Meet The Board: Secretary Nenena
The second in this on-going series of interviews with the Girl-Wonder.org Board of Directors features Secretary Elena Raquel Kamenetzky, better known on the forums as Nenena.
What are your Board responsibilities?
I’m the Secretary, so that means that I record things. I write up meeting agendas and meeting minutes, count votes during elections, etc. I also serve on the merchandise committee.
What experience do you have?
I’ve been writing about media including comics, on both a blog and in academic settings, for the past ten years. I wrote my undergraduate thesis about shoujo manga. I’ve also been creating and maintaining various internet fansites since I was in high school. As a teacher, I use comics to help teach literacy and language skills. I did a term of service with AmeriCorps, during which I learned a lot about on-the-ground grassroots activism, and a little bit about how to write grant requests. I also have some experience with volunteer coordination, and held a post in my college’s community service office for one year. Finally, last year I somehow ended up chairing the committee that wrote our charter and other documents necessary for incorporation. It was my first experience doing something like that, and I learned a lot from it.
How did you become involved with Girl-Wonder.org?
I remember hearing about the site when it was first founded, and started reading Karen Healey’s column regularly. Eventually I registered for the forums, and the first post that I ever wrote was kind of… concern troll-ish, if I do say so myself. But I’ve learned a lot since then!
What do you most hope to achieve for Girl-Wonder.org?
I really hope that we become a significant force for reaching out to and supporting a huge and diverse group of female comic creators. And of course, the more that we can get people thinking and talking about depictions of women and minorities in comics, the better. Girl-Wonder is a feminist organization, and feminism should be about countering all forms of oppression, not just sexism. I think we’ve taken positive steps in the direction of addressing more issues of diversity in comics, but we still have a long ways to go.
How would you respond to falling into a pit of radioactive waste that gave you inexplicable powers instead of cancer?
I would moonlight as a superhero, of course. What, did you expect me to say “become a supervillain” or “do nothing”?
Complete: If kidnapped by a cackling supervillain in the service of tormenting my heroic significant other(s), I would -
Regret never having studied any martial arts.
More questions for Nenena? Ask her here!
