The State of Reproductive Justice in Texas

Zaena Zamora – Executive Director, Frontera Fund

Zaena Zamora (she/her(s)) is a native of the Rio Grande Valley. She completed her higher education at the University of Texas-Pan American. Zaena has spent her career working with nonprofit organizations and in education. She served as a lecturer at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley from 2014 to 2021 where she promoted equitable teaching practices in education and STEM.

Zaena served as Treasurer Board Member of Frontera Fund from 2019 to 2021. She accepted the role of Executive Director in January 2021. As a lifelong resident of the Rio Grande Valley, she understands the unique issues, stigma, and barriers RGV residents face when seeking abortion care. Her work with Frontera Fund has been the most meaningful and profound endeavor she has undertaken.

Zaena believes in reproductive freedom for all and Frontera Fund’s mission in making abortion care accessible to all those who want it. Her goal as Executive Director is to expand Frontera Fund’s capacity to meet the financial and practical needs of all Frontera Fund callers and to work on building a grassroots organization with an intersectional lens that centers the needs of the RGV and larger Texas border community.

Anna Rupani – Fund Texas Choice

Anna Rupani is a born and raised Texan. Although Anna left Texas for 10+ years, she found her way back to Texas, as she saw what was happening at the legislative level in her home state where discriminatory practices were being elevated, and wanted to be there to help fight and create positive changes in Texas.

Prior to joining Fund Texas Choice as their first-ever Executive Director, Anna was a practicing lawyer. She dedicated her legal career to the public interest and movement lawyering sector, focusing on serving undocumented immigrant survivors of trauma, abuse, gang violence, and human trafficking. Her desire to work in immigration comes from being a first-generation Pakistani-American who saw how the American Immigration system impacted her own family. Although Anna worked in immigration for quite a while, the intersection of immigration justice and reproductive justice was very apparent in her work. In one of Anna’s family violence classes, her professor stated “If you can avoid having a child with an abuser, do everything you can.” That resonated with Anna and played a huge role in how she provided resources to the clients she served. When Anna was looking for a change in her career, joining a reproductive justice organization was the right fit as the intersections between both movements are very real, and being at an organization that provides holistic care was crucial in making the jump to FTC.

Anna has always been dedicated to public service. During her tenure in law school, Anna created a program with high school youth with Boston Public Schools, to help ignite their ambition in law, and push towards change, while allowing themselves to see Black, Indigenous, and other people of color that they could relate to. For her creation and work with and of this program, Anna was awarded the Judge Reginald C. Lindsay Public Service Law Book Award by the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. Anna obtained her Juris Doctor at New England Law | Boston, where she was awarded the ultimate public service award at her commencement ceremony.

Prior to her role as an attorney, Anna obtained her Master of Social Work at Florida State University, concentrating on working with women and children. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, concentrating on Human Resources and Marketing, with a Minor in Studio Art Painting at Boston College. Anna is licensed to practice law in both Texas and Massachusetts.

Anna has been awarded the Outstanding Co-Chair Award for her work with Lawyers Against Domestic Violence Committee of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, and the Rising Raggio Award by the Dallas Women’s Lawyers Association for her work as a young female lawyer. In her free time, Anna loves to hang out with her siblings, read, hike, watch movies, and travel.

Kamyon Conner – Texas Equal Access Fund

Kamyon Conner is the first Black woman to be selected as the Executive Director of the Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund which is located in Dallas. The Texas Equal Access Fund works to expand access to abortion care while simultaneously shifting culture towards reproductive justice.

The organization was established in Denton in 2005 and helps fund abortions for families in need across the state when government assistance isn’t available. The announcement was made earlier this month and Conner is ready to hit the ground running.

Conner and the TEA fund have a treasured history. She began as a volunteer taking calls in 2007 and then joined the board in 2013.