Deborah Arrindell is the vice president of health policy and head of the Washington, D.C., office for the American Social Health Association (ASHA). During her tenure at ASHA she has been instrumental in organizing advocacy efforts on a number of STD-related policy issues. Currently, she also serves on the boards of Advocates for Youth, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, the Global Campaign for Microbicides, and the Partnership to End Cervical Cancer. Prior to joining ASHA, Ms. Arrindell held numerous positions in health and social policy, including serving as executive director of the Home Care Aid Association of America, associate Director of Governmental Affairs for the American Nurses Association, assistant director of social policy for the League of Women Voters and public policy director for Wider Opportunities for Women. Ms. Arrindell has more than 30 years experience in social policy and health policy, including work for women’s economic justice, reproductive and sexual health and employment and training.

A leading advocate for women’s rights in Argentina and worldwide for more than four decades, Mabel Bianco is the founder and director of FEIM, the Foundation for Studies and Research on Women, based in Buenos Aires. FEIM is regarded as an authority on the status of women and girls, and has advised government bodies and nongovernmental organizations regarding women’s sexual and reproductive rights. A medical doctor and epidemiologist by training, Ms. Biano joined Argentina’s newly democratic government in 1984 as an advisor under the Ministry of Health and Social Action and immediately created a program that successfully lifted a ban against family planning in national health care. Later, when she became the director of the National AIDS Program, Ms. Bianco drew attention to women’s vulnerability to HIV infection, advanced prevention efforts, and coordinated the first regional forum on HIV/AIDS in Rio de Janeiro. She has participated in the creation and leadership of various coalitions, including the National Network of Women’s Health, HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, and Accountability), and the Latin America and Caribbean Women’s Health Network.

Kelly Blanchard is the president of Ibis Reproductive Health. She holds a master’s degree in population and international health and a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University. She was also a Fulbright Scholarship in Ghana. Prior to joining Ibis, Ms. Blanchard worked at the Population Council as a program associate, where she managed a growing program on reproductive health in South Africa and the Southern African region. Her most recent research has focused on contraception, medical and surgical abortion, microbicides, and cervical barriers for HIV/STI prevention. Ms. Blanchard has authored or co-authored more than forty articles on reproductive health topics in developed and developing countries. In 2006, Ms. Blanchard won the Outstanding Young Professional Award from the American Public Health Association’s Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Section.

Jon S. Bouker is a partner and co-manager of the Government Relations Department at Arent Fox. He has extensive experience in the United States House of Representatives; he previously served as chief counsel and legislative director to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and as minority counsel to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), a ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee. Mr. Bouker was also the Democratic staff director for the House Subcommittee on the District of Columbia, the subcommittee with federal legislative jurisdiction over the nation’s capital. Mr. Bouker is an adjunct professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law, where he has taught the legislation course since 1999. He is the vice president of the Washington Free Clinic and sits on the boards of D.C. Appleseed and the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clark School of Law. Jon chairs the District of Columbia Affairs Section of the D.C. Bar. He is a member of the American Bar Association.

Frances Kissling has been involved in reproductive health in the U.S. and internationally for more than forty years. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Kissling was president of Catholics for a Free Choice from 1982 until 2007. She was a co-founder of the Global Fund for Women, and was founding president of the National Abortion Federation. In 1970, Ms. Kissling became the director of one of the country’s first legal abortion clinics in New York City. She is strongly committed to public funding for reproductive health and abortion, and is the co-author of “Rosie: The Investigation of a Wrongful Death,” which chronicles the first and only reported death from abortion following the U.S. government’s decision to cut off federal funds for abortion in 1977. She has served, or serves, on the boards of Ibis Reproductive Health, The Guttmacher Institute, International Women’s Health Coalition, Catolicas Por el Derecho a Decider in Mexico, SIECUS, and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She also serves on the technical review committee for the Safe Abortion Access Fund and the Eurongos Small Grants Facility.

Tamara Kreinin is the executive director of women and population at the United Nations Foundation, which she joined in September 2007. Her experience in health and human services spans more than 25 years. From 2000 to 2004, Ms. Kreinin served as president/CEO of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, where she was a leader in the national dialogue on sexual health and rights. Prior to joining SIECUS, Ms. Kreinin was the director of state and local affairs at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in Washington, D.C. For the past two years, she has also been heavily involved in efforts to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Sinding is a recognized expert on international population matters who, until his retirement in 2006, served as Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Following a 20-year career at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr. Sinding served as Population Advisor to the World Bank, Director of Population Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation and Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University.

Serra Sippel is the president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), where she leads the organization's education and advocacy efforts to ensure that U.S. international policies and programs promote and protect sexual and reproductive health and rights through evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment of critical reproductive and sexual health concerns, and through increased funding for critical programs. Ms. Sippel came to CHANGE in May 2006 as deputy director. In that position, she helped lead the organization's research and advocacy initiatives and contributed significantly to CHANGE's institutional development.

Serra has more than 15 years of experience in advocacy on women's rights issues. Prior to joining CHANGE, Serra was the international program director at Catholics for a Free Choice, where she worked for more than eight years. She focused on the advancement of the sexual, reproductive and other human rights of women around the world. In addition to her years at CFFC, Serra has been involved in the fight for women's rights through her work at a homeless shelter for women with children in Texas, and on behalf of women prisoners in the state of Indiana. Serra also has worked collaboratively with women's rights activists around the world to secure and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights. Among Serra's many achievements as an advocate is her leadership at the United Nations to safeguard women's sexual and reproductive rights from attempts by conservative member delegations to undermine critical agreements made at the U.N. world conferences in Cairo and Beijing.

Serra holds a master's degree in religion. She is the author of numerous articles and other publications on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and has spoken at conferences on these issues in Europe, Africa, Asia, the United States and Latin America.