SUSAN FRELICH APPLETON, JD is the Lemma Barkeloo & Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. A nationally known expert in family law, her research, scholarship, and teaching address such legal issues as reproductive justice, parentage, gender, and sexualities. She has co-authored a family law casebook as well as a casebook on adoption and assisted reproduction, and she has published extensively in law reviews and scholarly collections. In 2018 she received a Dukeminier Award from UCLA’s Williams Institute, which recognizes the best publications on sexual orientation and gender identity law, and in 2021 she received from the Section on Family & Juvenile Law of the Association of American Law Schools its inaugural award for outstanding contributions and achievements in the field. Ms. Appleton is also a prolific speaker and panelist on family law and related topics at workshops, conferences, and other venues throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Berlin, Prague, Padua, Herzliya (Israel), Shanghai, Mexico City, Toronto, and Rome. She is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser on two projects ALI projects: Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses and Restatement of the Law: Children & the Law. Previously, Professor Appleton held the office of Secretary of the ALI (2004-2013), sat on the ALI Council (1994-2016 and continuing now as a member emerita), and served as an adviser to the ALI’s Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. She has also engaged in significant fundraising for the ALI. In addition to her work with the ALI, she has served on the Board of Directors of the American Bar Foundation (2004-2014) and worked as a consultant to the New Jersey Bioethics Commission, assisting that agency in its recommendations for laws addressing surrogacy arrangements (1989). Ms. Appleton has also been extensively involved with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, including by serving on its board (since 1997) and engaging in fundraising for the organization. She is a graduate of Vassar College and University of California’s Berkeley School of Law.

ERIN ARMSTRONG, JD is an attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico where she focuses on strategies to protect and expand reproductive rights and access to reproductive healthcare across her home state. Before returning to New Mexico and joining the ACLU, Ms. Armstrong was a staff attorney and reproductive justice fellow at the National Health Law Program’s (NHeLP) Washington, D.C. office, where she worked at the national level to improve access to family planning and abortion care for low income and underserved communities. While at NHeLP, Ms. Armstrong focused on ACA implementation and access to family planning in the Medicaid program, and regularly provided technical assistance to national provider groups, coalition partners, and state-based legal and policy advocates. Prior to law school, she was one of two original staff members at the Society of Family Planning, where she assisted the Board in the development of organizational systems and policies and coordinated the reproductive health grants and membership program. Her prior experience also includes working with the New Mexico Department of Health to improve services for people living with HIV/AIDS and advocating with the Drug Policy Alliance for drug policy reform grounded in evidence, compassion, and public health. Ms. Armstrong served for seven years on the board of directors of If/When/How (formerly Law Students for Reproductive Justice) and is a current board member of the National Women’s Health Network. She received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.A. from the University of New Mexico.

GAIL BAITY is an experienced HR professional with a passion for development. She applied this passion to leading global talent and organization development efforts at Corning Incorporated, one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. She led a team of knowledge experts who constructed strategic and tactical development processes for Corning’s global workforce and partnered with business leaders to develop and sustain the company’s leadership talent pipeline. Ms. Baity’s professional experience spans multiple focus areas and industries. She’s led HR initiatives in employee and labor relations, human resources, diversity/inclusion and learning and development practice areas for the scientific research, advanced optics, life sciences, and consumer products industries. Most notably, she was the driving force behind Corning’s global leadership competencies and led the creation of the framework for the company’s first leadership development curriculum. Ms. Baity has served primarily on boards in the educational field from early childhood through higher education where she served as a community college trustee and she is a proud founding member of the Fund for Women of the Southern Tier in New York that supports women and girls in the broader community.

ERNESTINA COAST, PhD is a social scientist who researches sexual and reproductive health (with a focus on abortion) in low- and middle-income countries. She is currently a Professor in Health and International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she is the Programme Director for the MSc in Health and International Development. Her research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, DFID, Wellcome Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. In addition to her research projects she has conducted research for organizations (including WHO, Ipas, DFID, UNAIDS), and has been a Visiting Scholar at the African Population and Health Research Centre in Kenya.

LIDA COLEMAN, CPA is one of the founding members of the predecessor of Coleman Huntoon & Brown PLLC in Chapel Hill, NC and served as the managing partner for thirteen years. Ms. Coleman is in charge of the Audit practice of the firm and specializes in not- for-profit tax, audit and other consulting engagements for such organizations. In addition, she manages a large number of tax and financial statement engagement clients. She has been a member of many local, national and international Boards and currently serves on the Boards of the East Chapel Hill Rotary Club, Pathfinder International and is completing her final year as a Board member of Ipas, Inc. She recently completed Board terms at the Galloway Ridge Retirement Community and the UNC-G Alumni Association. Ms. Coleman previously served on the Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) as a member of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Audit Subcommittee. She also served as Treasurer and also three years as Chairman of the Board of lpas and Chairman and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Women's Center (of Orange County, NC). Ms. Coleman also served on the lnstitute's Board as Chair of the Finance Committee. She has been a Certified Public Accountant in the State of North Carolina since 1979 and is currently a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BS in Economics and Business Administration. Ms. Coleman has led several sessions for women clients of the firm in topics of interest in their financial lives. Volunteering her skills to many not-for-profit Board of Directors is important to Ms. Coleman.

JESSICA PINCKNEY GIL is the Executive Director at ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE, an organization devoted to removing barriers to sexual and reproductive health care by providing information and practical support on all aspects of reproductive justice. She believes in a holistic approach to reproductive justice advocacy and movement building. Ms. Gil previously dedicated her skills and time to building relationships with congressional offices, activating communities and her own individual networks and applying thoughtful, thorough analysis to policies and legislation through her work as Vice President of Government Affairs at In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda. Prior to that, she served as government relations manager for YWCA USA, where she formed relationships with legislators and staff as principal contact to Capitol Hill to further federal priorities on racial and gender equity. She currently serves on the board of directors for URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity), California Abortion Alliance, and SPARK! Reproductive Justice Now. Ms. Gil previously served as chapter Co-Director of the Washington, DC Chapter of the New Leaders Council and Vice Chair of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC, Inc.

ALAN EDWARD GUTTMACHER, MD is a retired pediatrician and medical geneticist, served from 2009 to 2015 as Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the lead at the National Institutes of Health for reproductive health research. He also started the Human Placenta Project, a collaborative research initiative to improve understanding of the placenta and its role in health and disease and launched PregSource, an effort to use crowd sourcing to better understand human pregnancy. Previously, Dr. Guttmacher had a number of roles at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the NIH, including as Deputy Director and Acting Director and served as co-editor for two series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine about genomics. Before joining the NIH, Dr. Guttmacher directed the Vermont Regional Genetics Center at the University Of Vermont College Of Medicine. He has previously been a member and board chair of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and of the Guttmacher Institute and a member of the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. he has written and given hundreds of presentations to scientific organizations, NGOs, consumer groups, students and the lay public about maternal and child health, reproductive health, and genetics and its impact on health and society. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

SILVIA HENRIQUEZ, MA - An award-winning advocate, a savvy coalition leader and a respected authority in reproductive health and justice, Ms. Henriquez has worked relentlessly for those without a voice in society. She is the Co-President of the All* Above All campaign, a multi-year effort dedicated to culture change, advancing federal and state advocacy efforts, as well as building a cross-movement commitment in support of abortion access. Ms. Henriquez is one of the co-founders of All* Above All, which started in 2010 as the Hyde Working Group, today this campaign has evolved into a catalyst for abortion justice, centering people of color working to make ends meet and mobilizing at the intersections of immigrant, economic, and racial justice. She has also been co-leading the development and launch of the All* Above All Action Fund. Prior to assuming the role of Co-President, she was a principal at Conway Strategic where she worked with numerous clients on a variety of reproductive justice issues. Previously, Ms. Henriquez led the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health for 8 years as its executive director. Under her leadership NLIRH developed a national policy agenda, a successful organizing and leadership training model, built state and national reproductive justice coalitions and elevated NLIRH to be the leading organization working to advance the reproductive health and rights of Latinas. She has worked with a variety of reproductive rights organizations including the National Abortion Federation and the Feminist Majority. Ms. Henriquez has been the recipient of the Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision award and the Lani Shaw Award in Pursuit of Courage and Compassion for Reproductive Justice. She is currently the Chair of the Groundswell Action Fund Board and the board of the Guttmacher Institute. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from George Washington University.

SUJATHA JESUDASON, PhD is a Professor of Professional Practice in Management at The New School. She has worked as an activist, organizer and scholar for over 25 years in a range of social justice movements. She is a leading voice on new practices in movement building, the ethics of reproductive genetics, gender justice, disability rights and racial inclusion. Her work focuses on forging unlikely collaborations, economic inequality, domestic violence, racial discrimination, disability rights and gender roles. Dr. Jesudason has worked skillfully with a wide and diverse range of leaders, community members, activists, scholars, researchers and academics, listening for patterns and trends in order to prepare for the challenges around the corner and into the future. Before joining The New School, she was the Executive Director of CoreAlign, a reproductive justice organization teaching innovation for social change to frontline activists, which she founded in 2012. As Professor of Professional Practice in Management at the Milano School, Dr. Jesudason focuses on innovative approaches to: social justice and start-up nonprofit leadership and management; leadership, management and philanthropy at the intersection of race and gender; social justice ethics of human genetics and biotechnologies; design thinking methodologies for community engagement, advocacy and organizing; and reimagining social movements. Her past work ranges from community organizing in Milwaukee, to violence prevention in the South Asian American community, to reproductive justice movement building and policy advocacy on human genetics in her role as founder and executive director of Generations Ahead. Dr. Jesudason holds a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is currently turning her dissertation into a book, Punching Like A Girl: Martial Arts as a Practice of Power and Freedom for Women.

BENJAMIN KAHRL is currently a Board member of Dignity Matters, Inc. and Pathfinder International. He was previously a Social Studies Teacher at Brookline High School, where he coordinated global health trips to professional conferences including Women Deliver and the World Health Summit, as well as trips to project sites in Tanzania and India with Pathfinder International, an international organization founded by his grandparents, where he served as board member from 1998 to 2014, and again from 2018 to present. Mr. Kahrl also serves on several boards, including as chair of the Board of Directors of the Okoa Project, and is a member of the Board of Dignity Matters. He is also a philanthropic decision maker on the Trotula Fund.

MICHAEL KLEIN is the US Director for Itad who brings 15 years of experience in leading assignments focused on the use of digital and data innovations for development. His technical expertise focuses on open innovation, Information Communication Technology (ICTs) for development, applied data science, data governance, responsible data, and knowledge management systems. Tangibly, this includes programs ranging from the design of data transformation strategies (e.g. UNHCR’s Data Transformation Strategy) to running open innovation programs (e.g. the FCDO COVIDaction Data Challenge) and originating and managing a sub-award under the USAID/PEPFAR funded Data.FI program – a global project that helps countries strengthen and sustain access to key, high-quality data to accelerate and maintain HIV and COVID-19 epidemic control. A central tenet of his work is to help organizations improve their aid and development programs with the application of innovative tools and processes. Prior to joining Itad, Mr. Klein served as director for IMC Worldwide’s US office, where he helped found the organization’s Digital and Data Governance practice, and as a partner at International Solutions Group. He joined Itad in 2021, as US Director. In addition, he serves as an Executive Board Member and Treasurer of the Guttmacher Institute, is a member of SID-Washington, ALNAP, and is a regular guest lecturer at American University.

CONSTANCE MAO, MD is an associate professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is Director of the Harborview Medical Center Women’s Dysplasia Clinic. Dr. Mao is a member of the AACR award winning UW HPV Research Group with research interests in HPV vaccination, screening for cervical cancer, and treatment of genital dysplasia. She trains medical students and residents in all aspects of reproductive health and lectures nationally and internationally on topics related to prevention of HPV related diseases.

PAMELA MERRITT is the Executive Director of Medical Students for Choice, where she leads a dynamic team working to create tomorrow’s abortion providers and pro-choice physicians. With more than 13 years of leadership in the reproductive justice space, Ms. Merritt has worked tirelessly to advance progressive policy through advocacy and outreach at Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri and Progress Missouri. Prior to joining MSFC, she co-founded and served as the co-director of Reproaction, a national organization that leads bold action to increase access to abortion and advance reproductive justice. She is a founding member of the Trust Black Women Partnership, and was a 2017 Reproductive Health, Rights, & Justice Fellow at the Rockwood Leadership Institute. She serves as Honorary Chair of Reproaction’s Advisory Council, on the NARALPro-Choice Missouri Foundation Board, and is a member of the Our Bodies Ourselves Today Leadership Council.

MUGDHA MOKASHI is currently pursuing her MD at Harvard Medical School and plans to start a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology starting Fall 2022. Previously, she received a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She served as a panelist during a day-long workshop at PP of MA and has published several peer-reviewed articles in family planning. She is a proud Alabamian and her current research interest involves understanding medication abortion access in her home state. Ms. Mokashi is the former president of the Board of Directors of Medical Students for Choice, and also serves as a Board member (Secretary) of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity and Provide. She is a skillful communicator and passionate advocate for women’s reproductive health in general, and abortion in particular.

MELISSA MURRAY, JD is a leading expert in constitutional law, reproductive rights and justice, family law, and criminal law. Ms. Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and Faculty Director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network. Ms. Murray spent more than a decade at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, receiving several teaching awards and serving as interim dean. Her scholarly publications have appeared in many highly respected legal journals, and she often voices her views in the popular press, including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, and Newsweek. She appeared as a witness in the 2018 hearings on the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She is a frequent legal contributor to MSNBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, and ABC, and co-hosts Strict Scrutiny, a podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Much of Ms. Murray’s work centers on reproductive rights and justice. Ms. Murray co-authored Cases on Reproductive Rights and Justice (2014), the first casebook for law school courses to focus on the reproductive rights and justice, and co-edited Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories (2019). In 2016, she received the Center for Reproductive Rights’ award for Innovation in Scholarship. In 2017, If/When/How (formerly Law Students for Reproductive Justice) awarded Ms. Murray its Outstanding Faculty Award. She clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Stefan Underhill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the New York bar. Ms. Murray serves on the boards of the Brennan Center and the American Constitution Society. She is positioned to make important contributions to the work of the Guttmacher Institute. A well-respected scholar in the field of reproductive rights and justice, she will be able to provide guidance and insight into the Institute’s extant research portfolio, while also identifying prospects for future research endeavors. Further, Ms. Murray’s deep connections in legal academia, as well as her work among Supreme Court watchers and media more generally, could provide additional opportunities to connect the Institute and its work with legal practice and public policy and to enhance the Institute’s visibility. Finally, as an African American woman, she has been a reliable voice in efforts to broaden the scope of reproductive rights to include issues of concern to underrepresented communities.

LAURA A. PHILIPS, PhD, MBA is the Founder & CEO of Spheryx, Inc. Spheryx provides a revolutionary approach to suspension analysis for the biologic pharmaceuticals, semiconductor, water quality, and consumer products industries; its R&D, manufacturing and quality assurance applications provide safer, higher quality products resulting in cost savings for companies and consumers. She serves on the boards of DiaMir, a medical diagnostics company for neurodegenerative diseases; the POGIL Project, an NSF funded non-profit that trains educators and promotes student-centered learning environments in over 1,000 colleges and high schools nationally; and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committees at IPPF/Western Hemisphere Region. She formerly served as board chair for Boyce Thompson Institute, a research institute associated with Cornell University (2014-2018) and on the Board of Directors of Americans for UNFPA (2010-2015) and was Chair of the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood, New York City (2006-2009). Dr. Philips served in the Clinton Administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Senior Policy Advisor to Sec. Ron Brown in the Dept. of Commerce. She was Congressional Science Fellow for Sen. Joe Lieberman (1994-1995). She was on the Faculty of Cornell in the Chemistry Department (1987-1993). From 1985 to 1987 she was an NIH Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Chicago in chemistry. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Cornell.

LAURA ROSENBURY, JD is the Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at University of Florida Levin College of Law. Her scholarship focuses on law’s participation in the construction of gender. She has explored law’s regulation of friendship, sex, marriage, childrearing, and work, analyzing the ways relationships in those contexts shape legal and cultural understandings of male, female, and other gender roles. Dean Rosenbury has also taught courses on negotiation, non-adversarial communication, team building, and leadership for practicing lawyers and other executives. Prior to joining UF Law in July 2015, Dean Rosenbury was a professor of law and vice dean at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the New York Bar.

BARBARA L. SINGHAUS, CPA, is currently the Chief Investment Officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. As a member of the affiliate’s senior leadership team; she provides a leadership role to the Board Investment Committee in coordination with investment advisors, serves as the primary financial officer for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio (c-4) and related ancillaries, provides input on major investments in specific projects such as purchasing, selling, renovating or leasing the affiliate’s properties, and is in the process of establishing a statewide PPGOH Planned Giving and Legacy Giving program. Prior to that, she served the affiliate as their Chief Financial Officer. (CFO) Her background includes being a founding partner in a local CPA firm that specialized in accounting and auditing with a concentration in the areas of not-for-profit corporations. She went on to provide organizational and financial consultation to not-for-profit corporations and governmental funding and planning boards, primarily in the field of behavioral health. Ms. Singhaus joined the Planned Parenthood board in Stark County, Canton, Ohio in 1978 and continued to serve through 2006 during which time she served two terms as chair and facilitated the merger of five northeast Ohio affiliates in to Planned Parenthood of northeast Ohio (PPNEO). In 2011, as chair of this board she facilitated the merger of two regional affiliates (PPNEO and PPCO) into the Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio after the advantages of a statewide affiliate became more and more evident. At the national level, Ms. Singhaus served on the boards of PPFA (Treasurer), PPIC, and Affiliate Risk Management (ARMS), and on several local boards including Kent State Tuscarawas Foundation. Ms. Singhaus received her MS in Business Administration from the University of Akron, Ohio, and is a licensed CPA in Ohio.

DENISE SPILLANE is a senior executive with more than 25 years of finance and investment experience, who has raised over $25 billion in new assets. Currently, Ms. Spillane is the Founding Partner and President of Kearney Capital, a third-party marketing firm that specializes in bringing together Taft-Hartley plans with institutional investment managers who understand the unique needs of multi-employer plans. Prior to starting her own company, she was a Managing Director at MacKay Shields for 16 years and was responsible for asset growth primarily through Taft- Hartley/Public/Corporate -based initiatives. She has also held positions at Furman Selz Capital Management (1994-1996), Oppenheimer Capital (1989-1993) and Gruntal & Company (1985-1989). Ms. Spillane is a Board Member of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, the Founder and Co-Chair of New York Friends of Ireland, and the Democratic District Leader, 75th Assembly District, Manhattan. She has a BA in Economics from Manhattan College and has her Series 7 and Series 63 license.

ALLANA WELCH, MBA, MPP brings over a decade of experience in international development, communications, training, and international emergency recovery/response. She is currently leading the implementation of the Digital Strategy at USAID, responsible for a portfolio that will shift the Agency to utilizing digital technologies and approaches by default, particularly in procurement and program management. Ms. Welch was formerly the Director for the Principles for Digital Development, an internationally recognized set of best practices for the use of technology in development and humanitarian work. Prior to that, Ms. Welch worked on USAID’s Ebola Task Force, leveraging the use of technologies in the response and recovery efforts of the 2015-2017 West Africa Ebola Outbreak. Through her years of experience working across the development ecosystem, Ms. Welch brings extensive relationships with major donor organizations in the development and humanitarian communities to her board membership with Guttmacher. Ms. Welch has also published several articles, as well as hosting her own podcast (Pulse on the Principles). She holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Public Policy (MPP), and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She previously served on the Board of Directors for Girls Health Ed, a non-profit that invests in holistic health education for girls in the United States, Canada, and Kenya.

LOU TURNER ZELLNER now retired, had a career in public policy analysis and as a senior executive in the financial service industry. Along the way she was a senior insurance regulator and a senior advisor to the Housing Finance Agency of Mexico. Ms. Zellner has long been an active supporter of the women’s equity and the reproductive health and justice movements. She has served as a member of the PPFA Board, three years as Treasurer, chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. Ms. Zellner previously served on the Guttmacher Institute Board from 2008 to 2014. During her tenure she chaired the Audit Committee, served on the Executive Committee and was a member of the CEO Search Committee. Ms. Zellner rejoined the Guttmacher Board in 2016 and is the immediate past Chair. She holds a BA from Smith College and studied policy analysis and economics at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School, where she was a Sloan Fellow.

CHARLES F. WESTOFF, PhD is a retired professor of demographic studies and sociology, emeritus, Office of Population Research, Princeton University. Charles also acts as a technical advisor to the Demographic Health Surveys. He has served on the Boards of the Guttmacher Institute, Population Reference Bureau, Population Communications International and the Population Resource Center. He spent a month as a scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center, where he worked on projects about birth intervals in Africa and abortion in Central Asia. He also participated in an international symposium on unmet need in Kenya and presented the findings of research on abortion and contraception in the former Soviet Union in briefings at the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Charles is the author of numerous papers and articles, which have appeared in such journals as International Family Planning Perspectives, Demography and Sciences. His research interests include population policy, comparative fertility, family planning in developing countries and fertility surveys. Charles has long served on the Guttmacher Board, including a term as its Chair, and is a lifetime emeritus member.

HERMINIA PALACIO, MD MPH joined the Guttmacher Institute as President and CEO in August 2019. In this role, Dr. Palacio guides the Institute in fulfilling its mission to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally. She works to create a strong organizational culture, provide leadership and inspiration for the Guttmacher staff, and shape the Institute’s long-term vision to ensure the continued impact of its work. Prior to joining the Guttmacher Institute, Dr. Palacio served as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services for the City of New York. In this role, she was in charge of coordinating transformation efforts across the city’s public health and health care system, expanding access to social services and ensuring that agencies serving the city’s most vulnerable populations are run compassionately, equitably and effectively. Dr. Palacio brings more than 25 years of experience across a broad range of sectors, including academic and clinical medicine, governmental public health and philanthropy. She previously served as Director of Advancing Change Leadership at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), where she was responsible for developing and implementing new health leadership programs. Prior to joining RWJF, she served for 10 years as Executive Director of Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services. Dr. Palacio is a crisis management expert who was charged with serving as Medical Branch Director for the Hurricane Katrina Houston/Harris County Reliant Park/Astrodome megashelter operation in 2005. In this role, Dr. Palacio was responsible for standing up and overseeing the public health and health care delivery emergency response operations for 27,000 evacuees from the New Orleans area. Her work during Hurricane Katrina earned her the Excellence in Health Administration Award from the American Public Health Association in 2007. In addition to her policy work, Dr. Palacio practiced clinical medicine for nearly 20 years, including almost 15 years at San Francisco General Hospital during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Dr. Palacio received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health and a BA in biology from Barnard College at Columbia University. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 2011, she was appointed by President Obama as a member of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.