Media Contacts
Amaya Smith
Amaya Smith is vice president for marketing and communications at the National Partnership for Women & Families. In that role she oversees strategic messaging as well as digital and earned communications around issues important to women and families. These issues include reproductive justice, women’s health care and workplace fairness. Smith works to ensure that stakeholders and the public understand that women’s health and reproductive freedom is inextricably entwined with economic justice. Before joining National Partnership she served as Communications Director and Strategic Advisor to the President, at the AFL-CIO. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO Smith served as a Press Secretary for the American Association for Justice (AAJ). She also served as the South Carolina Press Secretary for the Obama for America campaign during the 2008 Democratic primary.
Smith developed experience working with diverse media outlets and constituencies as a Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee, where she handled press for the women’s, African American, labor, faith, college and youth communities. She got her start in legislative advocacy working for former Congressman Albert R. Wynn, her local representative. She served as a Communications Director for Congressman Wynn for four years and built relationships with Capitol Hill and Washington reporters. Smith is a graduate of American University and is originally from Silver Spring, Md. Her passion for social justice and women’s health comes from a mom who is a retired registered nurse and an eternal activist.
Amaya Smith
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
Llenda Jackson-Leslie
Llenda Jackson-Leslie is a senior communications specialist at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she works to showcase reproductive health and health care issues.
Prior to her work at the National Partnership, Llenda was a senior communications associate at McKinney & Associates, where she led campaigns on transformative justice, gender justice and health equity. Previously, she served as director of legislative communications for the American Civil Liberties Union where she managed communications initiatives to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.
A native Detroiter, Llenda served as communications director for Michigan’s largest trial court and marketing director for the Detroit Branch NAACP before moving to Washington, D.C.
Llenda Jackson-Leslie
Senior Communications Specialist, Health Justice
Gail Zuagar
Gail Zuagar is a senior communications specialist at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she works to amplify the organization’s economic justice work to a range of audiences. Prior to joining the National Partnership, Gail developed a passion for combining communications with advocacy and outreach in previous roles at The Education Trust and the National Women’s Law Center.
Gail earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University and her master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their children.
Gail Zuagar
Senior Communications Specialist, Economic Justice
For general inquiries, please email Emily Roe at eroe@nationalpartnership.org.
Press Statements
Republicans’ Paid Leave Tax Credit Continues to Miss the Mark for Families
More than 100 million people do not have paid family leave through their jobs. For far too long, these workers – both women and men –– have had to choose: go to work and continue earning a paycheck to pay bills and keep food on the table – or stay home to care for a sick loved one.
Jenna Skinner Scanlan and Emma Shapiro Join National Partnership’s Board
Today the National Partnership for Women & Families announced the additions of Jenna Skinner Scanlan and Emma Shapiro to the Board of Directors.
Energy & Commerce Committee Plan Would Be a Disastrous Cut in Care for 13.7 Million People
The National Partnership for Women & Families strongly condemns the proposal released by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee to gut Medicaid as part of a broader reconciliation package to fund tax cuts for billion dollar corporations and the ultra wealthy.
Women’s Advocacy Groups Join Forces to Denounce EEOC Leader’s Hostility Toward LGBTQI+ Rights
"Lucas' choice for chief of staff, Shannon Royce – who has publicly expressed hostility to LGBTQI+ rights – reflects just the latest example of how the agency has abandoned its mission to protect all workers from unlawful employment discrimination."
Dismantling OFCCP Will Have Far-Reaching Repercussions for Civil Rights, Disabled Workers and Veterans
The DOGE mandate to cut the vast majority of OFCCP employees and shuttering of most OFCCP field offices is an assault on the civil rights of America's workers, particularly disabled workers and veterans.
News Coverage
Lifestyle Black Maternal Health Week: How Insurance Gaps Are Putting Black Moms at Risk – BET
“Moreover, as Rolonda Donelson powerfully observed in a recent National Partnership for Women & Families blog post, it is problematic to cast abortion as a legally cognizable source of injury when ‘the truth is that those declines are much more likely caused by the states themselves… and their policy shortcomings.’ Thus, ‘characterizing abortion as a ‘harm’ to the state increases misogyny and refuses to hold states accountable for the failures they have caused by not providing social support to children and families already in existence.'”
Our Shared Experience of Being Under Attack – The Progressive Magazine
“This is visible in Trump’s policies, Sharita Gruberg, vice president for economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families (NPWF), explains to me. The Executive Order, she says, allows members of the Trump Administration ‘to review anything that has gender in it.’ The public face was the attack on trans people, but the implementation goes beyond, ‘trying to claw back gender equity projects and work and data.'”
‘Make Motherhood Great Again’: Pronatalism Finds a Comfortable Home in the Trump Administration – Ms. Magazine
“Moreover, as Rolonda Donelson powerfully observed in a recent National Partnership for Women & Families blog post, it is problematic to cast abortion as a legally cognizable source of injury when ‘the truth is that those declines are much more likely caused by the states themselves… and their policy shortcomings.’ Thus, ‘characterizing abortion as a ‘harm’ to the state increases misogyny and refuses to hold states accountable for the failures they have caused by not providing social support to children and families already in existence.'”
Young Women Are Starting to Recession-Proof Their Lives – Wall Street Journal
“Young women in particular have a better feel for something going south,” says Anwesha Majumder, economist at the National Partnership for Women & Families, a nonprofit organization. When their spending starts pulling back, she says, “it’s possible that things will quickly spiral for the economy as a whole.”
Virginia women earn nearly $15K less than men – Axios
“Gender pay differences reflect in part ‘a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, which is still most often performed by women,’ according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.”
