The Girl Talk: #METOO Edition
This episode was recorded live at The Hideout in Chicago on November 28, 2017.
In recent months, it been hard to go five minutes without hearing a new, horrifying story about sexual assault or harassment. After years of silently suffering, it seems that women are finally being heard -- and the men who have been getting away with their egregious behavior for decades are facing the consequences.

This show, The Girl Talk will tackle how women in Illinois are working to stop rampant sexual abuse and support victims who have long-endured the gropes, date rape drugs and assaults from powerful men.


Our guests:

MEGAN BLOMQUIST
Megan Blomquist began fighting gender-based violence in college and started working with Rape Victim Advocates in 2009. She is currently the Director of Education and Training with Rape Victim Advocates. Megan graduated from University of Illinois-Chicago with a degree in Applied Psychology, focusing in Gender and Women’s Studies. She is 40-hour certified in both Sexual Violence (2009) and Domestic Violence work (2011) in the state of Illinois. Through the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Megan has also completed the 40-hour Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner training (2012). She is an active rape crisis counselor and community educator. Megan is passionate about ending sexual violence within our communities.


EMILY MILLER
Emily Miller is a political consultant living in Chicago. Over the last decade, she has developed and fought for policy and legislative agendas that give Illinois children and families the tools they need to build better lives. After graduating from DePaul University College of Law in 2006, Miller began her career as a staff attorney and health care advocate with the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Miller also coordinated government affairs for the Better Government Association and directed policy and advocacy at Voices for Illinois Children before launching her own consulting practice in January, 2017.

LITESA WALLACE
State Representative Litesa E. Wallace has spent her career fighting for working families like her own. As an educator and psychologist, as a single mother, and as the State Representative for Illinois’ 67th District, Litesa understands the impact that
decisions in Springfield have on people across the state.

Litesa began her career as a counselor, working with children and adults experiencing mental health issues as well as child abuse victims, families in crisis, and people with histories of substance abuse. After completing a master’s degree and doctorate at Northern Illinois University while raising a son on her own, Litesa worked as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Litesa’s experiences as a counselor and educator drew her to become more involved in local government.

She began volunteering, and working directly with policy-makers on the issues most important to her. Litesa won her first election for the Illinois House of Representatives in 2014, after serving as chief-of- staff to State Representative Charles E. Jefferson. She was re-elected in 2016.

In the House, Litesa has proven herself an ally of working families and an adept policy-maker able to lead her fellow legislators to support causes she believes in. A progressive advocate for economic justice, she has protected Illinois’ most vulnerable populations by expanding access to crucial services such as affordable childcare, healthcare, and SNAP benefits while also working to raise wages and create innovative economic
development tools in cities across the state.

Born on the Southside of Chicago and raised in the south suburbs and the daughter of a law enforcement agent and postal worker, Litesa grew up in a union household and was the first member of her family to complete a college degree. Litesa is raising her son in Rockford.

Let us know what you think! Contact us on Twitter @GirlTalkChi or on Facebook @girltalkchicago
Special thanks to the amazing Bleach Party for our theme music. Check them out at http://letshaveableachparty.bandcamp.com/