WGS Alumni

Armonte Butler, C'17, is the Associate Director of LGBTQ Health & Rights at Advocates for Youth in Washington D.C. He supports youth activists in leading sexual and reproductive health campaigns in their communities, campuses, and at the state and federal levels. Armonte spearheads the Queer and Gender Equity Project, which provides a variety of education, healthcare, and community-based organizations with education, research, professional training, and technical assistance to increase their support for LGBTQ youth of color and youth living HIV. He also manages the All Students Count Coalition and the National Youth HIV and AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) project. He has published several fact sheets and toolkits such as Creating Safer Spaces for LGBTQ Youth, Medical Mentorship for Young People Living with HIV, and Building Cultural Responsiveness for Youth-Serving Professionals. Armonte holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Global Studies and Women's and Gender Studies from Sewanee and a Master of Public Health with concentrations in adolescent health, health policy, and health advocacy as a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Cuca Ramirez Miranda, C'24, wore many hats at Sewanee: Women's and Gender Studies major, Chemistry minor, pre-medical student, peer health educator, and Canale Intern. In her own words, "I’ve been thinking about who I was when I first got to Sewanee, how much I've grown, and how much I've changed. I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor, and I knew I enjoyed STEM classes. I grew up listening to P!nk, and of course, I became a feminist. And when I took courses in women’s and gender studies, I fell in love. It felt like I had found a missing part of myself. Reading about these ideas and having these conversations, it was like the room lit up. That's when I got the idea of becoming a women’s and gender studies major while also being a pre-med student. I want to be a doctor and an advocate for women and underrepresented people in the medical field." Today, Cuca is answering her calling by pursuing an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Tennessee Health and Science Center.

Ava earned a Bachelor's degree in Women's and Gender Studies and Politics in 2023, as well as receiving the Julie Berebisky Prize in Women's and Gender Studies. Ava currently works at the University of Vermont, where she serves as a Support Coordinator and Equal Opportunity Specialist in the Office of Equal Opportunity (EO). She works closely with her colleagues to  develop and oversee the implementation of the University's affirmative action plan as an effective recruiting and compliance tool and to develop, promote, and monitor effective methods of recruiting and retaining a diverse community of faculty and staff. She is particularly dedicated to researching sexual violence prevention in schools, and institutional responses to sexual violence, including restorative justice methods.