CSWGS is delighted to honor Imogen Brown '25 with the 2025 Merfish Award. In the summer of 2023, Imogen began an internship with I'll Have What She's Having (IHWSH), a Houston-based non-profit that promotes access to healthcare for hospitality workers. She led the launch of IHWSH's informational self-managed abortion campaign in the spring of 2024, eventually assuming the role of project coordinator. Imogen worked with individuals and organizations throughout Texas and the United States to develop an abortion resource page, outreach campaign, hotline, and clinic partnerships for IHWSH clients. Imogen remains involved with the programs she launched, staffing the 24/7 self-managed abortion hotline and developing targeted information campaigns.

During her senior year, Imogen also co-founded the independent student organization Rice Students for Reproductive Justice (RSRJ). She worked alongside her fellow student members to source $5,000 in funding from the Center for Civic Leadership, invite several Houston non-profit organizations and guest speakers to campus, conduct an independent investigation of nearly every crisis pregnancy center in Houston, and grow RSRJ to include more than 30 students.

As a major in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Imogen completed a superlative year-long Seminar and Practicum research project in partnership with Amaanah Refugee Services. Focusing on the experiences of Afghani refugee women, she interviewed women enrolled in an empowerment program and secured translators for those participants who did not speak English. That same year, Imogen also served on the research team of Prof. Carly Thomsen, a CSWGS faculty affiliate. Prof. Thomsen praised Imogen's commitment to "actually doing feminist theory" and her "ability to ask critical questions in generative and generous ways... with an intent to build up rather than tear down." These qualities and accomplishments make Imogen an impressive researcher, organizer, student, and leader highly deserving of the Merfish Award.