Meet Our Team

Emma Akpan

Integrated Voter Engagement Program Coach

she/her

Her mother’s daughter, Emma Akpan is a wayward church girl whose heart rests with Black girls everywhere. She loves organizing because we get to connect the stuff that our people and community care most about with the powers that can tangibly address our concerns.

She developed a passion for women’s reproductive health policy by volunteering at Planned Parenthood and has frequently spoken at rallies and at the state legislature on reproductive health policy. She has worked at the North Carolina State Table, been an organizer at Planned Parenthood, and a data director at NextGen Climate. Currently, she’s on the team at Hustle.

She is also a member of Echoing Ida, a project of Forward Together, and a women’s writing collective that raises the voices of Black women in the media. Emma has been published in Rewire News, the Huffington Post, Ebony, Bustle, Women Advance, and the Raleigh News and Observer, writing on the intersections of race, religion, and reproductive justice.

She’s not just an organizer; she also loves working out at the gym, reading books written by international women of color, and gaming, especially games with post-apocalyptic narratives–or sometimes it’s not that deep. She likes shooter games, especially Mass Effect Andromeda! A native of North Carolina, Emma has a Master’s in Divinity from Duke University.