Ilyse Hogue

Ilyse Hogue, a nationally recognized social change practitioner and expert in online engagement with a passion for progressive work, is the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Before taking the helm at NARAL in January 2013. she served as co-director of Friends of Democracy and as senior adviser to Media Matters for America, and from 2006 to 2011, was director of political advocacy and communications for MoveOn.org.

Think Progress

Life and Action

On No-Phone Zones & Balance while Fighting for Change, Families, Equity & Reproductive Choice

By Ilyse Hogue

I remember clearly the day that my then-boyfriend now-husband and I implemented our “no conference calls on road trips” rule. We’re often on the road between our home in DC and New York or to my mother-in-law’s home on the Delaware coast. While this might seem like an obvious rule to some in order to maximize quality time together, our concerns were much more mundane. If we were both on the phone at the same time, we couldn’t hear. And we couldn’t agree on whose call was more important, so we decided no one could be on the phone.