Alumni Panel: Why Do Gender Studies?

Dena Robinson and Dora Mendelson will talk about their journey from studying women's, gender, and sexuality studies to their professional lives today.

Dena Robinson ‘12 (she/her/hers)
Senior Staff Attorney at ACLU

Dena Robinson ‘12 (she/her/hers) is a Black, queer, Jewish, first-generation American woman. Dena is a senior staff attorney with ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project. At Colgate, she double majored in women’s studies and political science and, among other things, was the chairwoman of SORT, an RA, and vice president of the Black Student Union.

Dora Mendelson ‘23
Chief of Staff at the National Academy of Social Insurance

Dora Mendelson serves as Chief of Staff at the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is deeply committed to disability justice as a framework for advancing equitable public policy — spanning health, economic security, and social insurance — a belief rooted in her own experience living with chronic illness. Dora holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a Master of Arts in Gender Studies with a concentration in Critical Disability Studies from McMaster University, both summa cum laude. Her master's thesis examined the embeddedness of diabetes stigma in American public policy.