Amy Merrill, artist/activist

Amy Merrill is an artist and activist working at the intersection of creative communications, technology and social change.

Her design studio Eyes Open leads digital communications for purpose-driven individuals and organizations, and in 2015, she co-founded Plan C to transform access to abortion pills by mail in the US. Under her co-leadership Plan C has grown to an annual audience of 2M+ website visitors, 20B+ in press reach, nationwide partnerships in research, creative and tech, and “Plan C” as a household name for abortion pills: all serving to normalize self-directed care and catalyze new routes of access.

Amy was recently named as part of Fast Company’s 2023 Most Creative People in Business, and currently serves as advisor for new gen-z emergency contraception brand Julie (of Starface family of brands) and for new abortion chatbot Charley. She was an inaugural member of the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s inaugural Design Science Studio, and advisor and artist-in-residence for the Jane Club (cofounded by June Diane Raphael) as they transitioned from a bricks and mortar space to an online community in 2020. 

Amy holds 20+ years navigating complex social issues from human trafficking to economic injustice to gender equity: which led to reproductive health and access as her current focus. After studying nonprofit management and questioning old models of making “impact,” Amy spent years working with a leading anti-sex slavery activist as the issue came into public awareness, guiding celebrity supporters and brands on this complex issue as they took a stand. She then pivoted into “tech for good,” helping to build an experiential fundraising tech company that allowed individuals to fund homes and schools with a video ask. She cofounded social enterprise Journey in 2015 which in two years led 600 people on international trips to build homes and schools with local communities and organizations and experience their impact. Upon sunsetting Journey, her purpose-led web design studio Eyes Open grew. And as the U.S. spiraled into reproductive health crisis, the initiative she co-created with three public health researchers and a simple website — Plan C — rose to national awareness and to its potential: by partnering with artists and activists, researchers and grassroots organizations Plan C could shape the future of abortion access in the form of abortion pills by mail, and in the face of ongoing stigma, information suppression and unjust bans.

In her truest nature, Amy is an artist, futurist and musician. She writes and performs with her partner in post-apocalyptic concept space folk band Formerly Alien, and solo as Amy Batara. She is based in the California Bay Area. 

Merrill can speak to:

• The high stakes nature of this work, including threats of getting shut down and online censorship by big tech;

• Creativity and perseverance as basic requirements to ensuring critical public health information reaches the masses;

• The current landscape of abortion access, much of which is new and largely unknown: with recent breakthroughs in telehealth provision over state lines, and activists building networks of pill access; and

• How this work fits under larger themes of justice and gender equity, polarization and othering, and the roles tech can play in facilitating greater autonomy and well-being for all.  

March 2023 PANEL AT SXSW

Amy spoke at the SXSW festival on a panel highlighting the “latest in the fight for reproductive rights,” in the Female Quotient Lounge.

The documentary film PLAN C had it Texas premiere at SXSW (global premiere was at the Sundance Festival in January 2023).

JANUARY 2023 PANEL AT CES

Amy spoke on a panel on reproductive health in the workplace at the CES Conference’s Female Quotient Lounge.

PODCAST INTERVIEW | BRANDS IN ACTION

Listen to a 50-min interview with Amy Merrill on how her life experiences shaped her approach to impact work.
Listen on Apple podcasts
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