A Letter From Our Founder

August 31, 2026 

Dear friends, 

Fifty-five years ago today—on August 31, 1971—I reported for my first day of work at the Population Institute. The field was young. I was young. And I had no idea that I was setting the course for the remainder of my career. It’s quite remarkable, exactly 55 years later, to retire from Population Media Center. 

Before I say anything else, I want to say thank you. Everything PMC has accomplished, we accomplished together. I have never thought of this as my work. It has always been our work. Every listener who imagined a different future for herself, every family that found the words for a conversation they had never been able to have, every harmful norm we helped loosen through the honest, radical power of a carefully crafted story—none of it would exist without you. Your belief and your generosity are woven into everything we have accomplished. 

When I founded PMC 28 years ago, I made a bet that many thought was naive: that storytelling—done with rigor, grounded in evidence, and built on the methodology Miguel Sabido pioneered—could change what people believe is possible for their own lives. From Ethiopia to Zambia, from Mexico to Nepal, our characters became people whom millions came to love, argue with, and learn from. They modeled new possibilities around family planning, reproductive health, and a world without violence against women and girls. Over those years, PMC built a reputation in communications for social change that is second to none, and together we improved millions of lives around the world. That is a legacy you built. I hope you feel as proud of it as I do. 

I am able to retire with a full and untroubled heart because I know PMC is in extraordinary hands. My successor, Margot Fahnestock, is exactly the leader this moment demands. She came to us more than a year and a half ago from Medicines360, where she led strategic development and a global program to expand access to hormonal IUDs. Before that, as a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, she directed grantmaking to improve reproductive health and rights across East and West Africa. She was one of the founders of the Ouagadougou Partnership, which has mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars for family planning in Francophone West Africa. When Margot presented her vision to the Board, I knew we had found the right person to carry this work forward. 

Margot has set a course that is at once a deepening of everything you invested in and a sharpening for the times we are in. Sexual and reproductive health and rights have always been the heart of PMC’s work. Now it is our explicit, named focus, which lets us go deeper and partner better within the movement defending these rights. We are building our model around partnership with major entertainment studios and creators—as we have done successfully with Televisa, Hulu, TV Globo, and MTV Latin America—so our evidence-based methodology can reach audiences at a scale that creating our own productions never could. And we are confronting the coordinated misinformation and disinformation now threatening reproductive rights not only by changing individual behavior, but by changing the wider narrative itself. 

Everything you believed in—the methodology, the evidence, the conviction that stories can change the world—remains the foundation. We are building on it in a way that matches the scale and the urgency of this moment. I have rarely been more excited about where this organization is headed. 

I have recorded a short message—about six minutes—reflecting on this journey and on the road ahead. It is posted on our website today, and I would be honored if you took a few minutes to watch it. 

Finally, please know that I am not disappearing. I will remain PMC’s Founder and President Emeritus and, always, one of the most devoted supporters. I will, of course, be available to Margot, the Board, and the team whenever I can be helpful. My email address will remain active, and I would love to hear from you. I may write back from some new places. I have been to Ethiopia 27 times, yet my wife and I have never once visited Ireland – or many other places of interest. 

It has been the honor of my life to be of service in this important cause alongside you. Thank you for these 28 years of shared purpose, and for the trust you are now extending to Margot and this remarkable team. The best of this work is still ahead. 

With gratitude and great hope, 

Bill Ryerson 
Founder and President Emeritus 
Population Media Center