Wearing the Hats of Intersectional Identities, Activism.....And Basketball Love w/ Joy Messinger

For this week's Season 1, Episode 8,  Joy Messinger sits down "The Banh Mi Chronicles" podcast and takes us on a journey as a queer Korean adoptee in Western NY.  She talks about her experiences in the racial, social, gender, LGBTQ, disability and reproductive justice movements, and the importance of understanding self-care and boundaries in this work.  Joy has been living in CHicago for the past decade continuing this important work, and she also shares her own passion for basketball and her hatred of another North Carolina college team.  

Bio:

Joy Messinger is a passionate community advocate whose personal & professional life have been guided by a commitment to reproductive & social justice. She is a Program Officer with Third Wave Fund overseeing a $1M grantmaking portfolio for youth-led gender justice activism and serving as Co-Chair of the Funders for Justice Healing Justice Strategy Group and Funders for Reproductive Equity Youth Engagement and Leadership Working Group.

Prior to Third Wave, Joy was Deputy Director of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health. Over her five-year tenure, she grew ICAH's training & education, oversaw the expansion of its youth development programs, established its monitoring & evaluation system, broadened its employment policies, and collaborated on the passage of Chicago Public Schools' Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Policy & Illinois' conversion therapy ban.

When she's not working, Joy is active with Asian American, LGBTQ, and feminist organizations, serving as Board Treasurer with the Youth Empowerment Performance Project and volunteering with the Chicago chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum and the Midwest Access Coalition. She previously served as a Treasurer of Invisible to Invincible (i2i): Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago, Co-Chair of the LBTQ Giving Council at the Chicago Foundation for Women, and Co-Chair of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance Board of Directors.

Joy holds a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago.