Conference 2010 Keynote Speakers
Family Planning is pleased to announce the following keynote speakers for the Family Planning Conference 2010.
Since 2003, Ann Furedi has been Chief Executive of the sexual and reproductive healthcare charity bpas (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service). She is also the Contraception and Abortion Care specialist advisor to the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV.
Prior to becoming Chief Executive of bpas, Furedi worked in reproductive healthcare policy, provision and regulation for many years, at the Family Planning Association, Birth Control Trust and as Director of Policy and Communications at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK’s fertility treatment regulator.
Since 1992, Furedi has championed in the UK the introduction of the non-invasive early medical abortion ‘pill’ method (used under 9 weeks), which experts now credit for allowing abortions to take place at much earlier stages on average in England, Scotland and Wales. In 2008, an unprecedented 73% of all abortions in England and Wales took place below 10 weeks.
Back to top
Dr. Douglas Kirby is internationally known for his work in the field of adolescent sexuality, particularly for his reviews of the research on school and community programs to reduce adolescent sexual risk-taking behaviours.
One of these reviews is the widely acclaimed Emerging Answers 2007: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. For more information on Emerging Answers 2007, please visit the official website, where you can download a comprehensive summary or the full report.
In that review and others, Dr Kirby has also painted a more comprehensive and detailed picture of the risk and protective factors associated with adolescent sexual behaviour, contraceptive use, pregnancy, and STIs; and has identified important common characteristics of effective sexuality education and HIV education programs throughout the world.
He has also been Principal Investigator of many evaluations of initiatives to reduce teen pregnancy. More recently he has completed work on the reasons for the decline of AIDS in Uganda.
Back to top
Dr Gill Greer is a highly experienced and committed sexual and reproductive health professional. Since 2006 she has been Director-General of IPPF an organisation overseeing the delivery of over 66 million services worldwide.
Prior to this Dr Greer worked in education as a teacher, and as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Victoria University of Wellington before becoming the Executive Director of the New Zealand Family Planning Association.
Dr Greer has been a member of the New Zealand government delegations to the United Nations General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS (2006), the United Nations World Summit (2005), the Commission on the Status of Women (2005) and the Commission on Population and Development (2004). She has been awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to family planning.
The post of Director-General of IPPF is one of the most challenging in the field of international development. As the strongest global voice for sexual and reproductive health and rights, IPPF’s network of national Member Associations works to provide vital, often life saving, services to some of the poorest and most marginalized people in more than 180 countries worldwide.
IPPF sometimes carries out this work in the face of powerful opposition from conservative governments and extreme religious groups to sexual and reproductive health and rights and, more generally, women’s rights.
Back to top
Irving Sivin is a senior scientist at the Population Council's Center for Biomedical Research. He joined the Council in 1969 to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of family planning programs in developing countries.
Sivin designed and analysed Phase 3 clinical trials of ParaGard, the Mirena® levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system, contraceptive implants for women and men, and contraceptive rings. He prepared the text and tabular data of the clinical analyses of Norplant® and Jadelle® contraceptive implants for the FDA and for submission to the European Union regulatory agency.
Currently Sivin is on the expert group for nonhormonal contraceptives of the European Society of Contraception and is a member of its board of directors. He serves as a reviewer for the journals Obstetrics and Gynecology, Human Reproduction, Contraception, and others and is a member of the editorial committee of the Population Council's Studies in Family Planning. Sivin has published a book, numerous book chapters, and more than 120 articles.
Back to top