Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson is a self-described “movement baby" as her parents fought for racial equality during the civil rights movement. As an adult, she mixed pop culture with civic engagement to turn out young voters of color. Even though she credited her success to the women who raised her, she wasn’t specifically thinking about the role of gender in social justice issues. Then she walked by a billboard in SoHo depicting the dire state of reproductive health care for Black women. It quickly became all she could think about. In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Alexis shares: 

Her go-to bagel order as a certified Jersey girl 

The biggest lesson her mom taught her about community organizing

Why a Princeton professor thanked her after she called out his racial prejudice

How she finds time to plan for the future of the org with so much uncertainty 

Her secret to getting people to see her perspective on politicized issues like abortion