Featuring

Kate Arnold, MD, MBA

Dr. Kate C. Arnold is an OB/GYN. She served as Director of Women’s Health at a large, 18-site federally qualified health center in Oklahoma. Kate and her wife, Caroline (also a practicing OB/GYN), were compelled to uproot their family, leave well-established clinical practices and close friends to move from Oklahoma in June 2023. In our Democracy at Risk Series, Dr. Arnold will share their concerns about long standing attacks on obstetricians but even more so on the growing restrictions on reproductive health, attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, challenges of educating children in an increasingly repressive, unwelcoming Red State, and all compounded by not feeling safe to speak out in a state where guns continue to proliferate.

Read Kate & Caroline's journey in The New Republic here: "Red State Brain Drain"

Please join Floridians for Democracy in person or virtually to hear more of Dr. Arnold's passions to protect women's rights, work towards giving each child in the United States an equal chance, slowing climate change, protecting LGBTQ patients, decreasing maternal mortality, protecting Americans and visitors from gun violence, and acknowledging and lessening the racial bias that is embedded in American society. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from a true humanitarian devoted to protecting and preserving democracy while respecting the rights of all American citizens.

In Person (1:15-4:30pm) Reservation

Virtual Reservation (2-4pm EDT) Reservation 

UPCOMING EVENTS

The goal of the Joyful Resistance GOTV Summit is to strengthen collaboration with diverse community partners in getting out the vote for the 2024 election.

Steve Phillips, author and political expert, will kick off the event with a keynote at noon (EDT), which will be live streamed, and the video made available on YouTube. Watch for more info.

Leaders from various organizations will meet at the summit to focus on developing GOTV strategies for three groups: Black & Hispanic voters, young voters, and voters who signed ballot petitions on protecting abortion access and legalizing adult use of marijuana. The opening session address is being opened to all, for virtual viewing.

The event will close with a call to action by a panel of activists and experts:

• Anna Eskamani, founder of People Power FL
• Genesis Robinson, political director of Equal Ground
• Josh Weierbach, Executive Director, Florida Watch
• moderator Angie Nixon, regional director, FL for All 

Steve Phillips is a national political leader, bestselling author, and founder of the multimedia platform, Democracy in Color, where you can find his color-conscious political podcast, “Democracy in Color With Steve Phillips.”

He is a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation. Steve Phillips is the author of The New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and the newly released national bestselling book How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.

The Joyful Resistance Summit is hosted by Beaches Activists Movement, Indivisible Mandarin, Indivisible Jax Riverside, in partnership with the Northside Coalition of Jax and Florida for All. 

Steve Phillips’ opening remarks will be live streamed with the assistance from Floridians for Democracy and Florida Veterans for Common Sense.

The summit is funded through a GROW grant from national Indivisible.

Dr. Rivkees is Professor of Practice and Interim Chair of Health Service, Policy and Practice at Brown University’s School of Public Health. He served as Florida’s State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health from June 2019 to September 2021. As State Surgeon General, Dr. Rivkees also served as State Health Officer for the Florida Department of Health.

Dr. Rivkees is a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He received residency, fellowship and postdoctoral training and served as faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Before moving to Florida, Dr. Rivkees served as professor of pediatrics with tenure at Yale University. As associate chair for research he started and directed the Yale Pediatric Thyroid Center, one of the first of its kind in the United States.

He has worked with the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on drug safety issues, leading to international treatment practice changes, and was nationally recognized for his contributions. His work has been published extensively, and he has had more than 35 years of continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rivkees has received numerous honors and recognitions.

At Brown University, Dr. Rivkees focuses on pandemic preparedness and response, leadership training, and graduate education and helps direct the national STAT (State & Territory Alliance for Testing) Action Network. He is a regular contributor to TIME and The Hill about public health-related issues. He is the director of the new Accelerated Master in Public Health at Brown University. See Dr. Rivkees full, impressive bio here.

Helpful information prior to this special program: "Assault on Public Health"

Read Dr. Rivkees insightful recent articles:

Time, From COVID-19 to Measles, Florida’s War on Public Health, Feb 27, 2024: Discusses anti-science and anti-vaccine political agenda in FL as well as recent FL laws and how they impact education, the ability to speak freely about the science, and public health.

The Hill, Florida loves individual rights — unless you want a COVID vaccine, Jan 19,2024: The politicization of COVID-19 vaccines in FL, including altering a report and advising people to avoid mRNA vaccines citing debunked claims by the current FL Surgeon General.

Watch CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede interview with former Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, who was removed during the COVID crisis by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The two discuss how the current surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, is handling the measles outbreak.