About Us

Founder & Co-Director

Savannah Sly has been advocating for the rights and welfare of people in the sex trade since 2013. Speaking from lived and studied experience, Sly articulates the impacts of criminalization, surveillance, discrimination and stigma on sex workers and uplifts holistic solutions to mitigate sex trade exploitation. Sly currently serves on the global steering committee of the Sex Work Donor Collaborative, and also on the board of Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the only organization in the US dedicated to defending sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Sly has played a powerful convening role as a coalition organizer for ACLU-WA (Tech Equity Coalition) and numerous grassroots sex worker initiatives including #OldProProject, SWOP-Seattle and the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA (board president 2015-17). Sly’s commentary is published in Brookings, Teen Vogue, and Psychology Today. Learn more at SavannahSly.com.

Co-Director

Melodie Garcia is the Co-Director of New Moon Network and a public sector consultant specializing in human services program design, grassroots organizational development, and community engagement. Melodie has 12+ years’ experience providing community organizing and education, as well as providing direct services to people living in poverty. In her consulting practice, she helps government agencies develop trauma-informed programming for low-resourced and over-policed communities including drug users, sex workers, and people living unhoused. Melodie is also a policy analyst, writer, artist, and skillful facilitator. She has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy, and a Professional Certificate in Nonprofit Management; aside from education she brings important lived experience as a peer in behavioral health and as a participant in the sex trade. Learn more at orangecapconsultation.com.

Program Officer & Movement Analyst

At the intersection of people, policy, research, and creativity is where you will find survivor and longtime sex worker J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly. As a multi-racial non-binary person who has lived with disabilities, poverty, food/housing instability and violence, they have brought this experience to their research and advocacy. Whether co-authoring academic papers, conducting interviews or focus groups, community organizing, lobbying or making documentaries, J. Leigh is passionate about addressing LGBTQIA+ issues, sex work, race, gender-based violence, human trafficking, casual sex, disability, and the creativity of the human spirit. Serving at organizations like The Ishtar Collective, GLITS, SOAR Institute, Decriminalize Sex Work, and New York Transgender Advocacy Group has been their career since 2016. They were an advisor for the Museum of the City of New York’s Transgender Activism Exhibit and received the 2019 Marsha P. Johnson Community Leader Award from New York Transgender Advocacy Group, where they served as the president of the NY State Gender Diversity Coalition from 2019 - 2022.

Operations & Admin

Bea Wharton is a data analyst and systems administrator who works with nonprofits in order to structure new programming and analyze existing data. Bea is a student of Political Science at Southern New Hampshire University, with a focus on constitutional law and the tracking and reporting of civil and human rights violations. Bea brings stability and efficiency to New Moon in her role as an administrator for New Moon's fiscal sponsor, Woodhull Freedom Foundation. Prior to her work at New Moon and Woodhull, Bea administered the Sex Worker Community Support Line, the only national resource responding to the needs of all people engaged in commercial sex.

Spokes Hub Coordinator

moses moon, also known as “thotscholar,” is a writer and self-made scholar whose work focuses on race and racialization, sexuality, gender, and genre. She is a former member of SWOP-USA’s Board of Directors and has made a name for herself through questioning stale conventions and highlighting racial, sexual, and socioeconomic entanglements. Her work has been published in the Yale LPE blog, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, VICE, Afropunk, and Duke University’s SAQ. Her book low end theory is forthcoming.

Advisor

Paula Kravitz is a management consultant for social impact organizations including philanthropies, non-profits and social impact initiatives within the private sector. She worked for a decade at the Skoll Foundation where she led strategic initiatives, the Skoll World Forum on social entrepreneurship and also global partnerships. Since leaving Skoll she has consulted with TED on their Climate Countdown initiative, the Jeff Skoll Group on long range planning, TPW on their Global Summit among others. Prior to Skoll she consulted for nearly a decade with Fortune 500 companies on brand, communications and online marketing strategy.

Microgrant Advisor

Ceyenne Doroshow, Founder and Executive Director, Ceyenne Doroshow (pronounced Kai-Ann) is a compassionate powerhouse performer, activist, organizer, community-based researcher and public figure in the trans and sex worker rights’ movements. As the Founder and Executive Director of G.L.I.T.S., she works to provide holistic care to LGBTQ sex workers while serving on the following boards: SWOP Behind Bars, Caribbean Equality Project, and SOAR Institute. As an international public speaker, her presentations include The Desiree Alliance, Creating Change, SisterSong, Harm Reduction Coalition and the International AIDS Conferences and now PRIDE on FX. Ceyenne has published features in GQ, Vogue, TIME, ATMOS, i-D and many other publications. At the present time, Ceyenne is building her leadership academy and envisioning a medical center and combined housing unit in Queens,NY — building sustainability for the community like no other.

Microgrant Advisor

Matthew Rose is a longstanding HIV and social justice advocate. He brings over a decade of experience in community engagement, health policy, and HIV science, with a particular focus on health equity. He currently serves as a Director at a global health communications and advocacy consulting firm. Supporting clients across some of the world's most dynamic regions to enable policy innovations, mobilize resources, and build political will, engaging global and local audiences to drive change. Before that, he served as Health GAP’s lead on U.S. government policy, focusing on issues including annual appropriations for global AIDS programs, access to essential medicines, and rights-based approaches to end the AIDS pandemic. He also focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine development and deployment, science policy, and aid for frontline workers. Before Health GAP, Matthew served as policy and advocacy manager for the National Minority AIDS Council. He worked on federal legislation related to HIV and health disparities affecting people of color and played a leadership role in the National HIV Biomedical Prevention Summit. Matthew is currently a member of the Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group, an independent, advocate-led, global team of AIDS prevention research advocates that plays a critical role as a liaison in the highly complex field of HIV vaccine research. He also serves on the Board of Directors for HIPS, which advances the health, rights, and dignity of people and communities impacted by sex work and drug use.

Microgrant Advisor

Mariah Grant (she/her) is a human rights and migration expert with a focus on sex workers’ rights, freedom of movement, and labor exploitation. For over a decade, she has worked throughout North America, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, in a variety of capacities including case management with migrant children and families, training and technical assistance for governmental and intergovernmental agencies, human rights research and documentation, and policy advocacy. She is currently a freelance consultant working on projects related to sex work decriminalization, sex work in humanitarian crises and conflict zones, and human trafficking prevention and service provision for survivors. Prior to consulting, she was the Director of Research and Advocacy with the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center where she oversaw research on the harms of sex work criminalization, including police violence, as well as local, state, and federal policy advocacy to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work. She has consulted and worked with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, International Organizational for Migration, US Department of State, US Department of Labor, ICF International, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Decriminalize Sex Work, Freedom Network USA, Protection International, Morrison Child and Family Service, Minority Rights Group International, and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects.