Judith F. Helzner
Director, Population and Reproductive Health

Email: jhelzner at macfound dot org

Judith F. Helzner is the Director of the Population & Reproductive Health (PRH) area of the Foundation's Program on Global Security & Sustainability.

Helzner joined the Foundation in July, 2002, and serves as a strategic advisor to staff members in the Mexico, Nigeria and India offices on grantmaking related to population issues. She is also responsible for grants made to international organizations in the population field.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Helzner was with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region, where she first served as Director of Program Coordination starting in 1987 and was later named Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health, a position she held from 1997 to 2002. Helzner has also worked with the International Women's Health Coalition (1985-1987), with Private Agencies Collaborating Together (1982-1984), and with Pathfinder Fund in Boston (1977-1982). She has been a consultant to several organizations, including the World Health Organization and USAID, where she Co-chaired its Interagency Gender Working Group Subcommittee on Men & Reproductive Health.

Helzner has published articles and book reviews in journals such as Studies in Family Planning and International Family Planning Perspectives. She graduated from Tufts University with a bachelor's degree in French and received master's degrees in both Demography and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ann Blanc
Program Officer

Email: ablanc at macfound dot org

Ann Blanc is a Program Officer in the Population and Reproductive Health area. In this position, she works with the area director on grantmaking related to the entire Population and Reproductive Health area, including grants focused on reducing maternal mortality and morbidity and on advancing young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has a special responsibility for research explorations and grants.
 
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2005, she was president for 6 years of Blancroft Research International, LLC, which provides technical support for demographic and health research in developing countries. The firm’s clients include international, bilateral, and non-governmental organizations. Prior positions include 11 years at the Demographic and Health Surveys program of ORC/Macro and short-term positions at Yale University and the Population Division of the United Nations.  Blanc has published widely on the topics of family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and women's empowerment issues and has worked internationally in more than 15 countries.  Blanc holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology/Demography from Princeton University.

Poonam Muttreja
Director, India Office

Email: pmuttreja at macfound dot org dot in

Poonam Muttreja is Director of MacArthur's India Office and is responsible for all Population & Reproductive Health grants in India.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 1994, Muttreja worked briefly with UNDP in India and helped develop a NGO strategy for that organization. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Muttreja directed an environmental program concerned with orienting policy makers on issues of development, environment and poverty (1986-1992). She also taught courses on social action and human development at both Hampshire College (Spring 1992) in Maine and Earlham College (Fall 1992) in Indiana. Muttreja was active in the NGO sector in India. She was Founding Director of Ashoka Foundation, a society that works with artisans, and SRUTI, a society that awards fellowships to development activists (1978-1986).

Muttreja has a Master's Degree in Public Administration (1991) from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology (1977) from the University of Delhi.

Kole A. Shettima
Director, Africa Office, and Co-Chair, Higher Education Initiative in Africa

Kole Shettima is the Director of the Foundation's Africa Office in Abuja, Nigeria. He is responsible for grant making in the Population & Reproductive Health area, Human Rights and International Justice, and the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, Shettima taught at the University of Maiduguri (Nigeria), the University of Toronto, and at Ohio University. He was State Coordinator, and National Education Coordinator of Women in Nigeria; Coordinator of the Working Group on Nigeria, Toronto; and Co-chair of the Economic Justice Working Group of the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, Toronto. Shettima is on the board of several organizations including the Center for Democracy and Development. He has published in several academic journals including Africa Development, Review of African Political Economy, African Studies Review and Journal of Asian and African Studies.

Shettima has a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, a Masters Degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and his undergraduate degree is from the University of Maiduguri where he has also been a faculty member.

Sharon Bissell Sotelo
Program Officer

Email: sbissell at macfound dot org

Sharon Bissell is a Program Officer for the Population & Reproductive Health area in the Foundation's Mexico Office. In conjunction with the Mexico Office Director, she manages PRH grantmaking and the Mexico office's overall operations.

Prior to joining MacArthur in 2001, she was Development Coordinator for five years at the Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE), a leading reproductive and sexual rights organization in Mexico. She also worked as a consultant in project development with numerous Mexican women's health organizations and national networks. Originally from Washington State, Bissell has lived in Mexico and worked in the field of sexual and reproductive health rights since 1996.

Bissell has a Master's Degree in Literature from Tulane University.