Leadership

Rachel L Dyer is Exhale Pro-Voice’s Executive Director and the Chair of the Exhale Pro-Voice Board of Directors. She began volunteering with Exhale in 2020, first as a textline counselor, and then as a Textline Coordinator and Board Member. She is a white, bisexual/queer, cisgender woman from the Midwest. She is the eldest daughter and a big sister, a partner and wife, and a friend. Rachel can often be found hiking, drinking lots and lots of coffee, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Rachel’s path in life is significantly guided by having an abortion as a 15-year-old girl living in rural Wisconsin. When Rachel started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, she decided to try volunteering with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin. Through this work, she became connected to others with abortion stories and began to understand the impact of abortion stigma on their wellbeing – and her own.

This led Rachel to pursue paths in psychotherapy, research, education, and activism with a focus on how dominant cultural narratives impact pregnancy and family-building experiences, desires, and decisions. Rachel earned both her B.S. (Psychology, Neurobiology) and M.S. (Counseling) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she remains a student today, now working toward her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology – aiming to graduate in 2024.

Since 2013, Rachel has risen as a local, state, and national leader at the intersection of abortion and mental health – facilitating trainings and developing curricula for undergraduate and graduate students, mental health professionals, abortion doulas, abortion providers, and partner hotlines including the HRSA National Maternal Mental Health Hotline. She has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times and ELITE Daily, developed the “Abortions & Mental Health” zine on display at the Field Project in Brooklyn, NY, and has been featured on numerous podcasts.

Rachel previously worked for Plan C, developing the Ambassadors of Information volunteer program. She is affiliated with the UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity and was a 2021-2022 Emerging Scholar with the Society of Family Planning. Currently, Rachel is working with a group of psychologists and graduate students to develop the American Psychological Association’s first-ever professional practice guidelines on sex and reproduction.

Rachel believes that if her 15-year-old self could see her now, that she would be in awe of how far we have come – transforming the pain of stigma into growth, empathy, and a deep commitment to finding new paths toward liberation.

Dené is a technical project manager and brings over 20 years of management experience and technical expertise from the high tech and telecommunications industries. She holds a MS degree in Information Technology from the University of Maryland and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Howard University.

She has served on the Exhale Board for about a year and will serve as treasurer for the next term. As the treasurer, she brings her business acumen, wisdom to support the growth of Exhale. She also gives back to her community through serving as a Stephen Leader and Minister at Grace Baptist Church, where she recognized her call to actively listen and to walk with others who find themselves in difficult times of their lives.

She resides in San Jose, CA, where she enjoys cooking, reading, pilates, practicing yoga and spending time with her husband. She is a proud parent to her son, an aspiring Wildlife Epidemiologist. She is excited to be a part of the leadership team of Exhale, to continue the mission for which people can find non-judgmental, confidential care and have a space where they are allowed to heal, to grow and to recognize their wholeness.

Natalie Croul is currently an online student at Johns Hopkins getting her Masters in Public Health. She has a passion for equitable access to sexual, reproductive, and mental health and started at Exhale as a counselor in 2019. After peer-counseling for one year, she acted as a textline co-coordinator for two years. She joined the Board over two years ago where she co-created and managed the Social Media and Marketing team. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors. She brings a background in trauma-informed, adolescent sexual health and consent education as well as experience with research and project management within the Ob/Gyn field.

Natalie was born and raised in Southern California but feels most at home in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is relatively new to Hawai’i and moved there with her partner for his work. As soon as she learned about Exhale from a former colleague, she knew it was something she wanted to be a part of. Her interest in the humanization of medicine and the complexities of reproductive healthcare align closely with Exhale’s mission to bring forth honest personal experiences around abortion. She believes strongly in offering non-judgmental post-abortion support and is grateful for the opportunity to help people through their abortion journeys.

Cassandra is a sex educator who works exclusively with college students and other adults to unlearn sexual shame and improve their pleasure.

Her work centers LGBTQ+ folks, is gender-expansive, and strives to be inclusive of a wide variety of life experiences. She is particularly focused on helping survivors of interpersonal violence rebuild healthy relationships with sex and sexuality. When she’s not teaching or writing, you can find her in her garden tending to her plants and raising Monarch butterflies.

Ariana is a second-year MPA student at NYU Wagner, specializing in Social Impact, Innovation and Investment. Prior to pursuing her MPA, Ariana spent three years in Washington, DC in various community engagement, fundraising, and legislative capacities.

Throughout her early career, Ariana has strove to support political efforts which increase equity throughout the country, which include but are not limited to advocacy of reproductive justice and climate change. Upon Ariana’s graduation in May 2023 she hopes to take her skills in political organizing, research, and program development into the femme tech sector to further close barriers to access in healthcare. Ariana grew up in Hermosa Beach, CA and graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Communication Studies and Human Rights.

Nina is a Health Promotion Specialist with more than ten years of experience in person-centered care, stigma-reduction, and sexual and reproductive health.

She has an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and is a Certified Health Education Specialist. Nina has been with Exhale since 2017 in a variety of roles, from a staff member to a volunteer-peer counselor on the Talkline and Textline, and is now honoured to serve as a Board Member. Nina strives to center reproductive justice, trauma-responsiveness, and cultural humility in all of her work.