As senior consultant at GHV, Ann Starrs works with the Women’s Health Team, focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and its intersections with gender equality and other health and rights issue areas. While at GHV, she supported the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (PMNCH) to assess the global SRHR advocacy landscape and develop a framework for their next five-year strategic plan; she also worked with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) to review their SRHR policy change portfolio and develop a policy change roadmap based on CIFF’s strategic priorities. In addition, she worked with a UK-based consulting firm to support to the design of a new financing initiative at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria to accelerate on-the-ground programming for the integration of HIV and SRHR. Within her portfolio, Ann brings strong leadership and management skills, including strategic thinking and communications, establishing collaborative partnerships with colleague organizations, effective advocacy, problem-solving, resource mobilization, and building and maintaining strong and diverse leadership teams. She has in-depth technical knowledge of SRHR rights issues globally and in the U.S. and acute political instincts for negotiating challenging situations.

Before joining GHV, Ann served as the director of family planning at the Gates Foundation for over four years. In that role, she led the foundation’s efforts to achieve greater access to voluntary family planning. She also served for four years as the president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization dedicated to sexual and reproductive health; during that time, she co-chaired the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Ann also served as president of Family Care International, a nongovernmental organization working to improve reproductive, maternal, and newborn health in low-income countries. Ann has published numerous papers and commentaries on global and domestic health policy issues during her 30 years in the field.

Ann holds a master’s degree from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs with a concentration in demography and an undergraduate degree (with honors) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of Upstream USA, and served on the board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health for more than 15 years.

Outside of work, Ann loves to read, cook, and run (not all at the same time); she ran the NYC Marathon in 2003 and 2013. She has two adult children on opposite sides of the US (one in NYC, one in San Francisco).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annstarrs/

LIST OF AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

• Strategic vision and planning

• Technical leadership

• Organizational development

• Team building

• Resource mobilization

• Program design and evaluation

• Technical areas: Sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning, abortion, and adolescent health and well-being; maternal, newborn, and child health

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