Who we are
Board
Natasha Hines
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Description teNatasha (she/her) is a registered nurse working in abortion care in Halifax (K'jipuktuk), Nova Scotia who graduated from the Dalhousie University Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She is passionate about providing accessible reproductive care and creating a safe environment for her patients. Outside of reproductive healthcare, Natasha's nursing background includes working in oncology and medicine services. She also helps to teach the Interprofessional Care of Surgical and Medical Abortion Course at Dalhousie University. xt goes here
Jeanine Goulet
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Jeanine (she/her) currently serves as a Registered Nurse in K'jipuktuk working in mental health & addictions as well as abortion and reproductive care. Jeanine is passionate about harm reduction, advocacy, and fostering safer spaces for all people accessing services in the spaces she works in. She is eager to contribute towards the progress that is being made collaboratively with the communities WW serves.
Sara Tessier
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Sara A. Tessier is a social justice advocate with lived experience who has spent the last seven years working with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized, and institutionalized men, women and youth in Canada. She currently works as the Impact Manager- Formerly Incarcerated Persons with the Northpine Foundation. She worked as a Peer Mentor with the Coverdale Courtwork Society and Outreach Worker with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland. She has worked on the JEC project with John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Mainland Nova Scotia, and Coverdale Courtwork Society in supporting people exiting provincial jail during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is an advisor for the African Nova Scotian Affairs Mobilizing Partnership Program, a committee member for YWCA's Trafficking & Exploitation Services System LGBTQ+ cultural group, and Co-chair- of the Scientific Advisory Committee – WW. She sits on the CAEFS Lived Experience Committee. Sara sits on the Board of Directors for the 7th Step Society of NS and Dalhousie Legal Aid Society. Sara will be attending law school at Dalhousie University shortly.
Dr. Martha Paynter
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Dr. Martha Paynter is the author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick, where her research examines the intersection of reproductive health and the justice system. She is a faculty member of the Contraception and Abortion Research Team in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and with the Health Law Institute at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. The founder of Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice, Dr. Paynter received the Senate of Canada 150 Anniversary Medal for her volunteer service to the country. Her clinical practice focuses on abortion and reproductive care.
Kristen Turtle
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Kristen is a registered nurse who provides abortion care. She is passionate about ensuring people have accessible and compassionate abortion care and contraception. She is an instructor in the Interprofessional Care of Surgical and Medical Abortion Patients course at Dalhousie University.
Stevie Fort
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Stevie Fort, BA, is a fat liberationist, prison abolitionist, and birth doula. Her journey to birth work started with the Volunteer Doula Program and has brought her to the full-time position as the Prenatal and Postnatal Educator at Chebucto Family Centre. She has been a member of Wellness Within for over 5 years and looks forward to coordinating impactful group work for the communities we serve.
The team
Dr. El Jones
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Dr. El Jones is a spoken word poet, an educator, journalist, and a community activist living in African Nova Scotia. She was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax. In 2016, El was a recipient of the Burnley “Rocky” Jones human rights award for her community work and work in prison justice. She is a co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a live radio show with people who have experienced incarceration on CKDU that creates space for people inside to share their creative work and discuss contemporary social and political issues, and along with this work, she supports women in Nova Institution in writing and sharing their voices. El was named the Nancy's Chair of Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University for the 2017-2019 term. Her book of spoken word poetry, Live from the Afrikan Resistance! was published by Roseway Press in 2014. El would like to pay tribute to the many nameless and unrecognized women whose work makes it possible for her to be here today.
Grisha Cowal
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Grisha is a fourth-year Bachelor of Arts student completing a combined major in sociology and gerontology with a minor in women’s studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. Grisha is a client support worker at two Halifax shelters for women and gender-diverse individuals. She is a feminist with a special interest in prison abolition, housing, and reproductive justice.
Clare Heggie
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Clare Heggie is a health researcher and health promoter, currently working as a health promotion specialist at IWK Health. She has a MA in Health Promotion from Dalhousie University and has been a volunteer doula for three years.
Juniper Littlefield
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Juniper is a licensed urban planner living and working in Halifax. She has a Bachelor of Community Design from Dalhousie University and is interested in how careful and empathetic policies and practices can shape communities.
Lisa Bland
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Lisa Bland is a Black woman hailing from the historic black community of Five Mile Plains, Nova Scotia. She is an RN, and IBCLC (lapsed). She has over 12 years’ experience in maternal-newborn care, gynecology, breast health, trans health, elder care, and as a nurse educator. Her focus on diversity, equity, and social justice has led to an internship with the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle (Auburn Seminary). Mother of 2 children, 27 chickens, and a cat, Lisa has an interest in food security and self-sustainability.
Danielle LeBlanc
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Danielle LeBlanc (she/her) is a registered nurse working in abortion and reproductive health care in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Aside from her clinical work, she co-created and co-facilitates an interprofessional health education course on abortion care and contraception for undergraduate health profession students at Dalhousie University, provides educational workshops in the community through Wellness Within, and is involved in abortion research. She is currently working towards a master’s degree in nursing (Nurse Practitioner) at Dalhousie University.
Anja McLeod
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Anja (she/her) is a master's student in Sociology at Dalhousie. She is a third-generation birth worker, with a passion for mobilizing health research into accessible community resources.
Julia Hutt
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Julia Hutt is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist residing in K’jipuktuk. Inspired by her own experience with pregnancy, birthing and baby-raising, Julia works with both traditional and digital illustration to create anecdotal scenes that portray snapshots of early parenthood. Common themes in her work include lactation, body positivity, and birthing people’s body changes. This work aims to challenge the capitalist devaluation of child-rearing work and traditionally gendered work such as housework and feeding kids.
Julia regularly does commissioned portrait work for new mothers and families. Her ongoing collaborations include album artwork for local singer Aquakultre and promotional portraits for artist Elise Peterson’s podcast ‘Talk Cool Moms’ based in Brooklyn NYC. In 2019, Julia was the artist in residence for Wellness Within’s conference “Confronting the Carceral State: Autonomy, Community, and Liberation”. Since then, she has produced work with Wellness Within and Martha Paynter to raise awareness about reproductive justice in the Canadian prison system.
Clark MacIntosh
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Clark MacIntosh, BSc, BSW, is the Finance and Resource Centre Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group. They are a graduate of the Dalhousie School of Social Work, where they focused on anti-oppressive, queer-centred practice. As a disabled, non-binary parent of two, Clark is an advocate for accessible, equitable policy design who has consulted with non-profit groups across the province.
Grace Szucs
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With 10+ years of experience in administration, communications, event planning, and community development, Grace is always seeking to learn new skills and make connections between people, resources, and issues to push organizations and communities forward.
Aishwarya Heran
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Aishwarya Heran is a second-year BSc student and Loran Scholar at McGill University from Vancouver, BC. She is interested in the intersections of social advocacy and medicine, specifically reproductive rights and justice. Aishwarya is involved in many equity-based initiatives and hopes to work towards positive change in her community.