Mary Hansel and Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi co-founded CEDAW Rising in 2025.

Mary and Parisa serve as Co-Chairs of the National Cities for CEDAW Advisory Board. “Cities for CEDAW” is a national campaign launched in 2014 to encourage U.S. cities and counties to adopt and implement the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the local level.

In their leadership roles, Mary and Parisa recognize both the significance of the Cities for CEDAW campaign and the growing need for a more intersectional, collaborative and action-driven approach to local CEDAW implementation. They launched CEDAW Rising to lead the next chapter of the movement and to meet the urgent challenges facing gender justice in the United States.

Co-Founders

Mary Hansel, J.D., LL.M

Mary Hansel is an international human rights attorney and scholar whose focal areas include intersectional gender justice and the application of human rights within the U.S.

In recent years, Mary has taught international law courses and directed law school human rights clinics. At UC Irvine School of Law, she worked with the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression on projects implementing international human rights standards at local, state and federal levels. One of these projects involved successful advocacy for a CEDAW ordinance in Los Angeles County, the most populous local jurisdiction in the U.S. Additionally, she led an initiative strategizing and preparing cases for global human rights litigation to advance gender justice.

Prior to academia, Mary practiced litigation and international arbitration at Irell & Manella and Bird, Marella, et al. She also worked on human rights matters at civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice, and consulted for international criminal proceedings before the High Court of Uganda.

Mary’s professional activities include serving as a peer reviewer for international law articles and co-editor of the Law Professor Network’s Human Rights at Home Blog. Previously, she served as a member of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar’s International Law Section and Founding Chair of the Section’s International Human Rights Committee.

In 2023, Equality Now and the Op-Ed Project selected Mary to join a cohort of twenty thought leaders as a Public Voices Fellow on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls.

In 2025, Los Angeles County honored Mary with its inaugural Human Rights Award for her CEDAW-related advocacy.

Mary earned her J.D. at the USC Gould School of Law and her LL.M in Public International Law at the London School of Economics, where she wrote her dissertation under the supervision of Professor Christine Chinkin (with Distinction). She publishes and presents widely on international law and human rights issues.

Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi, J.D.

Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi is the immediate past Chair of the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. As a Commissioner, she served as lead in drafting the County’s recently adopted CEDAW ordinance and chaired the Commission’s CEDAW Committee. She currently serves as the Commission’s CEDAW Advisor.

Parisa is a poverty and civil rights attorney. For the last 15 years, she has worked to assert and advance the rights of people in poverty—disproportionately women—and minoritized communities, through both individual cases and impact litigation. She currently serves as the Director of California Advocacy at National Housing Law Project, and previously served as litigator at public interest law firm; as a Staff Attorney and then Managing Attorney at Legal Services of Northern California where she represented low-income families and seniors in housing and public benefit cases, including under President Obama’s Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program; as San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program’s Pro Bono Manager and Supervising Attorney, where she oversaw cases for individuals with HIV/AIDS and unhoused veterans; and as a Senior Attorney at Disability Rights California where she spearheaded systemic litigation advancing the rights of low-income tenants in subsidized housing, and asserting the rights of unhoused individuals and children with disabilities during the pandemic.

In addition to practicing law full-time, Parisa serves as an adjunct law professor at USD Law, where she teaches the law school’s Poverty Law course. She also serves on the California Commission on Access to Justice Pro Bono Coordinating Committee, and previously served on the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services and the Equal Justice Works National Advisory Committee.

Parisa is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of California Davis School of Law, and a Racial Justice Institute Fellow through the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

Advisory Board

Chelsea Mutual, J.D.

Chelsea Mutual is a gender justice attorney with experience spanning appellate courts, complex litigation, and frontline advocacy for domestic and sexual violence survivors and reproductive rights. She most recently worked as a senior appellate attorney at the California Court of Appeal. Before joining the court, she was a litigator at DLA Piper and maintained an active pro bono practice focused on representing human trafficking and domestic violence survivors, for which she received the firm’s North American Pro Bono Award in 2019. Chelsea later became the lead attorney for a gender equity nonprofit, where she oversaw litigation, policy, and education efforts relating to reproductive rights, gender discrimination in sports, domestic violence, and pay equity. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers Club of San Diego, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the status of women in the law and society.

Chelsea has volunteered with the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women & Girls to support county-wide CEDAW efforts since 2023. She also volunteers with San Diego Pride, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, and the University of San Diego Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic. She received her B.A. and J.D. from the University of Michigan.

Amy Nantkes, Ph.D.

Dr. Amy Nantkes is a Political Science professor specializing in movement building and data-driven social justice. She is part of the team leading the implementation of San Diego County’s CEDAW ordinance to advance gender equity and human rights.

Drawing on over twenty years of nonprofit leadership, Dr. Nantkes has a strong record of coordinating large-scale community initiatives and implementing complex programs. In the classroom, she mentors students as emerging public servants and advocates, helping them build the skills and confidence to engage in policy work and community leadership. Her research examines how political rhetoric shapes public perception and policy outcomes for women, immigrants, and other marginalized communities, especially in social welfare and immigration policy.

She serves on the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University.

Jenni Prisk (Advisory Board Chair)

Jenni Prisk is a strategic communications leader, gender justice advocate, and longtime champion of local CEDAW implementation. She is the former Chair of the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women & Girls and the Association of California Commissions for Women. Jenni played a key role in San Diego County’s adoption of a CEDAW ordinance. She continues to provide support and mentorship to Commissioners as they oversee the implementation of that ordinance.

Jenni served as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Global Women Peacemakers’ Program at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at USD. She is a Regional Leader of Global Women NZ, a collective of over 400 women leaders who advocate for diversity and equity in leadership. She writes member stories articles that have wide circulation about members’ gender equality and advancement achievements.

In 2001, Jenni founded Voices of Women (VOW), which produced more than 80 educational events and raised funds for global nonprofit organizations supporting women and girls.

Jenni holds a Diploma in Speech & Drama from Trinity College, London, England. She is the author of Stand in Your Spotlight – An Ode to Living Fully.

Theory of Change

At CEDAW Rising, we are committed to:

1. Collaborating with grassroots advocates, social justice organizations and local governments to enact and implement measures reflecting CEDAW’s purpose and substance.

2. Emphasizing the urgency for local governments to improve the material conditions of women, girls and gender-diverse individuals, particularly those from underserved communities.

3. Centering the experiences and needs of those discriminated against on the basis of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, age, migration status, sexual orientation and gender identity.

4. Providing an array of resources and actionable guidance for each stage of local CEDAW advocacy and implementation.

5. Building a network dedicated to sharing best practices and innovative solutions for achieving intersectional gender justice.

6. Monitoring and evaluating the progress of cities and counties in implementing CEDAW to promote continuous improvement.

7. Raising awareness of and providing education on timely issues of gender justice and the importance of CEDAW, including the need for the U.S. to finally ratify the treaty.

Together, we can transform our cities and counties into models of intersectional gender justice, where every woman, girl and gender-diverse individual can thrive.

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home . . . Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” —Eleanor Roosevelt