Staff

Teresa C. Younger, Executive Director

Teresa, who directs the State’s leading force for women’s equality, has expertise running the gamut from policy and management to philanthropy and youth development. Before joining the PCSW, she was the Director of Affiliate Organizational Development at the American Civil Liberties Union National Office, where she assisted affiliates throughout the country with organization and management issues. Before that, she became the first woman and the first African-American to serve as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. Teresa is president of the Board of the Girl Scouts of Connecticut, which serves 45,000 Connecticut girls. She also serves on the boards of the Universal Health Care Foundation and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, and is a former board member of the National Association of Commissions for Women. She is a trustee of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. Teresa was recently identified by Hartford Business Journal as one of “Eight Remarkable Women in Business” and has continually been recognized for her commitment to civil rights and civil liberties.

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Rosemary Lopez, Senior Administrative Services Coordinator

 

Rosemary brings valuable bilingual skills to her work at the PCSW. She is someone who sees the entire picture, and as such, brings to the agency a wealth of management and coordination skills. She manages the office by working directly for the executive director and is the primary contact for the public and our commissioners. Through her expertise, she has created a systematic approach to our public information and referral services, and serves as the primary contact for anyone seeking to file a discrimination complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO). Before joining the PCSW, Rosemary worked as a staff person for three legislators in the Legislative Office Building, assisting them in planning public relations activities, newsletter production, and preparing them for public appearances and speaking opportunities. She and her family are lifelong residents of the city of Hartford.

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Michelle Noehren, Events & Special Projects Manager

From the time she led a student movement to preserve a forested area behind her high school, Michelle has embodied the power of citizen activism. The Green Circle Award she received from the state DEP for that act was just the first of many; she’s earned the Catherine Roraback Award from Connecticut NARAL, Exceptional Young Feminist Award from Connecticut NOW (of which she is immediate past president), the Chase Going Woodhouse Prize and numerous others. Before joining the PCSW, Michelle, who earned a B.A. with a double major in Female Identity Formation & Psychology (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Connecticut, was a lead organizer at the Connecticut Citizen Action Group working for campaign finance reform. For the PCSW, Michelle is project director for ConnGAP, manages the agency’s bill tracking and legislative activites and is the agency’s webmaster and social media manager. In addition to creating and co-chairing the agency’s Young Women’s Leadership Program, Michelle is lead organizer and directs agency events, such as public hearings and Pay Equity Day.

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Christine Palm, Communications Director

A writer and editor all her professional life, Christine has a particular interest in distilling complex ideas, issues and policies to their essence so the information is accessible to all audiences. She has served as media and communications director for the Office of the State Treasurer, and in a similar capacity for both Hartford Seminary and Hartford College for Women. She has applied her editorial skills to materials as diverse as the Manhattan Public Schools Chess Initiative, CBIA News, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority strategic plan and The Harriet Beecher Stowe Journal. Christine has been a columnist for The Hartford Courant and a guest commentator on National Public Radio. She’s taught journalism at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and expository writing at a camp for young writers at Kent School. Along with some of her neighbors in the West End of Hartford, she bought and restored a vintage bowling alley. She’s made educational films, researched rural health on an island in Korea, and coached Little League in Hartford for 20 years. Christine was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her essay writing.

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Natasha M. Pierre, Policy & Legislative Director

As someone with both a law degree and a master’s in social work, Natasha sees the range of issues affecting the women in Connecticut. She coordinates with PCSW’s commissioners to identify and formulate the agency’s policy agenda. She also represents PCSW on several statutorily appointed commissions, and community and state agency coalitions and collaborations, and conducts sexual harassment awareness and prevention trainings and affirmative action investigation trainings for State agencies. Before joining the PCSW, Natasha was an attorney at Connecticut Legal Services, Inc. and Western Massachusetts Legal Services, Inc., where she practiced family and housing law.

Natasha earned a B.A. from the University of Connecticut with a major in Women’s Studies and a dual-degree in law and social work from the University of Connecticut’s Schools of Law and Social Work. She was awarded the Connecticut Law Tribune’s New Leaders of the Law Award, and she has had articles written about her in the Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Law Tribune for her advocacy work. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. a public service sorority.

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