Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards
Cecile Richards in 2012
President of Planned Parenthood
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2006
Preceded by	Gloria Feldt
Personal details
Born	(1957-07-15) July 15, 1957 (age 59) Waco, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Kirk Adams
Children	3
Parents	Ann Richards David Richards
Alma mater	Brown University

Cecile Richards (born July 15, 1957) is an American pro-choice activist who has served as the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America since 2006 and president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. In 2010, Richards was elected to the Ford Foundation board of trustees.

Richards was born in Waco, Texas, and is the daughter of former Texas governor Ann Richards (née Willis), an American politician and activist. Her father, David Richards, practiced law and had built a practice dealing with civil-rights plaintiffs, newspapers and labor unions, and also won several landmark cases, including a voting-rights lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court. She initially went to public school, but in ninth grade she was disciplined for protesting the Vietnam War by wearing a black armband and she was moved to the progressive St. Stephen's Episcopal School for high school.

Richards' parents were immersed in political activism from when she was young, and at the age of 16 she helped her mother campaign for Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who won Roe v. Wade, in her bid for the Texas state legislature.

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Brown University in 1980. After graduation, she became a labor organizer for service workers across several states, running union campaigns for garment workers, nursing home workers, and janitors. When she was 30 she moved back to Texas to help with her mother Ann Richards with her campaign for Governor. She is currently on the board of the Ford Foundation, a global private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare. She was one of the founders of America Votes, a 501(c)4 organization that aims to coordinate and promote progressive issues, and is currently serving as president. Richards previously founded and served as president of America Votes, a coalition of national Democratic Party-affiliated organizations. Before that, she was deputy chief of staff to the U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has also worked at the Turner Foundation. In 1996, she founded the Texas Freedom Network, a Texas organization formed to counter the Christian right.