Driven by her own experiences as a teenage mother, Gloria Feldt became an advocate for women’s rights and reproductive choice, leading Planned Parenthood for a decade. Feldt had her first child at age fifteen and became a mother of three by twenty. In 1974, at the age of 32, she finally earned her BA from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, the same year she joined Planned Parenthood. By 1978 she was head of Planned Parenthood’s Northern Arizona Office, speaking out for reproductive rights and travelling with a bodyguard to avoid violent reprisals from pro-life advocates. From 1996 to 2005 she served as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood and lobbied successfully for contraceptive coverage by insurance companies. She teaches courses on women and leadership at Arizona State University and is president of Take the Lead, a mentoring and networking organization dedicated to ensuring women claim an equal share of leadership positions across all sectors.  She has previously served as a member of the Jewish Woman’s Archive and Women’s Media Center boards. She is the author of five books: Behind Every Choice Is a Story (2002), The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and how to Fight Back (2004), Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on my Life, Love, and Leading Roles (2009), No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power (2012), Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take the Lead for (Everyone’s) Good (2021). She also writes a blog called Heartfeldt. In 2022, she was named one of Forbes magazine’s “50 over 50.”