Loretta J. Ross

Activist, professor, public intellectual
A professor at Smith College, Loretta J. Ross educates people on how to counter call-out culture in schools, businesses and relationships.

Why you should listen

Loretta J. Ross encourages people to build a human rights movement that focuses on calling in as an effective way to challenge hate. She began her career in human rights activism and social change in the 1970s. She has worked at the National Football League Players' Association, the DC Rape Crisis Center, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Black Women's Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. She retired from organizing in 2012 and now teaches activism as a clinical professor.

Ross's most recent books include Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, cowritten with historian Rickie Solinger, and Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. Her forthcoming book, Calling In the Calling Out Culture, is scheduled to be released in 2022. She has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and TIME magazine, among others.

Loretta J. Ross’ TED talks

More news and ideas from Loretta J. Ross

Live from TEDMonterey

The path forward: Notes from Session 1 of TEDMonterey

August 2, 2021

It’s time for TED! After the world was rocked by the worst health crisis in a century, we gather for TEDMonterey with a bold theme in mind: the case for optimism. It’s grounded in the stubborn belief that green shoots of hope and progress are sprouting throughout the world, if you just know where to […]

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