Team NAAFA
NAAFA is run by an Executive Director and an all-volunteer Board of Directors. Our Executive Director manages the day-to-day operations of NAAFA and serves as the official spokesperson of the organization.
The NAAFA Board of Directors determines NAAFA’s mission, strategic goals, and official policies. As a working board, our board members support the Executive Director and other staff in sustaining the organization’s mission and vision through education, advocacy, and support of fat people. The Board of Directors has the ultimate authority over the organization’s actions.
Board of Directors
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Tigress Osborn (she/her) is the Executive Director of NAAFA. She previously volunteered as NAAFA’s Board Chair and Director of Community Outreach. In addition to overseeing NAAFA’s day-to-day operations, Tigress hosts and produces the NAAFA Webinar Series, which features a wide variety of activists, scholars, and artists from fat community. Tigress has been featured on CNN, ABC News, and NPR. She is the co-editor of Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation. In 2024, Tigress was named to the Time Health100 list for her civil rights work with NAAFA and the Campaign for Size Freedom. Prior to working with NAAFA, Tigress founded Full Figure Entertainment in Oakland, CA, and co-founded the PHX Fat Force in Arizona. She is a two-time women's college graduate with degrees from Smith College and Mills College. She lives near Phoenix with her awesome mom. Follow Tigress @iofthetigress on your favorite social media.
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Amanda Cooper (she/her) is a fat activist and dancer based in the East Bay Area of California. With more than 25 years of experience as a social justice communicator supporting labor organizing, reproductive and gender justice and much more, Amanda is recognized as a leader in the field and is proud to be entrusted to train and mentor new communicators and speak at conferences and other gatherings. Amanda knows that none of us are free until all of us our free, and she is proud of the work she has done for liberation on all fronts. Her career has shown her the lack of awareness and action on fat freedom even among those most committed to pursuing liberation, and that is why she is a committed NAAFA volunteer. Follow her on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amanda-cooper-1a7ab23/
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Christina (she/her) is a superfat black and disabled creative problem solver who is passionate about equity, inclusion, and intersectional fat liberation. Christina brings a delightful enthusiasm to fat activist work. She holds a Master of Arts in Education, and is highly skilled in organizational learning, community building, and professional development training. In her free time Christina loves reading science fiction, playing board games, and slaying at karaoke.
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Dawn Clark (she/her) is a fat person who came to Fat and Body Liberation work late in her life. Dawn's previous activist roles included local and regional food bank work and houselessness advocacy. Fat Liberation work has provided community that has never really existed for her. Dawn brings a passion for Medical Equity and has had the chance to share her story with medical groups and universities. She has presented at ASDAH and International Weight Stigma Conference. Dawn lives North of Seattle, WA in the US.
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Marcy Cruz (she/her/ella) is an award-winning Latina writer/author, content creator and activist with a focus on size inclusivity and consulting with brands to expand sizing above a 3X. Her 20+ years of experience in the plus size fashion industry includes being the Blog Editor for PLUS Model Magazine for seven years and working over a decade in e-Commerce Merchandising at Fullbeauty and Fashion to Figure. She spent three years as an agency-signed extended sizes fit model (Size 4X/5X), working with brands such as Universal Standard and Amazon. She was also featured in Allure Magazine’s The Secret Life of a Plus Size Model. She is the host of the NAAFA-produced fat fashion web series Ahead of the Curve. Based in New York City, you can follow Marcy on social media @fearlesslyjustme and check out her blog Fearlessly Just Me at www.fearlesslyjustme.net.
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Tamra Lamese Dozier-Garland (she/her) is a certified life coach, writer, speaker, emcee, serial entrepreneur, and fat activist. She owns and operates Dozeland Creative and Tamra Lamese Self-love and Confidence Coach. Her coaching is dedicated to helping people transform the way they see themselves and how they interact with the world. Using techniques and tools backed by science and elevated through spiritual practices with dashes of accountability and planning, she guides her clients from negative body image, anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and self-loathing, to clarity, inner peace, lots of self-love and confidence, and a tangible plan of action. Tamra has volunteered for various non-profits in service of children and people from different backgrounds experiencing various hardships and inequities for more than 15 years. With a gift for transforming any person, place, or situation into its best form, Tamra is a champion for becoming your best self.
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Darliene Howell (she/her) is retired from county government where she worked her way up to the position of Department Analyst in Human Resources. She is an active fat liberationist who heartily believes in the mission and goals of NAAFA. She first encountered NAAFA at the 25th Anniversary Conference and has volunteered in various capacities with the Board of Directors since 2005. Darliene was appointed Chair of the Board from 2015 - 2020. After her term as Chair of the Board, she became the Administrative Director of the organization and remains so today. In her spare time, Darliene loves to collect and watch movies, and share her life with her sister/best friend.
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Tegan Lecheler (she/her) has spent many years doing community organizing in Minnesota, where she’s from and New York, where she currently lives. She is most passionate about fat liberation and poverty abolition and Tegan has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota. You can follow Tegan on Instagram @TheProteganist
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Elaine K. Lee (she/her) is an activist, recovering corporate attorney and computer engineer. Elaine has previously served as Co-President of the Board of Directors of NOLOSE, a national nonprofit organization committed to fat liberation and eliminating hatred, prejudice, and discrimination toward fat people.
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Francisca Moreno (they/them/elle) is a mid-fat, queer, and Latine educator and political activist currently residing in Wilmington, DE. They train on the dynamics of domestic violence with an emphasis on intersectionality, acknowledging how people’s identities impact the way they experience domestic violence. They dedicated their Senior thesis in their undergraduate program to studying the inclusion of fat students in higher education. They interviewed fat people from across the United States and internationally as well. Their thesis, “Holding Space for People Just Trying to Survive: The Inclusion of Fat Students in Higher Education,” read here: tinyurl.com/FMHoldingSpace, led Francisca to NAAFA for the first time. Francisca is the Founder of the Wilmington Fat Collective (@DEFatCollective), formed in 2023, and is Delaware’s first fat liberation group. In their free time, Francisca enjoys watching reality television, reading sapphic books, and making people laugh. You can find Francisca on Instagram @chica.chingona.
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Kat Redniss or Katniss Everqueer (she/her) is a performance artist, accessibility advocate, arts educator, and producer of queer, fat art events based out of Burlington, Vermont. She reads books about identity, belonging, body autonomy and liberation, imagination, and glitter for the Vermont Chapter of Drag Story Hour. Katniss and creative partner Emoji Nightmare produce two annual shows celebrating fat burlesque and drag. She uses her existence in the arts as an imperative: fat performers deserve space, respect, representation. She’s committed to presenting art that is unapologetically queer and liberating for folks in fat bodies.” By day, Kat is an arts administrator and educator with experience in community arts programming, grant writing, communications, disability justice, and accessibility. She has her MA in Educational Theater and English from NYU, her MLIS from the University of Washington, and a BA in English and Economics from Smith College. Follow her on Instagram @katnisseverqueervt (some NSFW).
Other Team Members
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Anna Ardelean (she/her) is a fat queer woman who is passionate about using policy to achieve fat liberation. She holds a Master of Public Policy in Economic and Racial Equity Policy from Brandeis University, where her thesis project focused on weight discrimination policy in Massachusetts. She is passionate about exploring ways to combat body size discrimination after civil rights protections are gained. Anna has experience with youth civic engagement and has encouraged hundreds of young people to become involved in various political causes, including fat rights. She currently lives outside of Boston, but will always be a Midwesterner at heart. You can follow Anna on social media @anna.ardequeen.
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Kristen Foos (she/her) is currently pursuing her PhD in the Literature for Children and Young Adults program at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on critical theories, counternarratives, and fat studies in education. Kristen finds joy in exploring the potential of books as sites for imagining fat liberation and in understanding how stories can create connections within the fat community. She leads a book club for fat educators, facilitating discussions on the significance of fat representation in literature and the implementation of fat pedagogies in classroom settings. Her current favorite read is “Big” by Vashti Harrison. In her leisure time, Kristen loves cozy video games and writing!
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Samantha Puc (she/they) is a fat, disabled, lesbian writer and editor whose work focuses primarily on LGBTQ+ and fat representation in pop culture. Their writing has been featured on Polygon, Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., and elsewhere. During her undergraduate studies, a professor said she is fat as a political statement, unknowingly beginning Samantha’s deep dive into the history of Fat Liberation. As NAAFA Community Voices Blog Editor, they highlight experiences and perspectives of folks in the fat community (particularly those who are the most marginalized) through both commissioning work and accepting pitches. Samantha lives in Colorado with her partners and cats. You can find them on social media @theverbalthing.
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Barbara Altman Bruno, PhD, CSW (she/her) is a clinical social worker, size acceptance activist, and Health At Every Size® pioneer - Specializes in working to end weight-related suffering
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Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) is an equity educator and currently a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is also co-founder of Body Confidence Canada which produces the Body Confidence Canada Awards and also created Body Confidence Awareness Week recognized the second week in October annually in the Toronto District School Board and Winnipeg School Division. – Specializes in issues of gender, race, body justice, the housing crisis, healthcare and education inequities and the immeasurable benefit of arts and culture to our communities bodyconfidencecanada.com. Twitter: @BCCAwards
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Deb Burgard, PhD, FAED (she/her) is a psychologist specializing in eating disorders, as well as a fat activist and one of the founders of the Health At Every Size® model. Poodle Science video: youtube.com/watch?v=H89QQfXtc-k&t
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Paul Campos, JD (he/him) is a law professor, author, blogger and Professor of Law on the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder. Specializes in the educating the public around weight-related "SCAMS"
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Cinder Ernst (she/her) is an author, Medical Exercise Specialist and Accredited Life Coach - Specializes in fitness coaching and creating a powerful partnership with your body, moving toward building the strength and stamina for bodies of all sizes cinderernst.com
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Lily O'Hara, MPH, PhD (she/her) is a health promotion practitioner, researcher, activist and Associate Professor of Public Health at Qatar University - Specializes in critical health promotion, fat studies, weight justice, and the Health at Every Size® approach
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Esther D. Rothblum, PhD (she/her) is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies at Diego State University and editor of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, plus 20+ books. – Specializes in research and writing focused on the stigma of weight, weight and employment discrimination, and weight across cultures. rothblum.sdsu.edu
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Brandie Solovay, Esq., JD (she/her) is an attorney and activist. Brandie runs the Fat Legal Advocacy, Rights, and Education (FLARE) Project. Specializes in advocating for under-served and marginalized individuals and educating people about their rights
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Quita Tinsley (they/them) is an organizational consultant, healing centered coach, and writer, specializing in sustainability and culture shift. Through their consulting firm, iola strategies, they support social justice leaders and organizations in embodying their radical truths in service of our collective liberation. They were politicized by the reproductive justice movement over a decade ago and their holistic approach to work and organizing is deeply rooted in this political framework. As a Black, fat, non-binary femme raised in the South, they have come to believe in the power of storytelling and collective resistance.
Advisory Board Emeritus
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Pat Lyons, MA, RN – Specializes in Medical Weight Discrimination
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Sondra Solovay, JD - A disabled attorney, fat rights pioneer and author of Tipping the Scales of Justice, and co-editor of The Fat Studies Reader
Advisory Board
The NAAFA Board of Advisors is a group of volunteers comprised of scientific, medical and legal leaders from all over world.