Jill Sheffield, President
Jill Sheffield is the founder of Women Deliver, a global advocacy organization working to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling Millennium Development Goal 5 – to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health. Most recently, Jill was one of few civil society representatives to serve as a Commissioner to support the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. Jill is also the founder of Family Care International (FCI), a distinguished non-governmental organization and winner of the 2008 United Nations Population Award for outstanding work in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Jill completed advanced degrees at Columbia University, Teachers College, where she was later recognized as a distinguished alumna for her international work in women's health and education, and she also received the American Public Health Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. She was Director of International Programmes at the Carnegie Corporation, and founded FCI in 1987 in response to the call at the Women's Decade Conference in Nairobi which identified the silent tragedy that one woman dies each minute from pregnancy related causes. Though she has played a central role in several key world conferences, Jill Sheffield believes her true education came when she worked in the family planning/reproductive health outpatient clinic of Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.

Louise Dunn, Vice President of Operations
Prior to Women Deliver, Louise was a writing consultant for Family Care International. She was formerly Vice President of Operations for the Foundation for Accountability in Portland, Oregon. Louise also worked at Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center in Portland as a grant writer, and as director of a statewide caregiver program for Alzheimer’s families. She began her career in a Planned Parenthood affiliate serving as its Executive Director. She has her Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Vanita Gowda, Senior Director, Advocacy and Communications
Vanita has worked for more than a decade on global advocacy initiatives for issues including reproductive health, clean water, corporate responsibility, and access to medicines. In particular, she has focused on new health technologies, most recently working with GSK Bio to build global and local support for a late stage malaria vaccine trial spanning 11 sites in seven African countries. As a consultant with global public affairs firms, she has led strategy development, branding, media outreach, and alliance building activities for organizations including the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, GSK Bio, PhRMA, Qiagen, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Bioventures for Global Health and Galvmed. She previously worked with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative as an advocacy and communications specialist. Vanita started her career as a journalist covering federal legislation and national affairs for Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times. She earned a master of public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Janna Oberdorf, Director of Communications and Outreach
Janna Oberdorf leads the communications strategy at Women Deliver, working on both print publications and website management, as well as the Deliver for Youth outreach. Prior to Women Deliver, Janna was a writer and editor at Parents magazine, crafting articles on maternal and child health, behavior, and more. She has also freelanced as a journalist for numerous national publications including Ladies' Home Journal, Fit Pregnancy, and Babble.com. She has her BA from New York University, where she double-majored in Journalism and Mass Communications and Politics.

Maz Kessler, Creative Director
Maz Kessler's work stands at the intersection of design and advocacy. Her early work in synthesis and composition put her at the center of the digital-musical revolution in New York's downtown music scene of the 1980s. Maz was a chart topping song writer, writing and recording with a diverse range of artists including Malcolm McClaren, Hall and Oates, Madonna, among many others. She was a founding producer in NY's acid jazz scene, writing and producing for jazz legends the Brecker Brothers (with whom she won a Grammy). In the mid-1990s Maz co-founded FunArts Software, specializing in conversational interfaces and social intelligence. Working in both voice (VUI) and visual interface, FunArts clients included SCHWAB, BMW, General Magic, Microsoft Office 97, Bandai Entertainment and Microsoft Far East among others. Maz also served as Creative Director for Microsoft¹s Social Interface Group, and co-authored UI design guidelines for Designing and Producing Speech Systems ­ Practice and Principles for Microsoft Speech group. Maz's work in advocacy and social equality began as a co-founder of Keep a Child Alive, an HIV/AIDS foundation. Maz then went on to work with various organizations and NGOs including Women Deliver, ICEC and AIDS-Free World before joining Advocacy International as Creative Director. Working alongside Ann Pettifor, the political economist and visionary advocate, Maz has brought her technology and design skills to bear on progressive issues, particularly addressing the huge global problem of gender inequality. She is the Creative Director at Women Deliver, and is currently working on the first product to come out of the Women Deliver incubation process.

Joanna Hoffman, Special Projects Manager
Joanna has a Masters of Public Administration in International Public Policy & Nonprofit Management from NYU. Previously, she worked at The Synergos Institute as a Partnerships Coordinator and completed an evaluation in Guatemala for The Hesperian Foundation. She is fluent in Spanish.

Lindsey Taylor Wood, Communications Associate
A fierce advocate of employing media to promote global citizenship and galvanize social change, Lindsey has contributed to a variety of campaigns centered on conflicts in Central Africa; and The Enough Moment, a book by John Prendergast and Don Cheadle. At the Broadcasting Board of Governors, she explained U.S. policy to Voice of America's worldwide audience, through editorials broadcast on television, radio and the Internet, and developed and produced Policy Brief television and Internet segments featuring Under Secretaries Hormats, Otero and Lubchenco. She also acted as an off-air reporter and producer for the TODAY show post Hurricane Katrina, and prior to Women Deliver, worked as the External Relations Manager for The Lunchbox Fund. She holds degrees in Business Management and Product Development and has received post-graduate training in New Media at American University. Recently, she was named one of the 20 Young Champions for Women by The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood.