Moving Beyond the Pregnancy Options Dialogue
a skill and knowledge building workshop
Portland, Oregon • Friday, February 10, 2012
Event Facilitators
Moving Beyond the Pregnancy Options Dialogue workshop will be led by Shelly Dodson and Katie Niemeyer and will include break-out sessions led by staff members of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, Open Adoption & Family Services and Backline.
Shelly Dodson
Shelly Dodson is the Program Manager for Backline, a national talk line that provides unbiased and judgment free support for women and their loved ones across the continuum of experiences, feelings, and decisions around pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption. She served on the Talk Line as a volunteer advocate for three years prior to becoming the program manager.
Shelly received her B.S. in Community Health Education from Portland State University and also has experience as an anti-violence advocate, doula, midwife and in providing support and resources to folks with disabilities. She is committed to maintaining a feminist empowerment and anti-oppression lens in the work to fulfill Backline's vision of a world where all people will have the information, support and resources they need to make the decisions that are best for their lives, without limitation or coercion.
Katie Niemeyer
Katie Niemeyer is a Counselor for Open Adoption & Family Services, a pro-choice nonprofit adoption agency located in Oregon and Washington. Katie served as the co-facilitator for the Pregnancy Options Dialogue 2012, along with Backline founder Grayson Dempsey.
Katie, a licensed clinical social worker, is committed to providing counseling, mediation, education and support to empower individuals, couples, and families as they make important life decisions. At OA&FS, part of her work includes helping pregnant women and couples explore all their pregnancy options and connecting them with resources they need to support their decisions. While earning a master's degree in social work at Portland State University, Katie offered counseling for women and couples in the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Center for Women's Health. She also worked as a medical social worker in the center's high risk prenatal clinic. Katie is honored to be a part of Moving Beyond the Pregnancy Options Dialogue. She believes education and dialogue amongst professionals leads to a world where women considering their pregnancy options are treated with compassion, respect and given non-biased, accurate information.
