Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards

President

President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Cecile Richards is a nationally respected leader in the field of women’s health and reproductive rights. As president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Ms. Richards leads a national organization that works for a healthier and safer world for women and teens.

In its nearly 100 years, Planned Parenthood has grown to become the nation’s foremost provider of sexual and reproductive health care and sex education, and America’s largest and most powerful advocacy organization for women’s health and rights. Every year, through nearly 800 health centers nationwide, Planned Parenthood provides family planning and reproductive and sexual health care services to nearly three million people, and sex education to more than 1.1 million people. Through its website — plannedparenthood.org — Planned Parenthood provides health information and referrals to 33 million people each year.

Since joining Planned Parenthood in 2006, Ms. Richards has expanded the organization’s advocacy for access to health care, and ensured that Planned Parenthood played a pivotal role in shaping health care coverage and services for women under the Affordable Care Act. In 2011, she led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve access to Planned Parenthood preventive care through federal programs. Under her leadership, the number of Planned Parenthood’s supporters has doubled, reaching a total of more than six million.

With a belief in investing in young adults as leaders of the future, Ms. Richards introduced the PPFA Youth Initiatives Program, through which hundreds of young people are trained each year in leadership skills and health care advocacy. Young leaders from Planned Parenthood have been instrumental in advocating at the state and federal levels for expanding access to medically accurate sex education and health care.

Among her many initiatives to reinvent Planned Parenthood for the 21st century, Ms. Richards invested in Planned Parenthood Online, a unified national Web presence — in English and Spanish — exponentially expanding Planned Parenthood’s reach. With 33 million visitors each year to plannedparenthood.org, Planned Parenthood is expanding beyond bricks and mortar health centers by providing mobile access to health information and piloting Planned Parenthood texting, which delivers real-time access to services and information.

Before joining Planned Parenthood, Ms. Richards served as deputy chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, she founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of 42 national grassroots organizations, working to maximize registration, education, and voter participation nationwide. Ms. Richards began her career organizing low-wage workers in the hotel, health care, and janitorial industries throughout California, Louisiana, and Texas.

The daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Ms. Richards was raised in a family committed to social justice and public service. She worked side by side with her mother on her very first campaign — the election to the state legislature of Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who successfully argued the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Ms. Richards is a frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to women’s rights, reproductive health, and sex education, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

Ms. Richards has been recognized as a national leader by the National Council of Jewish Women, U.S. Action, and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. In 2010, she received an honorary doctorate from Brown University. In 2011, she was named to TIME magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She currently serves on the board of the Ford Foundation.

Cecile Richards and her husband, Kirk Adams, reside in New York City and have three children. 

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