Advisory Board

About the Inaugural Advisory Board

In her 2024 Strategic Plan, President Heidi R. Lewis (2023-2025) outlined the need for and value of counsel from past leaders with the National Women's Studies Association. She writes:

Each immediate past President serves on the Governing Councel (GC )for one year following the end of their term. Additionally, current presidents have communicated with previous ones for many understandable reasons, such as learning the role, developing institutional knowledge, seeking support when the Association is under scrutiny or threat, and maintaining a commitment to intergenerational collaboration. For those reasons and more, it is important to maintain appropriate relationships with former GC members. However, continuity should not only be maintained through relationships with past presidents, and it should not only be maintained through relationships with the most recognizable ones, those still heavily involved with the Association, and/or those to whom current GC members are closely connected personally and/or professionally. The contours of these advisory relationships should be clear, consistent, and agreed upon by all members of the GC and the former GC members who aim to be supportive.

Therefore, the Association formed the first iteration of the Advisory Committee, drawing on past members of the Governing Council who expressed interest in and commitment to strengthening the Association in this period of growth.



Read the 2024 Strategic Plan

Association Governance

The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is governed by elected members with varying leadership and service experience within the organization. Each member of our Governing Council (GC) serves two-year terms with our President serving an addition ex-officio year of service on the GC. NWSA recognizes the breadth and depth of how our members engage in women's, gender, and sexuality studies - therefore we welcome any interested members in serving on the GC and encourage you to nominate a colleague or run for a position during our annual Elections season. 

Learn More

Gwendolyn Beetham

Advisory Board Member

Member at Large, 2015-2016

Dr. Gwendolyn Beetham (she/they) is the Associate Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Gwendolyn has been a fellow at the Democratizing Knowledge Project and the Institute for Research on Women and is a former member of the Governing Council and the co-founder of the Contingent Faculty group at NWSA. Their work has been published in Feminist Formations, The Scholar and Feminist Online, and American Quarterly. Gwendolyn was awarded the University of Pennsylvania's Models of Excellence Award in 2022 in recognition of her work on care work and trans affirming policies at the university.

Nadia Brown

Advisory Board Member

Member at Large, 2014-2015

Dr. Nadia E. Brown (she/her) (Ph.D., Rutgers University) is a Professor of Government, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and affiliate in the African American Studies program at Georgetown University. She specializes in Black women’s politics and holds a graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies. Dr. Brown's research interests lie broadly in identity politics, legislative studies, and Black women's studies. While trained as a political scientist, her scholarship on intersectionality seeks to push beyond disciplinary constraints to think more holistically about the politics of identity.

She is the author or editor of several award winning books – including Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making (Oxford University Press);  Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites (with Danielle Lemi);  Distinct Identities: Minority Women in U.S. Politics (with Sarah Allen Gershon, Routledge Press); The Politics of Protest: Readings on the Black Lives Matter Movement (with Ray Block, Jr. and Christopher Stout, Routledge Press); Approaching Democracy: American Government in Times of Challenge (with Larry Berman, Bruce Allen Murphy and Sarah Allen Gershon, Routledge Press). Professor Brown is the lead editor of Politics, Groups and Identities. Professor Brown is part of the #MeTooPoliSci Collective where she spearheads efforts to stop sexual harassment in the discipline. Along with co-PIs Rebecca Gill (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) Stella Rouse (University of Maryland, College Park), Elizabeth Sharrow (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) she is the recipient of a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation for their project titled "#MeTooPoliSci Leveraging A Professional Association to Address Sexual Harassment in Political Science." Lastly, Professor Brown is an editor with The Monkey Cage, a political science blog in the Washington Post. 

Elora Halim Chowdhury

Advisory Board Member

Vice President, 2015-2017

Dr. Elora Halim Chowdhury (she/her) is Professor & Chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her teaching and research interests include transnational feminisms, violence and human rights advocacy, narrative and film with an emphasis on South Asia.

Elora is the author of Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh (Temple University Press, 2022). Her first book, Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh (SUNY Press, 2011),  was awarded the National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldua book prize in 2012. She has co-edited several volumes: Dissident Friendships: Feminism, Imperialism and Transnational Solidarity (University of Illinois Press, 2016), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice (Routledge, 2018), and, South Asian Filmscapes: Transregional Encounters (University of Washington Press, 2020). Her current project explores affective and intimate realms of women’s narratives and storytelling around migration, food pathways, and ethics of care.  

Elora served on the Executive Committee of NWSA (as Vice President) 2015 – 2017.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Aisha Durham

Advisory Board Member

Women of Color Caucus Co-Chair, 2010-2011

Dr. Aisha Durham (she/her) is a Professor of Communication at the University of South Florida where she explores the relationship between media representations and everyday life using autoethnography, performance writing, and Black feminist thought. Her body of work contributes to hip hop feminist studies. The former Fulbright-Hays faculty fellow uses her popular culture expertise to pen public scholarship and to provide media analyses for news and entertainment outlets, such as NPR, CNN, and The Washington Post.

Vivien Ng

Advisory Board Member

Inaugural President, 1993-1994

Treasurer, 2008-2009; 2009-2011

Dr. Vivien Ng (she/her) is an independent scholar/researcher living in Albany, NY. She retired in September 2020, 24 years after joining the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she served as department chair, faculty, and associate dean. Before moving to Albany, she taught at the University of Oklahoma for 13 years.

Vivien has published ground-breaking work in Chinese social history and LGBTQ+ Studies, but she identifies primarily as a storyteller and inveterate archival researcher. 

 Outside academia, Vivien has served as president of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and was a member of AAUW and the AAUW Educational Foundation boards. She also served on the boards of Holding Our Own and the Social Justice Center, both in Albany, NY.

 She is happiest when she is weeding her perennial garden.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.