Thought Partnership | Collaborating with Our Annual Conference Co-Chairs
We’re proud to share that our 45th Annual Conference Co-Chairs are Zoán T. Dávila Roldán, Shariana Ferrer-Nuñez, and Alexandra Pagán Vélez! Our Conference Co-Chairs serve as thought partners in designing a conference experience that attends to the contours of place/space - leveraging their leadership in the radical tradition of Black feminist, Queer, antiracist, anticolonial, political struggle as well as transformative pedagogy in naming, resisting, and dismantling systemic oppression.
Our Conference Co-Chairs, selected and invited by our President Heidi R. Lewis, support the vision of our annual convening and work collaboratively with the National Office in (re)designing how we gather - whether as settlers, arrivants, peoples of the Puerto Rican diaspora, and/or as generations of Feminist Freedom Warriors - and intentionally incorporating space for building power and political action, co-developing pedagogical interventions, enacting feminist ethics of imagined communities, amplifying your contributions that enrich our field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies, and anchoring our whole selves as sites of joyful and radical possibility.
Meet Our 2025 Co-Chairs
The bios of each of our Conference Co-Chairs are listed in order of their appearance in the above graphic, from left (L) to right (R):
Alexandra Pagán Vélez is a poet, storyteller, and essayist. She is also a professor of Spanish at the School of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, where she coordinates Women's and Gender Studies. She has published books of poetry: A mar, Otro duelo, Del Alzheimer y otros demonios (hybrid text) and Cuando era niña hablaba como niña; as well as books of short stories: Horror-Real, Relatos de domingos and Amargo. She runs the blog Adicción a volar and incorporates her poetics and narrative work in both her pedagogical and community work.
Zoán T. Dávila Roldán is a Black feminist activist, human rights defender, and lawyer. She studied Journalism and Law at the University of Puerto Rico. She has worked as a reporter and content producer for various multimedia platforms and newspapers in Puerto Rico. Zoán also worked as a litigation attorney at the Community Legal Office and as a researcher at the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission. In her legal work, she has represented protesters affected by state and police repression, impoverished communities at risk of displacement, and has supported survivors of gender-based violence. She is a leader and spokeperson of la Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, a grassroots political organization rooted in the radical tradition of Black and decolonial feminism.
Shariana Ferrer-Nuñez is a Black queer feminist, political organizer and educator. She is a co-founder and leader of La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, a grassroots radical Black feminist organization in Puerto Rico. Her activism began during her leadership in the student movement at the University of Puerto Rico’s 2010–2011 strike. She worked at Proyecto Enlace del Caño Martín Peña as an environmental organizer and educator, supporting communities resisting land grab, forced displacement, and impoverishment, and led the Construyamos Otro Acuerdo campaign advocating for retirees rights and pensions. Shariana has a vast experience in movement-building and organizing focused on reproductive justice, anti-racism, class struggle and decolonization. She was recognized with the Ann Snitow award in 2023.