Ria Deshmukh recently graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Criminology and Sociology. Ria believes that education should be used to create lasting change. She used her education and passion to help the Blacksburg community by spreading awareness on issues important to her. When she is not helping spread the word of RepresentWomen's impactful work, she enjoys painting, watching movies, and spending time with her loved ones. In the future, she hopes to go to graduate school.

Steph Scaglia (she/her), research manager, is based in New York City and originally from the Bay Area, California. She holds an MA in political theory from Columbia University and a BA in political science from New York University. Her most recent work includes research on voting systems and women's representation, systems strategies used in New York City's 2021 elections, the Impact of a Woman Majority Council in NYC, RepresentWomen's signature Gender Parity Index, and work on state legislature professionalization. 

Nigeria-born, Texas-raised Marvelous Maeze (she/her) works as a Research Associate at RepresentWomen. She graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Arts in Human Rights Studies. She is also a proud alumna of New York University’s College of Arts and Science, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She is passionate about gender parity, equitable policies, political enfranchisement, and women’s rights. She spends her free time songwriting, going to art galleries, and volunteering.

Fatma Tawfik is the International Research Manager at RepresentWomen. Driven by her passion for politics, international relations, gender equality, and human rights, Fatma pursued her education and graduated with a political science degree from Bani-Suef University in 2020. After gaining some professional experience, Fatma plans to return to school to continue her studies. After grad school, Fatma hopes to work as a professor teaching international relations, while continuing to raise her voice against gender inequality and the importance of women empowerment. Fatma's dream is to become a role model for women and girls, especially, girls from developing countries so they can pursue their dreams and fight for them.

Alissa Bombardier Shaw is the Operations and Development Manager at RepresentWomen. After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science with a concentration in Data Analytics, she moved across the country to Washington, DC to join the RepresentWomen team full time. Alissa uses her passion for social justice and helping others to aid in RepresentWomen's mission of achieving gender parity in government. She has been published in Ms. magazine, DemocracySOS, and the LA Progressive.

Katie Usalis serves as RepresentWomen's Partnerships Director. In this role, Katie focuses on developing and overseeing program strategies that activate and equip changemakers to advance structural solutions to the representation crisis in U.S. politics. She holds a Master’s degree in International Development from the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (Barcelona Institute of International Studies).

Before moving to Spain, Katie lived and worked in Myanmar for several years where her passion for social justice and human rights led her to serve as a Program Manager and regional Inclusion Advisor for partnerships across Myanmar and Cambodia. She brings unique experience working in diverse contexts and across language barriers to develop program strategies specifically aimed at removing cultural and institutional barriers to equity. Naturally inclined to systems thinking, she is skilled at turning big visions into tangible strategies, building impactful relationships, and is passionate about the value diversity brings to our work. She strongly believes that fair political representation is a structural catalyst to better policies and a more sustainably just society. In her free time, she loves rock climbing and going on adventures outside!

RepresentWomen is a close-knit research-based advocacy group that works to increase women's representation and leadership by identifying and promoting systems-based reforms to the recruitment processes, voting systems, and legislative practices used in the United States so that more women can RUN, WIN, SERVE & LEAD! To achieve our goal of reaching gender parity for women in politics, RepresentWomen partners with allies across the country and political spectrum who help to amplify our work by putting what we've researched into practice.