-CIO as the Ohio Director of Field Mobilization and prior to that she worked for her union, the American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees as the Legislative and Political Director in Michigan.  She began her career in labor in 1980 as the Office Administrator at AFSCME Ohio Council 8 in the Toledo Region. 

She spearheaded many local and statewide initiatives and campaigns throughout her 40-year career in organized labor and community social justice and civic engagement work in the AFL-CIO and with the Ohio Coalition on black Civic Participation.  Now, as the President and Convener of OCBCP/Ohio Unity Coalition headquartered in Toledo, she convenes a coalition of labor, faith, civil and human rights organizations across the state with a focus on civic engagement in African American communities.  

She continues service on several boards including Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN) Ohio; Progress Ohio; A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) National Board; Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) National Executive Council; Ohio Voice; and most currently the Ohio Women’s Alliance Fund Board.

She and her life partner Cornell, have a blended family of 4 children, 10 grandchildren 4 great grandchildren and Smokey their FURBABY.  

Alexis Voss

Creative, Activist, & Mother of two.

Working every day to create a better future for me & my neighbors.