Jill Sheffield

Sheffield received a Bachelor of Arts in education in 1961 from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) [5] and Master of Arts in comparative and international education in 1963 from Columbia University.[3][6]

Sheffield's advocacy career began while volunteering in the family planning clinic at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Kenya in the 1960s.[7] It was the first such clinic in East Africa.[8] At the time, Kenyan women who went to the clinic were legally prohibited from using contraception without their husbands’ permission.[7] Sheffield transitioned from teaching to advocating for women's reproductive, sexual, and maternal rights.[7][9][10] Sheffield served as director of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's International Program[6][1] and as director of Africa and Latin America programs and regional representative for World Education.[11]

In 1987, Sheffield co-founded Family Care International (FCI),[3] [1] a non-profit global organization focused on improving the maternal health of women in the world's poorest nations; she served as its president for 20 years.[9] FCI was the first international organization founded specifically to focus on maternal mortality.[12] FCI was integrated into Management Sciences for Health in 2015.[4]

In 2007, Sheffield founded Women Deliver,[1][2] originally a conference focused on maternal health that evolved into an advocacy organization.[13] It seeks to generate political commitment and financial investment to reduce maternal mortality and increase access to reproductive health.[14] In 2016, Sheffield retired from the organization.[15]

In 2011, Sheffield served as one of 30 commissioners on the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health.[6] Sheffield has been involved with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region,[6][7] and Population Communications International.[16] Sheffield has been Chair of Woman Care Global (now Catalyst Global),[6] Chair of the FIGO Committee on Contraception and Family Planning,[6][17] External Advisor to the IPPF Governing Council,[6] and Senior Adviser to Global Health Strategies.[6] In 2018, Sheffield was named a board member of Catalyst Global (formerly WCG Cares).[6]

The American Public Health Association granted Sheffield its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008,[18] the same year that Family Care International received the United Nations Population Award for outstanding work in sexual and reproductive health and rights.[19][20] Sheffield has also been recognized as a distinguished alumna by Columbia University's Teachers College.[3]

Along with Melinda Gates, Sheffield was awarded the 2016 Champions for Change Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).[21]