Jill Sheffield

Jill Sheffield is an American educator and advocate for maternal, reproductive, and sexual health and rights and the founder of Women Deliver and Family Care International.

Biography

Sheffield received a Bachelor of Arts in education from Glassboro State College and Master of Arts in comparative and international education from Columbia University.

Sheffield's advocacy career began while volunteering in the family planning clinic at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Kenya in the 1960s. It was the first such clinic in East Africa. The Kenyan women Sheffield met through the clinic were legally prohibited from using contraception without their husbands’ permission, which motivated Sheffield to transition from teaching to advocating for women's reproductive, sexual, and maternal rights. Sheffield served as the executive officer for the Carnegie Corporation of New York's International Program and as Africa and Latin America director of programs and regional representative for World Education.

In 1987, Sheffield co-founded Family Care International, a non-profit global organization focused on improving the maternal health of women in the world's poorest nations, and served as its president for 20 years. It was the first international organization founded specifically to focus on maternal mortality. In 2007, Sheffield founded Women Deliver – originally a conference focused on maternal health that evolved into an advocacy organization. It seeks to generate political commitment and financial investment to reduce maternal mortality and increase access to reproductive health. In 2016, Sheffield retired from the organization.

In 2011, Sheffield served as one of 30 commissioners on the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health. Sheffield has been involved with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, Population Communications International, Global Fund for Women, and Center for Health and Social Policy. Sheffield has been Chair of WomanCareGlobal, Chair of the FIGO Committee on Contraception and Family Planning, on the UNFPA Global Advisory Council, as External Advisor to the IPPF Governing Council and Senior Adviser to Global Health Strategies.

Recognition

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