MARCELA HOWELL is the Vice President of Communications, Marketing and Policy for Advocates for Youth, a non-profit organization that supports programs and policies for the sexual and reproductive health of young people.  Ms. Howell provides overall direction, supervision, and coordination of Advocates' media strategy and marketing outreach campaigns, as well as strategic planning for its international, domestic and state policy initiatives. Before becoming the vice president of communications, marketing and policy, Ms. Howell serves as Advocates' director of public affairs where she supervised the public policy and communications activities.

Ms. Howell has a wealth of expertise in public policy, grassroots organizing, public education, and communications. A long-time activist on reproductive health and rights issues, she has worked in government at the local, state, and federal levels. Her efforts to expand the women's movement in California led to her serving in a number of leadership positions within the movement, including being elected to two terms as chair of the Women's Caucus of the California Democratic Party, serving on the board of directors of NARAL, Women's Campaign Fund, and the California Women's Vote Project.

As a political consultant in California for over ten years, Ms. Howell specialized in helping women run for elected office.

Ms. Howell taught African American literature and linguistics in the Black Studies Department and a course on Black Women in American Literature for the Women's Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.