Tarina Keene took the helm of REPRO Rising Virginia in January 2008 as the organization’s executive director. She also serves as the organization’s lobbyist at the Virginia General Assembly. She is committed through RRVAs work to ensure that all Virginians have access to the full range of reproductive healthcare options despite their geographic location in the state or their socioeconomic status.
Tarina led the charge on the now infamous mandatory ultrasound bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly in February 2012. Despite the legislation passing, Tarina was responsible for introducing the legislature to the “transvaginal” ultrasound that gained international media scrutiny and galvanized thousands of Virginians to protest against the bill in Richmond during the legislative session. Tarina was quoted more than 100 times in the media including the New York Times, The Week Magazine, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian (UK), and the Washington Post.
Tarina is also the founder and chair of the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health which came together in March 2011 after the General Assembly passed a law regulating abortion providers as hospitals. She successfully recruited more than a dozen state and national organizations and abortion providers to work together to mitigate the regulations. Tarina also appeared live twice on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the impact on access to reproductive healthcare if a majority of the state’s reproductive healthcare providers are forced to cease offering services especially in rural and low-income areas.
In 2009, Tarina was appointed to the Alexandria City Commission on Women and currently serves as 1st Vice Chair. She served as Virginia NOW President from 2004-2006. She is also a 2006 graduate of the University of Virginia’s prestigious Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. Tarina began her career in broadcast news as an on-air reporter and newscast producer. Tarina also completed the Appalachian Trail in 1999, walking nearly 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. She has a B.A. in Media Studies and a B.A. in Political Science from Radford University and a Master’s of Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from Old Dominion University.