CWE Staff

Ali P. Crown is the first director of the Center for Women at Emory, which was established in September 1992 and reports to the Office of the Provost. She previously was Associate Director of Executive Programs at Emory Business School.

Apart from her career, since joining Emory in 1980, Ms. Crown has served in a variety of leadership roles, where she concentrated her efforts on women's issues. Most notable among her early campus achievements was her stewardship of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, which monitors the progress of women faculty, staff, and students and makes recommendations to Emory’s President. During her term as chair in 1989-1990, the Commission compiled a comprehensive report on the status of women at Emory. She is currently a member of the Women in Leadership Committee of the Commission.

As director of the Center for Women, Ali Crown is primarily responsible for identifying issues of concern to Emory women, developing the Center's programs, and establishing the Center as an integral part of Emory and the local and national community. Under Ms. Crown's leadership, the Center was singularly distinguished in 1998 by the Eckerd Corporation from among 157 campus-based women's centers for its outstanding support of women's initiatives. This unsolicited honor was accompanied by a $55,000 gift, which was subsequently used by the Center to establish the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions.

For three years, Ms. Crown was chair of the Women's Center Division of the National Association of Women in Education and is a member of the Women’s Center Committee of the National Women’s Studies Association. She was also vice president of the board of directors of the Feminist Women's Health Center of Atlanta and has served on other boards for women's advocacy and activist groups. The second person to serve as chair of the Georgia Women's History Month Committee after its founding by the Governor, Ms. Crown was also invited to speak before President Bill Clinton's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History in 1999.

At Emory University, Ms. Crown is a long-time member of two prestigious scholars’ selection groups: the Bobby Jones Scholars Selection Committee and the Marion Luther Brittain Committee, which selects one graduating senior for the highest award presented at the annual commencement ceremony. She founded Emory’s Sexual Assault Consortium in 1993 and convened the group until summer of 2004. In 2002-2003 she served on the Committee on the 50th Anniversary of Co-Education at Emory College. She has been president of Emory’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa since 2005, a role in which she has previously served. In 2003 she served for the second time as the chapter’s delegate to the PBK National Triennial Council.

Ali P. Crown is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory University. Among her current areas of interest is the holism of women’s health, which she believes must be defined in its broadest context to include an understanding of the multiple roles of women in society. She also does research on women's leadership and is particularly interested in how women mentor other women in the workplace. She has presented this research at national conferences and spoken about it in the corporate and private sectors. In 2003 and 2004, she presented her work at the annual conference of the National Women’s Studies Association. Ms. Crown has been a member of a number of consulting teams to establish and/or evaluate other campus-based women’s centers.

Sasha Smith joined the Center for Women as the Assistant Director for Programs in August 2006. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2003. As a Women Studies major, Sasha focused her research on Black Women Studies and Violence Against Women. She worked at the University of Connecticut Women’s Center and became a program educator for the Violence Against Women Prevention Program. Through this program she co-taught a Rape Seminar in the Women Studies Department, planned events such as “Take Back the Night” for the University of Connecticut’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. She also facilitated workshops in the community on domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Sasha continued her education at the University of Connecticut, Hartford Campus studying for a Master’s of Social Work in Community Organizing, focusing on Urban Issues and Social Justice.

Throughout her six years at the University of Connecticut, Sasha associated with a variety of leadership and mentor groups on campus. She enjoys working with young people and encouraging them to be active agents for change in their communities. In 2005, she attended the INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence conference in New Orleans, and realized that her passion for her educational studies was going to be the driving force in her career choices. Sasha is committed to continuing her work with women and ending violence.

As a native of the North, Sasha participated in many feminist circles interning with Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women-Connecticut Chapter, where, years later, she became the interim Director. She also worked as student staff for the Connecticut General Assembly,where she engaged her passion for politics and equal rights.

In early 2006, Sasha migrated to the South where she volunteers at Georgians for Choice, one of the country’s first pro-choice organizations. She looks forward to pushing the women’s movement ahead and encouraging diversity. Sasha is an energetic activist who continues to strive for equality for all.

Roslyn Sledge, who joined the staff as Special Projects Coordinator in May 2006, was born in Long Island, New York. Shortly after graduating from High School she relocated to California. In 1991 she graduated with honors from Bakersfield College with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. She was accepted at UC Berkeley, where she majored in Sociology.

However, after one year at CAL Roslyn found the financial struggles and everyday stress of single parenting had become overwhelming. Consequently, she withdrew from college and sought full-time employment. She discovered her true passion lied within empowering women, when she was hired to work as a Peer Counselor for survivors of domestic violence at The Family Violence Law Center in Berkeley.

She later went on to become the Director of the only 24-hour crisis line for women in San Francisco, where she recruited, trained and supervised over eighty volunteers. In addition she worked as an Advocate in a pilot program wherein she would accompany an Inspector from the San Francisco Domestic Violence Unit, to the scene of a 911 domestic violence call, and provide victims with on-scene support and referrals.

In 1998 Roslyn returned to New York to be closer to her family. She continued to advocate on behalf of women and children while working as a Legal Advocate for Brighter Tomorrows and Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk. Prior to relocating to Georgia last September, she worked at SUNY Stony Brook. In addition to single parenting and work, Roslyn has volunteered her time to numerous organizations and causes including Hosea Feed The Homeless And Hungry, Atlanta, GA, Take Back The Night, SUNY Stony Brook, NY, The Women’s Resource Center of Dekalb, The Family Violence Prevention Fund, San Francisco, CA and AIDS WALK, San Francisco.

Roslyn has four children and four grandchildren. Roslyn is committed to spending as much quality time as possible with her family, furthering her education and giving any spare time she can find to causes that empower women, children and our society’s underprivileged.

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Min-Ah Cho

Min-Ah Cho joined the Center for Women as our Graduate Fellow in September 2008. Min-Ah was born and grew up in Seoul, Korea. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Hyup Sung University in Korea in 1996, her Master’s in Theology degree in Social Ethics from Methodist Theological University in Korea in 1998, and her Masters in Theological Studies degree in Theological Ethics from Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina in 2003. She was accepted to Emory’s Ph.D. Program in Religion in 2003 and is currently working on her dissertation, tentatively titled “Corpus Christi to be Eaten and to be Written: Questioning the Act of Writing in Hadewijch.” Through her dissertation, she hopes to make an argument that will encourage colonized and suppressed individuals to present themselves as effective speakers and writers, especially in their endeavors on particular social issues.

While her research interests primarily focus on medieval literatures, feminist theory, post-modern theory, post-colonialism, and bilingualism, she is also interested in violence against women both in armed conflict situations and in their daily lives. Her college and post-college experiences as a human rights and women’s rights activist working with female industrial workers and military sexual slavery victims of WWII led her to be deeply concerned with social and political issues about women’s rights. Her experiences allow her to hear silenced voices and to communicate with a myriad of people in different social contexts.

Besides her academic and activist work, she is an avid movie goer of any genre (at least two per week), an amateur painter who loves to capture the variety of human expressions in her portraits, and a passionate percussionist of traditional Korean music. Above all, she embraces opportunities to challenge, to change, and to be changed. She wants to work with her fellow colleagues to create a safe environment in the Emory community where such acts and visions can be put into action.

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Staff and volunteers