Virginia was a top entertainment executive with Norman Lear’s production company, helping to develop popular shows such as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, One Day At A Time, Facts of Life, and The Jeffersons. As an independent producer, Virginia earned an Emmy and two Peabody awards. Virginia began her career as a space scientist who conducted important satellite-based experiments measuring properties of the atmosphere. Her success helped open the way for other female scientists. She holds a BS from McGill University, a Master of Science from the University of Southern California, and an honorary Doctorate of Science from McGill University.
Staff & Boards
We love to roll the credits, celebrating our dedicated community of team members, social scientists, supporters, and advocates. We maintain offices in South Burlington, Vermont; Los Angeles, California; and in active countries around the world. We also have staff who work remotely from around the world, including Washington DC, New York, Montreal, and Botswana.

Ronald Ahirirwe

Ana Akin

Elizabeth Borg

Ryan Burke

Natalia Cereser

Hope Craig

Jean Luc Dushime

Katie Elder

Hailegnaw Eshete, PhD, MPH

Carolyn Gilbert

Christina Guérin

Todd Hawk

Wame Jallow

Barbara Johnson

Susan Jones

Sandy Joseph, MA

Charles Kalonga, MBA

Tom Kazungu

Jean Bosco Ndayishimiye

Ephraim Okon

Berlyn Olibrice

Cecilia Orvañanos

Rajan Parajuli

Cody Peluso

Kelsey Perrotte

William J. Rider, CPA

Lamoussa Robgo

Clinton Sears

Wendi Stein

Stephanie Tholand, MPA

Missie Thurston

Charity tooze

David Walker, MBA

Virginia Carter, MS
Randy Freer
Randy, CEO of The Freer Company, is a media, sports, and technology executive who excels in building innovative, consumer-focused, digital platforms for entertainment, education, gaming, and sports. Previously, Randy served as the CEO of Hulu, where his strategic initiatives helped attract 30+ million subscribers in just two years — a nearly 50% annual increase across multiple years. He has also led 21st Century Fox global entertainment and sports television assets and was the President and COO of the Fox Networks Group. In 2021, Randy became a Senior Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow.
Kristina Hare Lyons, MPH, MALD
Kristina is a humanitarian, filmmaker, consultant, entrepreneur, and mother. She started her own business in 2007, Portobello Road, a retail store that emphasizes fair trade and eco-friendly products. Previously, she worked at Physicians for Human Rights on a landmark study on war-related sexual violence in Sierra Leone, at Elle Magazine as West Coast Editor, as an Associate Producer at Frontline, and with filmmaker Oliver Stone on numerous projects. More recently, she consulted with the Ministry of Health in Liberia through the Harvard Ministerial Leadership program on efforts to address tragically high rates of maternal mortality and is developing content at her film company, Lyonshare Pictures. Kristina currently sits on the directors of Urban Improv in Boston and holds a Masters in Public Health and Population from Harvard, a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, and a BA from Tufts.
Penny Hawkins
Penny is an evaluation specialist with over 30 years of experience. Prior to establishing her own business in 2016, she was Head of Evaluation at the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for several years. Penny has served in evaluation leadership and management roles in government, philanthropy, and NGOs, including at The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Ministry of Social Development in New Zealand. She is a former Chair of the OECD-DAC Network on Development Evaluation (2013-16) and former President and Fellow of the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES). Penny’s publications include a book – Evaluation Cultures: Sense Making in Complex Times, and she is currently co-editing a book on ethics and evaluation. Penny is the founder and CEO of a woman-owned international development evaluation consultancy – Creative Evaluation Limited, working with philanthropic, multi-lateral, and private sector organizations to develop relevant and effective measurement and learning systems for impact management.
Ron Hoge, MBA
Ron is the Chairman of Pinnacle Engines, a venture-backed energy tech startup. Ron has 40 years of global business experience in a wide range of industries with leadership roles in several Fortune 500 companies. He also serves on the directors of microfinance leader ACCION and is a trustee at EARTH University in Costa Rica. Ron has a B.A. in Mathematics from Amherst College and an M.B.A in Marketing from Stanford University.
Jerri Lea Shaw
Jerri is the co-founder and former President and Co-CEO of JBS International, a consulting firm focused on strengthening health care and social service policy, financing, and service delivery in domestic and international systems. JBS is one of the largest women-owned firms in the Washington metropolitan region, and Jerri has received multiple awards for corporate social leadership. She has been working to address women’s empowerment and reproductive health challenges for decades. She holds degrees from Oberlin College and a Master of Regional and City Planning from the University of North Carolina.
Cynthia McClintock, PhD
Cynthia is a Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. She is the author of Electoral Rules and Democracy in Latin America (Oxford University Press, 2018), Revolutionary Movements in Latin America: El Salvador’s FMLN and Peru’s Shining Path (U.S. Institute of Peace, 1998), and Peasant Cooperatives and Political Change in Peru (Princeton University Press, 1981). She is also the co-editor of The Peruvian Experiment Reconsidered (Princeton University Press, 1983) and co-author of The United States and Peru: Cooperation at a Cost (Routledge, 2003). She was the President of the Latin American Studies Association in 1994-95, a member of the Council of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 1999-2000, and Chair of APSA’s Section on Comparative Democratization in 2003-05. Awarded a Fulbright grant, she taught at the Catholic University in Peru in 1987, and in 2008 received the Orden del Sol del Perú (Order of the Sun of Peru) awarded by the Peruvian state for extraordinary contributions to Peru. In 2019, she won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Latin American Studies Association’s Peru Section.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Phumzile is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. She was sworn into office on 19 August 2013 and brings a wealth of experience and expertise, having devoted her career to issues of human rights, equality, and social justice. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka has worked in government and civil society, and with the private sector, and was actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid in her home country of South Africa. From 2005 to 2008, she served as Deputy President of South Africa, overseeing programmes to combat poverty and bring the advantages of a growing economy to the poor, with a particular focus on women. Prior to this, she served as Minister of Minerals and Energy from 1999 to 2005 and Deputy Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry from 1996 to 1999. She was a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1996 as part of South Africa’s first democratic government. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka began her career as a teacher and gained international experience as a coordinator at the World YWCA in Geneva, where she established a global programme for young women. She is the founder of the Umlambo Foundation, which supports leadership and education. A longtime champion of women’s rights, she is affiliated with several organizations devoted to education, women’s empowerment and gender equality. She has completed her PhD on education and technology at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
Jotham Musinguzi, MD, MPH
Jotham is the Director General of the National Population Council of Uganda. Previously, he served as Regional Director of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) Africa Regional Office (ARO) based in Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Musinguzi is a Public Health Physician. He was the recipient of the 2013 United Nations Population Prize from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the UN Headquarters in New York, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). He is also the recipient of the 2014 International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement from the University at Albany Alumni Association. He serves on a number of directorss including Women Deliver of New York, Commonwealth Medical Trust of London, among others. In 2012, Dr. Musinguzi was actively involved in the successful and landmark London Family Planning Summit, which culminated in FP2020, supported by Gates Foundation, United Kingdom Government, and UNFPA.
Chris Purdy
Chris is the Chairman of the Board of DKT International, also serving as president and CEO. From 1996 to 2011, he served as country director of DKT programs in Turkey, Ethiopia, and Indonesia, where he managed the largest private social marketing family planning program in the world. He is also the Founder and CEO of carafem, a network of reproductive health centers serving populations in the USA. He is the author of numerous articles on family planning, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy. He received his BA from Carleton College and an MA from Cornell University.
Jane Putch, MS
Jane is President of Eyebait Management, a literary agency featuring award-winning and New York Times best-selling authors in literary and genre fiction. Previously, Jane worked as a Fortune 500 and art and design brand management and licensing consultant, generating more than a half billion dollars in retail sales. Jane served as both the President of the Board of Fashion Group International, Los Angeles and its Foundation, spearheading programs to support women’s career advancement and to award academic scholarships to young women in the fashion industry. Jane served on the Board of Directors of Population Institute. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a Master’s degree in International Management from Boston University, with special studies in Brussels, Belgium.
William Ryerson, MPHIL
Bill is President and Founder of PMC, representing the organization in various capacities and helping to set the direction for PMC. He has a half-century of experience working in the field of reproductive health and more than three decades in Social Behavior Change Communication in various cultural settings worldwide.
Itang H. Young, Mdiv.
Itang serves as Associate Pastor at The Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York, overseeing the church and ministry operations. Itang also serves as the Executive Director of The Abyssinian Fund, Inc. which works to reduce poverty in Ethiopia by partnering with farming communities. Itang provides the program direction, leadership, and management for domestic and Ethiopian-based staff. Itang serves as a directors member for Sister to Sister: One in the Spirit; Blue Nile Passage, Inc.; Court Appointed Special Advocates for Youth; World Day of Prayer, USA; The American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York; and Population Media Center and Population Institute. She holds a certificate in Eastern European Business, Law & Diplomacy from Moscow State University; a BS from Texas A&M University; and a Masters from the Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. Itang completed a fellowship at UN Women in the Strategic Partnerships Division where she developed the Salesforce CRM change management processes, policies, and procedures for the department. She is currently a doctoral student in the Administration and Supervision – Church and Non-Public Leadership Program at Fordham University.
Neal A. Baer, MD
Executive Producer of the CBS drama “A Gifted Man.” Was Executive Producer and Writer, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” NBC, 2000-2011; Executive Producer and Writer, “ER,” NBC, 1994-2000. Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California, 2001-2005. Co-established the Institute for Photographic Empowerment at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, to link photographic story-telling projects around globally and make them available to NGOs and policymakers. He has published articles regarding the depiction of health and health care providers on television. Political Science, magna cum laude, Colorado College; Ed.M., Education, Harvard University, 1979; M.A., Sociology, Harvard University, 1982; M.D., Harvard, Medical School, 1996.
Florence Blondel, MS
Ms. Blondel was born and raised in Uganda and holds an M.S. in Population & Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is an award-winning journalist and digital storyteller with a passion for the environment, health, science, and the rights of women and girls. She’s worked at U.K.-based Population Matters as the Campaigns and Project Officer and currently hosts a live, online show on sexual and reproductive health issues. Ms. Blondel is also working on a new project, FlowReady, a menstruation awareness campaign to prepare girls in rural communities for their periods.
N. Kate Cho, MHS
Ms. Cho has nearly 15 years of international public health experience with a focus on family planning and reproductive health issues. She currently serves as the Senior Program Officer for Advocacy for The Challenge Initiative, where she works to increase government financial commitment and programmatic capacity in family planning and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. She began her international public health career at Population Media Center, as Program Assistant to PMC’s inaugural radio programs in Ethiopia and Mali, after being inspired by a university class taught by another Program Advisory Board member, Robert J. Wyman on Global Problems of Population Growth. She graduated from Yale University in 2003 with a BA in history and from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007 with a Master of Health Science, specializing in population, family, and reproductive health.
John Coulter, MD
Dr. Coulter is the National Vice-President of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) (www.population.org.au). Dr. Coulter’s career has been a mix of medical research, environmental activism and lecturing, and politics. In 1987, he was elected as a Democrat Senator for South Australia. He was leader of the party, 1990-1993. While in the Senate he introduced the first legislation in the Australian Federal Parliament to control the use of CFCs and the first legislation to protect threatened species. In 1989, he initiated a Senate Inquiry into Climate Change. He has run major conferences on Climate Change, starting with a national conference in Adelaide in 1986, as well as conferences on population and environmental sustainability. Dr. Coulter has been active in the conservation movement for over 50 years. He was a founding member of the Conservation Council of South Australia (1971) and former President (1984), Councillor of the Australian Conservation Foundation 1973-1990 and from 2003 to the present and a former Vice President. He recognised early that population growth was one of the key drivers of environmental deterioration and in 1971 helped form ZPG Australia.
Herman E. Daly, PhD
Dr. Daly is a Professor in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Dr. Daly was Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Environment Department from 1988-1994 and prior to that, was Alumni Professor of Economics at Louisiana State University. His books include Steady-State Economics and Beyond Growth. In 2014, the Asahi Glass Foundation awarded him the Blue Planet Prize, awarded to individuals worldwide in recognition of outstanding achievements in contributing toward resolving global environmental issues.
Anne Howland Ehrlich
Ms. Ehrlich is the Associate Director and Policy Coordinator at Stanford University’s Center for Conservation Biology. Ehrlich has carried out research and co-authored many technical articles in population biology. She also has written extensively on issues of public concern, such as population stabilization, environmental protection, and environmental consequences of nuclear war. From 1981 to 2000, she taught a course in environmental policy for Stanford’s Human Biology Program. Since 2000, she has co-taught a freshman seminar course on environmental policy. She has co-authored more than ten books, including The Population Explosion (Simon & Schuster, 1990); Healing the Planet (Addison-Wesley, 1991); The Stork and the Plow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995); Betrayal of Science and Reason (Island Press, 1996); One with Nineveh(Island Press, 2004); and The Dominant Animal (Island Press, 2008). She served as one of seven outside consultants to the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Global 2000 Report(1980). In 1994-95, she served on a task group for academics and scientists for the President’s Commission on Sustainable Development. She has served on the board of a wide range of organizations and currently serves on the boards of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Environment, Development, and Security (since 1988) and the New-Land Foundation (since 2002).
Robert Engelman
Mr. Engelman was the past President and now Senior Fellow of the Worldwatch Institute. As Vice President previously, Engelman wrote extensively on population and the environment, reproductive health, and climate change. Previously, he was Vice President for Research at Population Action International. A former newspaper reporter, Engelman has served on the faculty of Yale University as a visiting lecturer and was founding secretary of the Society of Environmental Journalists. The Population Institute, where he currently serves as a Senior Fellow as well, awarded his book, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, the 2008 Global Media Award for Individual Reporting on Population. His writing has appeared in scientific journals and news media including Nature, Scientific American, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Doug La Follette, PhD
Mr. La Follette is the Secretary of State of Wisconsin, a former University of Wisconsin professor, and a long-time activist and speaker on environmental, energy, and population issues. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands from 1991 to the present. He previously served as a Wisconsin State Senator, as Assistant Director of the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex in Minneapolis, and as Public Affairs Director at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC. He is a recipient of the Environmental Quality Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Robert W. Gillespie
Mr. Gillespie is the President of Population Communication. From 1962 to 1963, Mr. Gillespie was at Pathfinder in Asia, where he manufactured the Lippes loop in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China. With Pathfinder, he traveled to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Province of China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia to report on family planning and population policies. From 1964 to 1976, he served as Resident Representative for the Population Council in Taiwan, Province of China, Turkey, and Iran and as a consultant for SIDA, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Egypt, the Philippines, and Thailand. He founded Population Communication in 1977. He authored the Statement on Population Stabilization that was presented by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the 40th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, with signatures of 40 heads of government. At the 50th UN anniversary, the Statement was presented by President Suharto to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, with the signatures of 75 heads of governments. Gillespie has designed 181 family planning and population policy instruction and evaluation materials that have been used in program and policy development in 10 countries. He co-produced the feature-length documentary, No Vacancy (www.novacancythemovie.com). Complimentary copies of either the 60 or 90-minute version are available with a companion book that summarizes the interviews in Iran, Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, India, and the US. His email address is popcommla@aol.com.
Lynn Gutstadt
Ms. Gutstadt is an independent marketing and media research consultant based in Los Angeles with extensive experience in strategic research for program development and impact evaluation for traditional and new media. In addition to managing online research panels for two current TV Network clients, she partners with companies Research Narrative in Los Angeles and Ascension Strategies in Atlanta, GA. She has held senior research positions at or consulted with television, internet, and non-traditional media companies including Facebook, Vulcan Productions, Ovation, CBS Interactive, CNET Networks, Premiere Retail Networks, TechTV, and CNN, where she was Vice President of Audience Research for the News Division. She holds an MA in Communication Research from Stanford University and has spoken at numerous national and international media conferences.
Richard Heinberg
Mr. Heinberg is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from reliance on fossil fuels, having delivered hundreds of lectures on oil depletion and climate change to a wide variety of audiences around the world. He is the award-winning author of thirteen books including Our Renewable Future, The End of Growth, and Peak Everything. He has authored hundreds of essays and articles that have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Reuters, Public Policy Research, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, and Yes! Magazine, as well as on websites such as Resilience.org, Alternet.org, and Counterpunch.com. His monthly MuseLetter has been included in Utne Reader’s annual list of Best Alternative Newsletters. He has been featured in many film documentaries, including End of Suburbia and Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour.
Jeremy Kagan
Mr. Kagan is an internationally recognized director, writer, and producer of feature films and television and a well-known teacher. He is founder of the Change Making Media Lab at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California where he is a tenured full professor. Many of his feature and television films have been about social and political issues like the box-office hits Heroes about returning veterans, The Chosen about tolerance, Katherine, The Making of an American Revolutionary about dissent, The Color of Justice about racism, and Bobbie’s Girl about lesbian relationships. Mr. Kagan won an Emmy for Dramatic Series Directing and directed episodes of West Wing and Spielberg’s Taken. His movie Crown Heights won the Humanitas Award in 2004 for “affirming the dignity of every person.” This film also received an NACCP Award and the Directors Guild Nomination for best family film. In 2007, he produced and directed the 10 part series Freedom Files, broadcast on Court and Link TV as well as the net. The series is about threats to civil liberties covering issues from the Supreme Court, and the Patriot Act, to Dissent, Gay and Lesbian Rights, and racial profiling. He has made films for The Doe Fund, which is the most successful program in America helping the homeless, and for The Bioneers, which organizes leaders in ecology and social justice. He has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and Chairperson of its Special Projects. His book Directors Close Up is published by Scarecrow Press. He is a Graduate Fellow of the American Film Institute, and has an M.F.A. from NYU and a B.A. from Harvard University. He has taught master seminars on filmmaking in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Hanoi, France, and Ireland.
Shiv Khare
Mr. Khare is the former Executive Director of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. He has also served as the Secretary-General of the World Assembly of Youth in Copenhagen, the Executive Director of the Youth and Family Planning Program Council of India, and as a member of the board Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Canada.
Daniel C. Maguire
Mr. Maguire is the President of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics and Professor of Ethics at Marquette University. Mr. Maguire was formerly President of the Society of Christian Ethics. He is the author of several books and articles including Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions; What Men Owe to Women: Men’s Voices from World Religions, co-edited with Harold Coward; Different But Equal: A Moral Assessment of Woman’s Liberation; and Sex and Ethical Methodology.
Frederick Meyerson, PhD, JD
Dr. Meyerson is an ecologist and demographer and a former board member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Allen Guttmacher Institute. Dr. Meyerson’s research and writing focus on population policy and the interactions between human demographic change and the environment, particularly climate change and the loss of biological diversity. He is the author of more than 40 scientific and popular articles and book chapters and was one of the writers of the State of World Population 1999 and State of World Population 2001, the annual report of UNFPA.
Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, MP
Mr. Musyoka is the party leader for the Wiper Democratic Movement in Kenya; Partner for the Coalition for Reform and Democracy; and Chancellor of Uganda Technology and Management University in Uganda. Mr. Musyoka is the former Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs of Kenya. He has held many positions in the government of Kenya, including Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Minister for Tourism and Information, and Minister for Education and Human Resource Development. He received his Bachelor of Law at the University of Nairobi, his Post-Graduate Diploma in Law at the Kenya School of Law, and his Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from the Mediterranean Institute of Management in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Sir Richard Ottaway
Mr. Ottaway is a former member of Parliament for Croydon South, UK. Ottaway is past Chairman and member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Population, Development and Reproductive Health and has been active with this group since 1983. As Chair, in 2007, he oversaw the Group’s publication of Return of the Population Growth Factor: Its impact on the Millennium Development Goals. In 1986, Mr. Ottaway became a founding member of Population Concern after its separation from the Family Planning Association. In 1991, he published Less People, Less Pollution. He and researcher Genevieve Hutchison coauthored Sex, Ideology and Religion: 10 Myths about Population Growth in 2011. He was first elected to Parliament as the Member for Nottingham North from 1983-87, returning to Parliament in 1992 as the Member for Croydon South, and he was re-elected in 1997, 2001, and 2005. From 2005 to 2010, he was a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee and Vice Chairman of the 1922 Committee. In 2010, he became the first elected Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. As Chair in 2014, he led the production of the report The UK’s Response to Extremism and Instability in North and West Africa, which stressed the links between rapid population growth and political instability. In 2014, he was also awarded Population Matters’ Population and Sustainability Awareness Award for the person, program, or institution doing most to promote public debate on population growth.
David Pimentel, PhD
Dr. Pimentel is a professor of Ecology and Agricultural Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Pimentel is a prolific author and speaker about population issues.
Bill Raffety
Mr. Raffety is a commodities executive with more than 25 years’ experience in: production, quality control, logistics, risk management, farm audits and sustainability. He has held key executive positions in new line development, sales, client relationship management and trading, with experience across multiple production/end user supply chains, including North and South America, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, India and China. Currently, Mr. Raffety heads up sales in the agriculture space for an international assurance company. He manages business flow in oilseeds from the Americas to Asia, along with management support to the cotton and cocoa product lines. Mr. Raffety built the new service offering in farm audits and sustainability covering economic, environmental and social topics. Mr. Raffety also spent 12+ years in New York covering futures markets in agriculture and soft commodities, where he developed an analysis and risk management service that was utilized by physical hedgers, end users and spec traders. Prior to the futures industry, Bill was with an international cotton merchant, focused on Central Asia. He was responsible for business development, including management, logistics and clients, local governments and partner relations.
Jonathan Salk, MD
Dr. Salk is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and in private practice in West Los Angeles where he treats adults, children, and adolescents. His is the co-author, with his father, Dr. Jonas Salk, of A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future (City Point Press, 2018). The book looks at human social evolution through the lens of worldwide human population growth and describes the adaptive transformation of human attitudes, values, and behavior that must occur in the process of arriving at a sustainable future. In his psychiatric practice and teaching he integrates both biological and psycho-social treatment with a particular focus on trauma. He is also Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, an organization that brings architects, designers, and engineers together to address architectural approaches to solve the problems of the future.
O. J. Sikes
Mr. Sikes is a retired Deputy Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Division at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Mr. Sikes was formerly the Chief of UNFPA’s Education, Communication and Youth Branch. He developed UNESCO’s population education program in the early 1970s and designed innovative approaches to population communication and education with the Carolina Population Center in the 1960s.
Arvind Singhal, PhD
Dr. Singhal is the Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Endowed Professor of Communication and Director of the Social Justice Initiative at The University of Texas at El Paso. He is also appointed, since 2010, as the William J. Clinton Distinguished Fellow at the Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock, Arkansas, and since 2015, Distinguished Professor 2, Faculty of Business Administration, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway. Dr. Singhal teaches and conducts research on the diffusion of innovations, the positive deviance approach, organizing for social change, the entertainment-education strategy, and liberating interactional structures. His outreach spans public health, education, human rights, poverty alleviation, sustainable development, civic participation, democracy and governance, and corporate citizenship. Singhal is co-author or editor of 14 books. Three of Dr. Singhal’s books won awards for distinguished applied scholarship. In addition, he has authored some 180 peer-reviewed essays in outlets such as the Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Communication Monographs, Health Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Quarterly, and Journal of Health Communication.
Gloria Steinem
Ms. Steinem is the co-founder of New York Magazine, Ms. Magazine, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the Women’s Media Center. Steinem is an advisor to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and is on the board of Equality Now, the international human rights/women’s rights organization, as well as an author, lecturer, and traveling feminist organizer.
Monique Tilford
Ms. Tilford is the past Deputy Director of the Center for a New American Dream, past Executive Director of Wild Earth, and past Executive Director of Carrying Capacity Network. Ms. Tilford is co-author of the updated best-selling book Your Money or Your Life, published by Penguin in 2008.
Sunita Viswanath
Ms. Viswanath is a co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), a U.S.-wide human rights advocacy group that is committed to the ideals of multi-religious pluralism both in the United States and India, the country of her origin. HfHR is committed to opposing and challenging bigotry, exclusion, and discrimination, especially on the basis of religion. Ms. Viswanath’s Hindu values and beliefs inform her sense of justice and human rights. Finding that movements for justice were bereft of a Hindu voice, she co-founded Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus in 2011 to weld her human rights activism with her Hindu identity. Sadhana is now a leading platform advocating worldwide for social justice principles that are at the heart of Hinduism. She was honored by President Obama at the White House in 2015 as a “Champion of Change” for her work. Ms. Viswanath is also the co-founder of Women for Afghan Women (WAW), an organization started in 2001 and dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of Afghan women and girls. Sunita has edited Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future (Palgrave McMillan), a book of essays.
Paul Winter
Mr. Winter’s musical odyssey has long embraced the traditions of the world’s cultures, as well as the wildlife voices of what he refers to as “the greater symphony of the Earth.” From the early days of his college jazz sextet, which toured 23 countries of Latin America for the State Department and performed the first-ever jazz concert at the White House for the Kennedys in 1962, to his later ensemble, the Paul Winter Consort, his concert tours and recording expeditions have taken him to 52 countries and to wilderness areas on six continents. He has traveled on rafts, dog sleds, mules, kayaks, tug-boats and Land Rovers. He has recorded 45 albums, of which seven have been honored with Grammy® Awards. Since 1980, Mr. Winter and his Consort have been artists-in-residence at the world’s largest cathedral, New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where they have presented over 200 unique events, including their famed annual Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice Celebrations, as well as the performance each October of their ecological mass (Missa Gaia/Earth Mass).
Robert J. Wyman, PhD
Dr. Wyman is a professor of biology at Yale University. Dr. Wyman is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Program Director at Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Program. He teaches Yale’s only course on population issues: Global Problems of Population Growth. He is a member of the Leadership Council, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut (PPC), as well as a former board member of PPC, Connecticut NARAL, Urban League of New Haven, Center for Children’s Environmental Literature, and Horizon Communications. Dr. Wyman received an AB from Harvard College and an MS and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Robert Zinser, PhD
Dr. Zinser is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Rotarian Action Group for Population & Sustainable Development (RFPD) and Past District Governor of Rotary International. Dr. Zinser initiated RFPD’s first pilot project “Child Spacing, Family Health and AIDS Education” in six states of Northern Nigeria in 1995 and its large-scale follow-up in 2000. In 2005, he started the large-scale project “Improvement of Maternal Health – Prevention and Treatment of Obstetric Fistula” in Kaduna and Kano State. With this project, maternal mortality was reduced by 60% in ten selected hospitals within 2.5 years, focused on continuously improving the quality of structure, process and outcome by collecting data, analyzing and discussing it in a benchmarking process. Stakeholders regard this project as a model to contribute to MDG 5. As project coordinator, Dr. Zinser is leading a project team with volunteering German and Austrian gynecologists and Nigerian project staff. He was president of BASF Asia Pacific and is an Honorary University Professor for International Management in Germany.