William Ryerson, MPhil

As President and Founder of PMC, Bill represents the organization in various capacities, including speaking engagements, outreach to donor institutions and individuals, and helping to set the direction for PMC. He has a half-century of experience working in the field of reproductive health, including three decades of experience adapting the Sabido Methodology of Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) to various cultural settings worldwide. 

Bill has appeared on outlets like CNN, PBS, and BBC and has been a featured speaker at conferences around the world on sustainable population, sexual and reproductive health, women and girls’ rights, and global sustainability. Bill and Population Media Center have been featured in articles around the world, including the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and Conservation Magazine. At the invitation of the Director General, Bill spoke at the UN Geneva Headquarters. You can read one of Bill’s Op-Eds in The Hill.

Previously, Bill served as director of the Population Institute’s Youth and Student Division, Development Director of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, Associate Director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and Executive Vice President of Population Communications International before founding PMC in 1998. Since 2008, Bill has chaired the board of the Population Institute in Washington, D.C., which works in partnership with PMC.

HIS FAVORITE PART OF WORKING AT PMC  

Bill appreciates PMC’s at-scale impact in country after country.

EDUCATION 

• Amherst College, BA 
• Yale University, MPhil 

AWARDS, MEMBERSHIPS 

• Lifetime Achievement Award, NonProfit Pro, 2019 
• Listed in several editions of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World, starting in 1978 
• Third place in the Peter F. Drucker Awards for Nonprofit Innovation in 2009 
• Nafis Sadik Prize for Courage from the Rotarian Action Group on Population and Development in 2006 
• Phi Beta Kappa member 

Some of Bill’s appearances

• View Bill or Listen to Bill on Planet Critical 
• Listen to Bill on the Post-Growth Australia Podcast
• View Bill at the Environmental Media Awards Impact Summit
• View Bill describing one story of PMC’s impact
• View Bill on TRT about population passing 8 billion
• View Bill on BBC World News
• View Bill on WCAX (CBS affiliate) in Vermont
• View Bill on KPBS in California
• View Bill being interviewed by BBB Wise Giving Alliance
• Listen to Bill on Rewilding Earth Podcast
• Listen to Bill on the Overpopulation Podcast
• Listen to Bill on Peak Prosperity’s Podcast
• Listen to Bill on the Nature Solutionaries Podcast
• Listen to Bill on the Nice Work Podcast

OUT OF THE OFFICE 

Bill loves to hike and travel. He’s been a board member of Music for the Earth since 2004.