Today’s episode is with Melissa Berton, an Academy Award-Winning Producer. Eleanor Roosevelt Global Women’s Rights Recipient. Forbes 50 Over 50 Honoree. The Pad Project, Founder | Executive Director.

Melissa Berton, lifelong advocate for girls and women, has taught English at Oakwood Secondary School in Los Angeles for over a decade. As faculty advisor for Girls Learn International, a program of The Feminist Majority Foundation advocating for equal access to education across genders, she has thrice participated as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, leading the largest student delegation from a single high school. 

In 2013, following that first U.N. trip, Melissa inspired her students to produce a documentary to raise awareness about menstrual health and education worldwide, leading to a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, Period. End of Sentence. The Oscar win sparked a global conversation about period poverty and menstrual equality?

We talk about the following and so much more: 

✅ How does she address cultural taboos and misconceptions surrounding menstruation as a teacher

✅What role can schools and educational institutions play in destigmatizing menstruation and promoting menstrual health

✅ Why she created the documentary Period? 

✅ What inspired her to start the Pad Project and become an advocate for menstrual hygiene and education

✅ How access to menstrual products and education about menstruation can impact the lives of individuals and communities

✅ Some of the biggest challenges she has faced in advocating for menstrual equity, and how have she worked to overcome them

✅ Memorable stories or experiences from your work with the Pad Project that have particularly resonated with her 

If you’d like to join the waitlist for my next coaching program, sign up @ www.InnerKnowingSchool.com

Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.