The Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPSE) informed staff this week that Mairo Akposé had stepped down as Interim CEO and that the Board had accepted her resignation, according to an internal email sent by Karen Doolittle, Chair of the Board of Directors. In that message, the Board said the current executive leadership team would remain in place to manage day-to-day operations. At the same time, the Board will review PPSE’s strategic plan, conduct a leadership search, and host an all-staff call on Friday, January 9th, with questions to be submitted in advance.
Despite those assurances, sources told TN Repro News that Karen Rene, PPSE’s Executive Director, and Claire Moon, Akposé’s Chief of Staff, no longer appeared on staff org charts. In images provided to TN Repro News, Rene’s and Moon’s positions now read, ‘Vacant Seat.’ When an employee is terminated in Paycom, the HR system PPSE uses, employee names are removed across the system, including in org charts.
An email to Claire Moon today returned a message saying she’s out of the office with no access to email, and to contact Lois Harrison, PPSE’s Director of Administrative Services. It remains unclear whether the two employees resigned or were terminated.
In prior public statements, Rene has described herself as both “pro-life” and “pro-choice,” framing her work around protecting women from coercion—a narrative that anti-abortion politicians and activists have increasingly advanced in recent years. When Moon was hired, staffers raised concerns about her appointment, citing her voting history, which they found consistently aligned with Republican candidates.
One source who spoke with TN Repro News on the condition of anonymity said they were relieved to see PPSE begin addressing long-standing internal concerns and removing individuals they believed had ulterior motives, but were disappointed that leadership had not publicly acknowledged or explained the actions being taken.
However, that relief, the source said, was immediately put on pause when staff were asked to sign an Employee Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement by Monday, January 5th. The NDA bars disclosure of protected information, whether true or false, and extends confidentiality obligations indefinitely beyond employment, according to documentation reviewed by TN Repro News. Staff familiar with the rollout said the dissemination of the NDA—coming immediately after Akposé’s resignation and ahead of a board-led staff call on the following Friday—felt like a continued effort to silence internal voices, rather than a step toward accountability.
BREAKING: Sources Say Planned Parenthood Southeast Is Straying From Its Mission
A note on sourcing: Materials reviewed by TN Repro News; on-background accounts from individuals with direct knowledge; public statements from allied organizations. Identifying details withheld to protect sources and operational security.
Multiple current and former staffers previously told TN Repro News that leadership at Planned Parenthood Southeast had consolidated around senior executives with little or no reproductive-health experience, many with corporate ties to Akposé.
Sources described centralized decision-making, sidelined checks, and pressure they characterized as off-mission, pointing to Sept. 30, 2025—when PPSE eliminated every Public Policy and Organizing role across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi—as a key inflection point. One internal email showed a senior vice president asking whether PPSE had ever partnered with Students for Life, which staff argued signaled severe gaps in reproductive-rights literacy and introduced serious security risks.
Sources said internal efforts to resolve concerns failed, prompting them to come forward as a last resort to protect patients, colleagues, and PPSE’s mission—an effort later reflected in the launch of the Save PPSE campaign, which quickly drew media attention and hundreds of signers from across the reproductive-health community.