About Us

PROFESSOR AND FOUNDER

Diana Greene Foster, PhD, is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a demographer who uses quantitative models and analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unwanted pregnancy on people’s lives. She led the Turnaway Study, a nationwide longitudinal prospective study of the health and well-being of women who seek abortion including both women who do and do not receive the abortion. Dr. Foster’s work has demonstrated the effect of subsidized contraceptives and dispensing a one year supply of contraception in reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancy. She is the author of over 130 scientific papers as well as the 2020 Scribner book, The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women and the Consequences of Having – or Being Denied – an Abortion. She has collaborated with scientists on a Nepal Turnaway Study and is currently working with scientists from across the country on a study of the health, legal and economic consequences of the end of Roe. She was named a 2023 MacArthur Foundation fellow and one of ten people who shaped science in 2022 by the journal Nature. Dr. Foster received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, her MA and PhD in Demography and Public Policy from Princeton University.

PLAYWRIGHT AND FOUNDER

Lesley Lisa Greene is a playwright, sound designer, composer, video editor and director based in Ithaca, NY. She is co-director of Story House Ithaca, an organization that brings people together to share, study, create and enjoy stories in all their forms. She co-founded Porchfest — a festival that began in Ithaca in 2007 and now takes place in more than 200 cities across North America — and continues to organize it. She worked for over twenty years at the Kitchen Theatre Company, contributing to dozens of productions in various capacities and helping grow the organization. Her play about abortion research, The Turnaway Play, has had one full production and dozens of readings, with more planned. She is also a sometime swing dance instructor!

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Annabel Sheinberg is the director of The Turnaway Project. She is actively engaged in her community in Salt Lake City as a champion of local non profit organizations, political junkie and advocate. Annabel has a special interest in youth development, media, community organizing, promoting democracy and justice and fundraising. She has worked in several states including fifteen years in the Intermountain West with Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. 

COMMUNICATIONS LEAD

Upasna Barath is a queer Indian American writer and content strategist who got her start in the reproductive justice space as a Phone Coordinator at Scotsdale Women’s Center, working directly with folks who sought healthcare for their pregnancies. Since then, she’s worked as the Social Media Director at Teach For America and as the Social Media Manager for Chat With Charley. She is the author of Comedic Timing, a queer rom com novella.

SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN

Deb Coffy is a Black, Queer Haitian American reproductive justice advocate, event planner, writer, creative, and researcher. A lifelong activist, they began their work canvassing and phone banking for political campaigns. As assistant student director for the Multicultural Student Center, they uplifted Black and Queer representation by creating the first Afro Knights event, highlighting Black Queer musicians and co-creating the first Women’s Market Day in 2023. Deb has continued their work through the Queer Trans Project, Healthy Teen Network, the Transgender Law Center, and Brown Boi Project. They served as a communications fellow for Community Change, writing on social justice and LGBTQ+ issues. Deb is now the Program and Community Engagement Coordinator for Black Girls Smile and is co-developing a docu-series, Mahogany Galore, focused on Black Sapphic and Trans men’s spaces.