By Lori Adelman • @ladelman • 10 years ago

Happy Birthday Maya!

Lori Maya and Jos in the car visiting Winona State in Minnesota during this month's campus touring.

From L to R: Lori, Jos and Maya, the birthday girl, traveling to Winona State for the Feministing spring campus tour this April. (Of course Maya brought snacks, like a BAWS.)

How much do you really know about Maya Dusenbery? You make have heard that Maya’s click moment came after she realized the absurdity of abstinence-only education. You may know that she has a knack for saying so eloquently what we all need to hear about rape culture, calling out sexist double standards in advertising, and asking the hard questions. You may know that she entertains you with the Weekly Feminist GIF and keeps you informed with the Weekly Feminist Reader. Newsletter subscribers owe her errrything (A reminder that you can always use the “subscribe” tab in the right sidebar to add your email to the list – it’s underneath the “take action” tab!) because she’s the one that writes it, to make sure readers stay engaged with the latest content on the site.

But what you may not know about Maya is that she is a leader behind the scenes as well. It’s not as easy to see the late nights and early weekend mornings she spends to keeping the site running, making sure it is financially viable and has great content lined up, and bringing awesome guest bloggers on board. Since I’ve become an Editor, I’ve been consistently inspired and impressed by how much effective and often thankless work Maya does to keep this community going strong. I’m also thrilled to say that this tweet marked the beginning of one of my favorite IRL friendships. It’s my great honor to wish her a mighty happy birthday (it was actually yesterday!) and to encourage you to do the same. So what are you waiting for? Send her some birthday love on Twitter!

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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