For over 30 years, Dr. Toni M. Bond has worked tirelessly to make the voices of Black women heard around issues of reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice. In 1994, Dr. Bond was one of the twelve Black women who gave birth to the concept of “Reproductive Justice (RJ),” creating a paradigm shift in how women of color would add their collective voices to the fight for reproductive autonomy and freedom. In 1996, she co-founded and led the first Black women’s reproductive justice organization in the country, Black Women for Reproductive Justice.
Dr. Bond is a recognized leader and expert working at the intersections of religion and reproductive justice. An independent scholar/activist, she is adjunct faculty at Claremont School of Theology where she teaches graduate students about Christian and classical ethics. She has served on the board of several national reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, including as one of the founding board directors of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Dr. Bond serves on the board of Civil Liberties and Public Policy and is the co-founder and board chair of Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Justice (IVRJ). She led IVRJ’s efforts to create the first reproductive justice focused community-based Internal Review Board (IRB) initiative, which supports the research work of grassroots reproductive justice organizations.
A highly sought after speaker and trainer, Dr. Bond has addressed the American Public Health Association, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, the International Cross-Cultural Black Women’s Studies Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, the 10th International Women and Health Meeting in New Delhi, India, the National Convocation—Christian Church Disciples of Christ, and a NGO-sponsored session at the 2001 Third UN World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and other Forms of Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. In 2008, Dr. Bond was part of a group of reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates invited to make recommendations to President Barack Obama’s transition team about advancing reproductive health and rights. Her testimony garnered her additional invitations from the Obama administration to participate in several White House meetings to share her insights about reducing unintended pregnancies.
Dr. Bond is the recipient of numerous awards, including, the Jane Bagley Lehman Fellowship from the Tides Foundation, the Pauli Murray Award from the Chicago Now Education Fund, the Bella Abzug Woman of Achievement Award from the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization of Women, and the Women in History Award from the Woman’s Board of the Chicago Urban League. Dr. Bond’s dissertation, “Faithful Voices: Creating a Womanist Theo-Ethic of Reproductive Justice,” collected the oral reproductive and sexual narratives of Black Christian women. In support of her dissertation research, Dr. Bond was named the inaugural Fellow for the Fellowship for Reproductive Justice Research, a research fellowship sponsored by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a collaborative research group at the University of California, San Francisco Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She was named the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Justice. Dr.
Dr. Bond received her B.A. from DePaul University her M.A. in Theology/Ethics from Claremont School of Theology, and her Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Society also from CST.
A womanist theo-ethicist, her areas of specialization include gender and sexuality, reproductive health, rights, and justice, Black feminist theory and methodology, womanist theory and methodology, and womanist and Christian ethics. Her scholarly foci are reproductive justice and women of color, religion, faith, and reproductive justice, and womanist theo-ethics and reproductive justice.
