Jill Sheffield

Jill Sheffield is a women's sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate, with a focus on reducing global maternal mortality. She is the founder of Women Deliver. and a Master of Arts in comparative and international education in 1963 from Columbia University.

She volunteered at the Pumwami Maternity Hospital's family planning clinic in Kenya in the 1960s, the first such clinic in East Africa. At the time, Kenyan women were legally required to obtain their husbands’ permission to use contraception. Sheffield served as director of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's international education programs

In 1987, Sheffield co-founded Family Care International (FCI), family planning and reproductive rights. FCI was also integrated into Management Sciences for Health in 2015.

In 2007, Sheffield founded Women Deliver, which began as a conference focused on maternal health that evolved into an advocacy organization. It seeks to generate political commitment and financial investment to reduce maternal mortality and increase access to reproductive health.

In 2011, Sheffield served as one of 30 commissioners on the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health. Sheffield has been chair of Woman Care Global (now Catalyst Global), external advisor to the IPPF Governing Council, the same year that Family Care International received the United Nations Population Award for outstanding work in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Sheffield has also been recognized as a distinguished alumna by Columbia University's Teachers College.