Faculty

Pamela D. Bass, Esp. is a partner at Thomas, Drohan, Waxman, & Petigrow LLP in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. She received her undergraduate degree with honors from Brown University, her M.Ed. from the University of Texas at Austin, and her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Ms. Bass serves as labor/employment and general counsel for k-12 public school districts and higher education clients. She is involved in collective bargaining, employee discipline, and labor relations. In addition, she counsels clients in the areas of board governance, Title IX, sexual harassment, civil rights, interscholastic/intercollegiate athletics, student discipline, bullying and harassment, and the creation or review of policies/regulations/handbooks. Ms. Bass has been recognized as a Super Lawyer Rising Star from 2021-2025 for her work in labor/employment law and school/education law. Prior to receiving her J.D. degree, Ms. Bass had 19 years of experience in higher education and intercollegiate athletics, serving as an NCAA Division I Head and Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach. She has extensive experience in NCAA compliance and served on university and athletic conference committees on leadership, gender equity, and diversity. Ms. Bass is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the State of Connecticut. She frequently presents on labor/employment and education matters across the State of New York. She served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Connecticut School of Law teaching Higher Education Law. Ms. Bass joined the firm as a law clerk in 2014, while she was in law school, hired as an associate in 2016, and named partner in 2023.

La Wonder is a Queer African American pastor, chaplain, and full-spectrum doula. She serves as Chaplain at an HBCU, where she provides interfaith spiritual care and advocacy for students, especially LGBTQIA+ voices. As founder of Womb to Wings, she supports people through life’s sacred passages, from birth to death. She is a passionate advocate for reproductive justice, women’s health, and self-care as a radical act of survival. La Wonder also creates through her podcast Good Morning Vaginas, celebrating the sacredness of Black queer womanhood.

Dr. Cathy Moffitt most recently served as Senior Vice President and Aetna Chief Medical Officer at CVS Health. She and her team lead the integration and delivery of clinical and population health solutions in support of Aetna members, customers and provider partners. Dr. Moffitt began her career in managed health as a Medical Director for Vista Health Plan, a legacy company of Coventry Health Care and then Aetna. She also served as the company’s Executive Lead of State Programs, overseeing the Medicaid, CHIP and long-term care programs. Dr. Moffitt served as the Chief of Hospital Pediatrics at Broward Health from 1997 to 2005. Dr. Moffitt completed her residency training in general pediatrics and fellowship training in pediatric infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center. She received her MD from the University of South Florida, College of Medicine and her BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Daileann Hemmings is an accomplished nursing leader with over 25 years of experience advancing clinical practice, education, and health equity. She is currently the System Director of Maternal Health Equity at Hartford HealthCare, leading strategic initiatives to improve outcomes and ensure equitable, patient-centered care.

Dr. Hemmings earned her RN from Capital Community College, a BSN and MSN (community/public health focus) from the University of Hartford, and a Doctorate (healthcare leadership, systems, and policy) from Yale University.

She has served as an adjunct professor, utilizing Participatory Action Research to teach undergraduate nursing students about addressing health beyond the hospital, emphasizing community engagement and social determinants of health.

Dr. Hemmings has diverse clinical experience, including work as a traveling nurse at prestigious hospitals. She is an active leader in statewide initiatives, serving on multiple councils and coalitions, including the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls and the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

She is deeply committed to community engagement and advocacy, working to elevate underserved voices and advance maternal health equity at systems and community levels.

Rael Kukule Akoru is a public health professional from Kenya specializing in menstrual health, community health, and public health advocacy. She is an independent researcher, author, and menstrual health consultant with training from AMREF International University, where she was recognized with the Best Entrepreneurial Award in 2023. Rael is also a recipient of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health MOOC Scholarship for Menstruation in Global Context: Policy and Advocacy and is committed to advancing menstrual health awareness through research, education, and community-based initiatives.

Dr. Bismah Nayyer is a public health practitioner, researcher, and founder of Global Health Connect, a social impact organization focused on menstrual health, gender equality, and behavior change advocacy. Her work centers on designing community-driven campaigns, research, and policy engagement to advance menstrual health and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) at the intersection of Gender and climate change. She has worked with international organizations, including WHO and global feminist funds, on research, advocacy, and program design. Bismah is currently pursuing an MSc in Public Health at King’s College London. She is passionate about breaking menstrual stigma and creating inclusive, rights-based approaches to menstrual health.

Ruthie Braffman Shulman serves as the Director of Women’s Religious Leadership at Micah Philanthropies, where she develops and supports women in leadership roles within synagogue communities. At the same time, she works as a senior advisor on Jewish law related to menstrual health and family life, at a synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut.

With nearly twenty years of experience in community leadership and religious education, Ruthie has worked at a range of Jewish organizations and campus programs, including synagogues in Houston, a young adult engagement organization in Manhattan, and Jewish life programs at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and four children.

Alexis White Hat-Kayonnie (she/her) is a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Alexis is Sicangu Lakota and Diné. She was born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe reservation in the community of St. Francis and comes from the Aske Gluwipi Tiospaye.

Alexis is currently working as the Youth Internship Coordinator of the Sicangu Co's Learning and Development department. She oversees and coordinates the Sicangu Co 7Gen Summer Youth Internship and the Sicangu Co SGU Student Internship.

Alexis began a feminine hygiene drive back in 2022 in her community, not knowing what period poverty was at the time. Alexis never knew that what she, her friends, and other community members were suffering from was period poverty, and that other communities face this issue as well. Alexis strives to break down the negative stigma or taboo that periods bring to her community by looking at menstrual cycles through a cultural lens. She hopes that by spreading the knowledge passed to her from her mother, aunties, and grandmothers, she can uplift young women to look at their periods as a sacred and transformational time.

Tambra Morrison a Reproductive Justice advocate, consultant, educator, and community builder with over a decade of experience in health insurance systems and several years of leadership within Reproductive Justice and birth justice spaces. Her work is grounded in lived experience, public health, and a deep commitment to dignity-centered care.

She is the founder of Ain’t I RJ!, an independent consulting and community engagement practice where she designs and facilitates workshops, training, and thought partnership for organizations seeking to strengthen their equity-centered work and better serve the communities most impacted by barriers to care. Her work focuses on making complex issues clear, practical, and grounded in real-life experience.

Tambra’s advocacy includes work around birth justice, bodily autonomy, period poverty, community care, and equitable access to health resources. She is also the founder of Ratchet Scholars Book Club, a space where Black women come together through books, conversation, culture, and community to celebrate both brilliance and realness.

Tambra is currently pursuing a degree in Public Health, bringing together scholarship, lived experience, and movement work to help build spaces where people are informed, supported, and treated with dignity.