Suzanne Petroni

International Center for Research on Women

Dr. Suzanne Petroni is the Senior Director for Gender, Population and Development at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), where she works to improve development programs and policies by expanding the evidence base regarding the relationships between gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, adolescence and demographic and socioeconomic outcomes. She has more than 20 years of experience in foreign policy and global development, with particular expertise in gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and adolescent health and development. Currently, she designs and directs ICRW’s research on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in the slums of Bangladesh, trains and supports young leaders from the global South in policy advocacy, advances the public’s and policymakers’ awareness of the harmful practice of child marriage, and analyzes the policies of governments and nongovernmental organizations to ensure that they are gender-sensitive. Prior to joining ICRW in 2012, Suzanne served as Vice President for Global Health at the Public Health Institute, Senior Program Officer for Adolescent Reproductive Health and Youth Leadership at the Summit Foundation, and in a variety of roles in the U.S. government, including Program Officer in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department. In this capacity, she served as the government’s officer-in-charge for the five-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5).

Dare to Dream Big

Suzanne Petroni

Rather than seeking a return to "the way things were under the Clinton Administration... plus some," sexual and reproductive health advocates should use this time to believe that we can achieve great gains for women.

Hand in Hand

Suzanne Petroni

It’s crucial to align domestic and international family planning and reproductive health movements in order to save women’s lives.

Ideologues Hijack International Family Planning

Suzanne Petroni

Suzanne Petroni is a Senior Program officer for the Summit Foundation in Washington, DC, where she manages the foundation's Global Population and Youth Leadership program.


It's been interesting to read the exchanges here on PAI's latest report, while at the same time researching the history of U.S. international family planning policy.

I'm back in school to take what I've learned in ten years in the population field, add some knowledge and skills, and ultimately—hopefully!—come up with a way to help move our field out of its current political morass. My hypothesis is that, as a field, we're using the same arguments and strategies that we've used for decades, and as a result, we're not gaining ground; rather, we're losing it.

More Than a Choice

Suzanne Petroni

Finally, we have a vision! After years of asking what has regrettably been a rhetorical question, "We know what we're against, but do we actually know what we're for?" the Center for American Progress has provided an answer. In issuing "More Than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights" last week, the Center lays out a new approach to reproductive rights.

Kudos to the Center for prioritizing this issue[img_assist|nid=564|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=100|height=85] (it's still at the top of their website after three days!), and to author Jessica Arons, for laying out an agenda that can help us shift the debate and bring a new generation to our side. Arons moves us one step further down the path of broadening the discourse beyond its historic myopic focus on abortion.