Judith  F. Helzner

Judith F. Helzner

Global health expert

Judith F. Helzner is a global health expert with extensive experience in sexual and reproductive health, gender equity and adolescents. She served as Director of Population and Reproductive Health at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 2003-2013. Since then, as an independent consultant, she facilitated the four-donor Alliance for Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health (through the NGO PATH); and has worked on the topic of adolescent girls with clients including the World Bank, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Plan International UK, and Aflatoun.  She has served as a reviewer of proposals for the MannionDaniels-managed competitions AmplifyChange and UKAid Direct, and for the MacArthur Foundation’s “100&Change” competition, as well as having proposals to donors (e.g., for EngenderHealth). She is currently part-time Coordinator of the Family Planning, Fertility and Urban Development Fellowship project of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). She has lectured annually in Northwestern University’s global health program, and in 2020, she taught a course in “Population and Reproductive Health” in that program. In 2021 and 2022, she taught at the University of Illinois/Chicago Master’s in Public Health program. She holds master’s degrees in demography and international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in French from Tufts University.