Lakeesha J. Harris
Executive Director
... an unapologetic Black Feminist and abolitionist, is the current Executive Director of Chicago Volunteer Doulas, whose mission as a birth and reproductive justice organization is to center the lives of those most marginalized by inadequate medical care by providing doulas support. Previously Lakeesha was the Co-Executive Director of Lift Louisiana – centering policy changes needed to improve the lives of Louisiana's women, their families, and their communities.
About Lakeesha
In 2021 -2022 Lakeesha wrote and hosted Old Pro News - a limited podcast dedicated to educating everyone on the current issues and activism of Sex Workers globally. This was a continuation of her advocacy as the former Director of Reproductive Health and Justice at Women With A Vision, Inc., in New Orleans Louisiana. While there she co-led a campaign with Representative Mandie Landy, spearheading the first comprehensive statewide bills in the nation to decriminalize sex work. She along with current and other former sex workers, developed the Deep South Decrim Toolkit, lodging a statewide campaign to educate the community on what it means when sex workers are targeted and criminalized. During the 2021 legislative session, a group of 119 sex workers and allies provided three hours of testimony in the Louisiana State House - a first, not only in the Deep South but in any statehouse!
In 2020, Lakeesha was celebrated by Bitch Media among its Bitch 50 Activists for her work to maintain abortion access in Louisiana and nationwide. Her twenty-plus years as a Reproductive Justice leader had produced two RJ Amicus Briefs that were presented to The Supreme Court on behalf of abortion access, one in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
Before moving to the Deep South, Lakeesha was an organizer in Chicago for LGBTQ Rights, and in 2014 she and her former partner were the first couple to legally solidify their partnership with a Civil Union. They were among the many couples who sued the State of Illinois for Marriage Equality before the SCOTUS made it Federal law via the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling during President Barack Obama’s second term in office (2015). Lakeesha served as a Health Educator and Insemination Coordinator in the Midwest providing comprehensive care to sex workers, women, trans people, and GNC folx at one of the last remaining feminist Health centers in the country, Chicago Women’s Health Center.
Lakeesha’s essays, interviews, and critical work has been featured on The Daily by The New York Times, Democracy Now, The Advocate, and Rewire News, just to name a few.