Gloria Feldt, who led the national Planned Parenthood organization as president for nine years, will give a lecture at Hamilton College on Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Levitt Center and is the second in a series examining abortion issues.
Feldt, who served as president of Planned Parenthood since 1996, was also president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the organization's political arm. PPFA is the world's largest voluntary reproductive health care organization, with both domestic and international programs. As PPFA president, Feldt provided leadership to 122 Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide, whose nearly 850 health centers provide reproductive health and sexuality education services for nearly five million women, men, and teenagers each year. Feldt is the author of The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and How to Fight Back and Behind Every Choice Is a Story.
A teen mother and wife from rural Texas, she raised three children while attending college. She taught in the Head Start program and was active in the civil rights movement. Realizing that women's civil rights depend on the right to determine their own reproductive destiny, she joined Planned Parenthood in 1974. Her innovative thinking, effective activism, and courageous leadership as a Planned Parenthood affiliate chief executive, first in West Texas and later in Arizona, led to her being tapped as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1996. A renowned public speaker, Feldt has lectured widely, written commentary for several major newspapers and journals and appeared on numerous radio and television networks.
The leture is also funded by the Kirkland Endowment and FWC (faculty for women's concerns).
