Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley Welcomes National Planned Parenthood Jill Lafer, Board Chair

From March 8 through 9, Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley (PPPSGV) was “thrilled” to host Jill Lafer, the Board Chair of the National Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Lafer met with PPPSGV staff and the Board of Directors and had a whirlwind tour of Pasadena and the local Planned Parenthood health center.

On March 9, Lafer attended a brunch with PPPSGV’s Leadership Circle, which was hosted by Judith Brown, Board Liaison to PPPSGV, and later that afternoon, both Lafer and Sheri Bonner, President and CEO of PPPSGV, spoke to 100 Planned Parenthood supporters during a luncheon at the Ross Chapel of Neighborhood Church.

Lafer shared with the audience her background and her perspective after 30 years working with women’s health care and family planning organizations and advocating for “reproductive freedom.”

As the daughter of an OB/GYN doctor, Lafer says her dedication to women’s health is “in her DNA.” In addition to her career in business, Lafer has served on the boards of the national and New York NARAL Pro-Choice chapters and has been with Planned Parenthood Federation of America since 2012. While she was initially drawn to this organization out of her concern for women’s and civil rights, she says that through her involvement with Planned Parenthood she has come to understand how much the organization does to help women break the cycle of poverty.

As Planned Parenthood celebrates its centennial this year, Lafer and Bonner outlined the organization’s strategic vision for the next 100 years and described three main goals “to create health equity and gender equality, to foster a culture change surrounding reproductive justice and health education, and to build a powerful movement of advocates and supporters.”

Bonner discussed how these goals will be translated locally, including training Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley teachers so they can better meet the new health education requirements of California’s new Healthy Youth Act.

Lafer said that Planned Parenthood’s vision for the future is bold and ambitions, but that its end goal is to create “the world we deserve.”

For more information about Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley, visit www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-pasadena-san-gabriel-valley