Cecile Richards is a nationally respected leader in the field of womens health and reproductive rights. She is a co-founder of Supermajority, an organization fighting for gender equity.

As president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund from 2006 to 2018, Ms. Richards lead a national organization that has worked for nearly 100 years to build a healthier and safer world for women and teens. Since joining Planned Parenthood in 2006, Ms. Richards has expanded the organization's advocacy for access to health care and ensured that Planned Parenthood played a pivotal role in shaping health care coverage and services for women under the Affordable Care Act. In 2011, she led an unprecedented nationwide campaign to preserve access to Planned Parenthood preventive care through federal programs. Under her leadership, the number of Planned Parenthood supporters has doubled, reaching more than seven million.

Before joining Planned Parenthood, Ms. Richards served as deputy chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, she founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of 42 national grassroots organizations working to maximize registration, education, and voter participation.

Ms. Richards began her career organizing low-wage workers in the hotel, health care, and janitorial industries throughout California, Louisiana, and Texas. The daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Ms. Richards was raised in a family committed to social justice and public service. She worked side by side with her mother on her very first campaign, the successful election to the state legislature of Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Author of the New York Times best-seller Make Trouble and a frequent speaker and commentator on politics and progressive issues, she was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2011 and 2012, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. In 2015 Richards was named a Glamour Women of the Year. In 2018, Richards published her memoir Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, And Finding The Courage To Lead. The memoir discusses her upbringing and career.

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