Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards in 2012
President of Planned Parenthood
Assumed office
February 2006
Personal details
Born (1957-07-15) July 15, 1957
Waco, Texas, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Kirk Adams
Children 3
Parents Ann Richards
David Richards
Alma mater Brown University

Cecile Richards (born July 15, 1957)[1][2] is an American activist who serves as the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America since 2006 and president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.[3] In 2010, Richards was elected to the Ford Foundation board of trustees.

Early life, education and political activism

Richards was born in Waco, Texas, and is the daughter of former Texas governor Ann Richards (née Dorothy Ann Willis), an American politician and activist. Her father, David Richards,[4] practiced law and had built a practice dealing with civil-rights plaintiffs, alternative newspapers and labor unions, and also won several landmark cases, including a voting-rights lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court.[5] She initially went to public school, but in ninth grade she was disciplined for protesting the Vietnam War by wearing a black armband and she was moved to the progressive St. Stephen's Episcopal School for high school.[5]

Richards' parents were immersed in political activism from when she was young, and at the age of 16 she helped her mother campaign for Sarah Weddington, a lawyer for Roe v. Wade, for the Texas state legislature.[6]

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Brown University in 1980.[7] When she was 30 she moved back to Texas to help with her mother Ann Richards with her campaign for Governor.[8] She is currently on the board of the Ford Foundation, a global private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare.[9] She was one of the founders of America Votes, a 501(c)4 organization that aims to coordinate and promote progressive issues, and is currently serving as president.[8]Richards previously founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of national Democratic Party-affiliated organizations.[10] Before that, she was deputy chief of staff to the U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.[11] She has also worked at the Turner Foundation.[12] In 1996, she founded the Texas Freedom Network, a Texas organization formed to counter the Christian right.[13]

Writing

She contributed the piece "Combating the Religious Right" to the 2003 anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited by Robin Morgan.[14]

Personal life

Richards speaking at an event for Hillary Clinton, October 2016

Richards is married to Kirk Adams, a labor organizer with the Service Employees International Union, and has three children.[9][15][16] She lives in New York City.[17]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ↑ "Cecile Richards". The Guide to the Political Left. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Finn, Robin (May 2, 2010). "Strategy for the Produce Aisle". The New York Times. pp. MB2.
  3. ↑ Somashekhar, Sandhya (2015-07-16). "Planned Parenthood head apologizes for 'tone' of doctor in covert video". The Washington Post.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Darragh (March 25, 2006). "Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's Choice Leader". The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  5. 1 2 "Daughters of Texas". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
  6. ↑ "About Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards - Research, Statistics, and History on Abortion & Human Rights". Retrieved 2016-08-15.
  7. ↑ "Nelson Mandela To Receive Honorary Degree in Absentia, One of Eight Candidates" (Press release). Brown University. April 27, 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
  8. 1 2 Galanes, Philip (2016-06-18). "Cecile Richards, Barbara Bush and the Sisterhood of Political Progeny". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
  9. 1 2 "Cecile Richards :: Planned Parenthood". www.plannedparenthood.org. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
  10. ↑ Farhi, Paul (March 24, 2004). "Democratic Spending Is Team Effort". The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  11. ↑ "Groups collecting contributions in hopes of defeating Bush". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Associated Press. August 17, 2003. p. 11A.
  12. ↑ Herman, Ken (April 7, 2001). "Tax-cut ad campaign players: throwback to '94 governor race". The Austin American-Statesman.
  13. ↑ Green, John (2000). Prayers in the Precincts. Washington: Georgetown University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-87840-775-8.
  14. ↑ "Library Resource Finder: Table of Contents for: Sisterhood is forever : the women's anth". Vufind.carli.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
  15. ↑ Richards, Cecile (October 6, 2014). "Ending the Silence That Fuels Abortion Stigma". Retrieved August 17, 2016.
  16. ↑ Ertelt, Steven (November 10, 2015). "Cecile Richards Defends Aborting Her Baby: We Had Three Kids, That Was Enough". LifeSiteNews.com. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
  17. ↑ Martinez, Gebe. "Texans in Washington". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers Partnership, L.P. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  18. ↑ Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, official website.
  19. ↑ Fluke, Sandra (2012-04-18). "Time Magazine: 100 Most Influential People in the World: Cecile Richards". Time.com. Retrieved 2013-04-24.

External links

Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by
Gloria Feldt		 President of Planned Parenthood
2006–present 		Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.