In celebration of the opening of the Pathfinder Fund records at Harvard Countway Library’s Center for the History of Medicine, we are hosting a panel of experts to discuss how the global reproductive and sexual health and rights movement has evolved since Pathfinder’s founding in 1957.
This is event is by invitation only.
SPEAKERS
Collin Mothupi, MBA, Board Chair, Pathfinder International, will talk about the organization’s current direction and its decision to donate its records. Mothupi is an operations strategist with broad experience in all aspects of strategic implementation, project management, accounting, and financial management. He joined Pathfinder’s board in 2017 and became Board Chair in November 2021.
Scott H. Podolsky, MD, Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library, will talk about the complicated history of the sexual health and reproductive rights field. Podolsky is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, MD, Visiting Lecturer on Global Health and Population and Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will talk about changing partnership models between government and non-governmental organizations. Gebremedhin served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health from 2020 to 2024.
Moderator: Crystal Lander, Pathfinder’s Executive Vice President, leads the organization’s strategic engagement and high-level partnerships.
Individual talks will be followed by a discussion/Q&A and reception.
Pathfinder International is a non-governmental organization committed to overcoming barriers to sexual and reproductive health rights. Pathfinder’s projects operate across more than twenty countries in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, opening the door to opportunities for women and all individuals to thrive—economically, educationally, and civically. With autonomy and equity at the center of our work, Pathfinder’s projects build climate resilience, boost economic empowerment, and expand access to quality, life-saving reproductive and sexual health care for women, young people, and communities around the world.
Our mission is big and bold, and we are dedicated to pushing ourselves and our organization to continue forging new pathways for access to sexual and reproductive health wherever the need is greatest. We are proud of our many successes, but we know it’s not possible to fully embrace the future we envision without understanding and reckoning with our past. Founded in 1957 by Clarence Gamble and motivated by early, eugenics-inflected concerns with global “population control,” Pathfinder is reflecting on the history of our organization and movement to advance human rights and gender equity into the future.
