A Letter from Our Board on PAI’s Leadership Transition

Dear Friends,

PAI’s Board of Directors would like to express its deepest gratitude to Suzanne Ehlers for her leadership and commitment to advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, girls and vulnerable communities around the world. Suzanne announced today that she is stepping down from her role as president and CEO of PAI to head the Malala Fund. Suzanne will assume her new position in early 2020.

Elisha Dunn-Georgiou and Carolyn Vogel, PAI’s vice president of policy and advocacy and chief operating officer respectively, will serve as joint CEOs through the Board search for PAI’s next president. Together, Elisha and Carolyn bring more than 32 years of programmatic and operational experience to leading PAI and they will do an excellent job of guiding the organization through this transition period.

Under their leadership, PAI will continue to call for increased U.S. investments in sexual and reproductive health and to repudiate harmful policies such as the Global Gag Rule. Globally, we will continue removing barriers to high quality, accessible and affordable sexual and reproductive care. And we remain unwavering in our efforts to foster accountability and the inclusion of communities and civil society in the policies that most affect them.

This is a moment of transition, and also one of great opportunity. Our work is taking us in new and exciting directions with a growing portfolio of more than $3 million in advocacy grants to partners around the world. At the same time, PAI is deepening our engagement in primary health care and spearheading new initiatives linking sexual and reproductive health and rights to achieving universal health coverage—all in support of the sustainable development goals.

Throughout her tenure, Suzanne has been a steadfast voice for the critical link between sexual and reproductive health and rights and the achievement of other goals such as girls’ education and social, political and economic empowerment. We know she will continue that dedication in her next endeavor at an organization removing barriers to girls’ education—which too often include child and early marriage and lack of access to the high-quality information and services necessary for girls to make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives.

We thank Suzanne for her service and wish her all the best in the next step of her professional career.

Sincerely,

Jackie Payne

Board Chair