Speaker Information
Maggie Carpenter, M.D.
Dr. Carpenter will be receiving FFRF’s “Forward Award,” reserved for individuals who are moving society forward. A family doctor with over 20 years of experience, Maggie got her B.A. in Russian studies from Brown University before graduating summa cum laude from SUNY-Downstate Medical School. She has lived and practiced medicine in a variety of locations from Lawrence, Kan., to Wairoa, New Zealand. She specializes in reproductive health as well as palliative care. Her passion for global health led her to start Go Doc Go in 2013, a not-for-profit focused on preventing cervical cancer around the world. Maggie has worked in reproductive health since her undergraduate days, volunteering at Planned Parenthood and providing medical and surgical abortions since 1999. She started working with Aid Access in 2020 and helped launch Hey Jane in December 2020. In 2023, Maggie co-founded the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine with Dr. Linda Prine and lawyer Julie F. Kay to support clinicians who serve patients across the U.S. with safe, timely and affordable telemedicine abortion care. In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fined her more than $100,000 and ordered her to stop prescribing and mailing medication abortion to Texas. A Texas state district judge in late February ordered her to pay $100,000 plus attorneys’ fees for allegedly breaking Texas law. As of spring 2025, she is under indictment for prescribing abortion pills to a Louisiana individual, where nearly all abortions are illegal, even in cases of rape. New York Gov. Kathy Hocul has refused Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s request to extradite Carpenter, saying she would sign the order “not now, not ever.” In February, the New York Legislature acted to strengthen its shield law to protect physicians from such extraditions by printing their practice’s name on the label rather than the physician’s name.
Mickey Dollens
Mickey Dollens is the regional government affairs manager at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, where he fights to uphold state/church separation and protect religious freedom for all. Based in Oklahoma City, Mickey continues to push back against religious extremism in government, efforts to weaken direct democracy, and policies that deepen economic inequality. At FFRF, he works to ensure that lawmakers prioritize reason over religion and that public policy is shaped by constitutional principles—not religious doctrine. He is the author of The Citizen’s Guide to Political Change: How to Win with Ballot Initiatives and Defend Direct Democracy.
Eli Frost
Eli Frost, who will be 18 at the time of the FFRF convention, will be receiving the Beverly and Richard Hermsen Student Activist Award of $5,000. Eli is a passionate graduating senior at Chaska High School who is in the National Honor Society and Key Club. He will be attending Minnesota State University in Mankato in the fall, where he’s planning to major in political science and potentially attend law school to become a politician. His ultimate aim is to use his political influence to bring positive change, particularly by standing up to Christian nationalist politicians and promoting respect and kindness for all people—not for religious rewards, but because it’s simply the right thing to do. For several years, he’s worked tirelessly to move his school district’s graduation ceremonies away from a discriminatory megachurch. Through petitions, school board meetings, and engaging with local media and advocacy organizations like FFRF, Eli successfully pushed the district to change the graduation venue to a more inclusive, secular location.
Nancy Northup
Nancy Northup is president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization whose game-changing litigation and advocacy work have transformed how reproductive rights are understood by courts, governments and human rights bodies. The Center has played a key role in securing legal victories in the U.S., Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and at the U.N. on issues including access to life-saving obstetrics care, maternal health, contraception and safe abortion services, as well as the prevention of forced sterilization and child marriage. With offices in Colombia, Kenya, Switzerland and the U.S., the Center has built the legal capacity of women’s rights advocates in over 60 countries. Nancy graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is also the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Brown University recognizing her achievements as an attorney and global reproductive rights leader. She has held adjunct appointments at NYU Law School and Columbia Law School, and taught courses in constitutional and human rights law. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Nancy was previously the founding director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where she litigated voting rights, campaign finance reform, and ballot access cases. From 1989 to 1996, she served as a prosecutor and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Prior to that she was a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
Katherine Stewart
Katherine Stewart, who received FFRF’s 2024 “Freethought Heroine” Award, has been covering religious nationalism and the assault on American democracy for more than 15 years. Her most recent book Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (February 2025), joins her earlier powerful investigations: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism and The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. She writes for The New York Times Opinion, the New Republic, and many other periodicals. The Power Worshippers was acquired by producers Rob and Michele Reiner, who subsequently based their documentary feature film, “God & Country” (2004) on the book.
Other speakers include Mubarak Bala, Jamelle Bouie, John Fugelsang, Bailey Harris, Herb Silverman, and Mary L. Trump.
