Advisory Board
Randa Dean, MPH, has over fifteen years of experience in the field of public health as a leader, educator, program developer, and manager. Since 2006 she has worked at PPNYC, first as the Associate Director of Adult Education and currently as Associate Vice President of Education and Training, which includes overseeing nearly forty team members and eight program areas. Previous work includes consulting with both International Planned Parenthood Federation, and Partners in Health to support public health programs in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake; acting as the health educator at the Fashion Institute of Technology creating health education programming and protocols for their college health center; training all levels of staff at the United Nations on HIV/AIDS; and serving as an outreach and education specialist for an HIV/AIDS program in California. Throughout her career, Ms. Dean has demonstrated her dedication to community, sexual, and reproductive health, rights, and justice. She received her Master's degree in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health with a specialty in Sexuality and Health and a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology from Fordham University.
Website: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-new-york-city/local-education-training
Dr. Sara Flowers is the new Vice President of Education at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is the former director of Love Heals/ACRIA where she oversaw the implementation of all aspects of HIV prevention and leadership development programs for young people, including Leadership Empowerment and Awareness Program (LEAP) for Girls, Sexual Health for Young Men, LEAP Alumnae Programs, and the Youth Advisory Council. These programs serve youth of color in East Harlem, Central Brooklyn and the Bronx. Dr. Flowers is also a CUNY adjunct professor for York College and the School of Public Health. At York College, she serves as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow for The Collaborative Research Group on Health Policy and Promotion + the UrbanHealth Lab. Dr. Flowers is an advocate for evidence-informed practice and emotional intelligence in sexuality health education. Her research interests focus on fidelity and adaptation of sexuality health education curricula, and other sexual health topics as they relate to disparities, youth of color, and abortion access. Sara holds a BA in Psychology and a Master of Public Health degree from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Website: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/our-leadership
Nora Gelperin, M.Ed. is the Director of Sexuality Education and Training at Advocates for Youth. Nora is one of the co-authors of Advocates’ Rights, Respect, Responsibility: A K-12 Sexuality Education curriculum, which was released in January 2016, and used worldwide. Nora is one of the national technical assistance providers on the Working to Institutionalize Sex Ed (WISE) initiative, has been a member of the Future of Sex Education (FoSE) initiative and was part of the core team that developed the National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills K-12 (2011) and National Teacher Preparation Standards for Sexuality Education, (Journal of School Health, 2014). Nora has also been named a 2014 Fellow of the American School Health Association.
Website: https://advocatesforyouth.org/about/
Dr. Nicole Haberland is a Senior Associate at the Population Council. Dr. Haberland conducts research on a range of topics related to gender, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV prevention. As a leader of the Council’s Rethinking Sexuality Education project, she co-edited It’s All One Curriculum: Guidelines and Activities for a Unified Approach to Sexuality Gender, HIV, and Human Rights Education, a user-friendly resource for sexuality curriculum development. Dr. Haberland co-directs the Council’s RISING program, which is building the evidence base for improving the design and implementation of girl-centered programs. Other research includes improving HIV voluntary counseling and testing by incorporating discussion of relationship power, and intimate partner violence; assessing the effects of gender norms on HIV testing and treatment and exploring women’s understanding of male circumcision as it relates to preventing HIV. Haberland has also conducted policy and program research on married adolescent girls.
Website: https://www.popcouncil.org/research/expert/nicole-haberland
Dr. Lynn Roberts has a BS in human development from Howard University (1984) and a PhD in Human Services Studies from Cornell University (1991). The City University of New York (CUNY) has been her academic home since 1995. Prior to joining CUNY and the GSPHHP, she oversaw the development, implementation and evaluation of several prevention programs for women and youth in NYC. She has also served on the board of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and is currently co-editing an anthology on reproductive justice. Dr. Roberts’ current activism and scholarship examine the intersections of race, class and gender in adolescent dating relationships, juvenile justice and reproductive health policies; as well as the impact of models of collaborative inquiry and teaching on civic and political engagement.
Ms. Melissa Toala is an unapologetic Queer Puerto Rican from the Bronx. A self-identified hood feminist and healer, she is a single parent of two children and has been working in the field of youth development and sexuality education for about 10 years. She currently serves as the Manager of Youth Initiatives at the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) where she co-conspires ways to get free and advance social justice in the sex ed classroom with Black and Brown youth from all over NYC through the nationally recognized peer education program TORCH®. Through TORCH® she has partnered with Physicians for Reproductive Health and residency programs at Bellevue Hospital and Harlem Hospital to help support the training of physicians and providers on cultural/structural competent practices with adolescent patients. She is a current member and former co-chair of Youth Engagement for the Sexuality Education Alliance of NYC (SEANYC) where she helped develop the coalition’s first Youth Advisory Council to support the advocacy for K-12 Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Her work is committed to Sexual Reproductive Justice (SRJ) and the advancement of Black, Brown and Indigenous lives as well other historically/currently marginalized people and experiences through education and organizing.
Ms. Toala has developed and facilitated workshops for national conferences and has been on panels addressing SRJ issues and its intersection with other social justice issues both nationally and throughout NYC. Topics include but not limited to: Reproductive Justice, Racial Justice, Youth Development and Engagement, Sexuality Education, Peer Education, Anti-Blackness in Latinx Communities and beyond, Community Organizing, Coalition Building, Project Planning, Conferences and more. She holds a BS in Childhood Education from St. John’s University and is an MSW candidate at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, with a method focus in Community Organizing, Planning and Development and a specialization in Youth and Families.
