Monrovia, Liberia, March 7, 2009. The "International Colloquium on Women's Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security 2009" is about to get started. Presidents Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia) - The first woman president in Africa! - and Tarja Halonen (Finland) are hosting us. It's International Women's day tomorrow. This is a good...

This World AIDS Day, Population Action International explored a different side of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, one that many people might not even realize is an issue - the prevalence of HIV in marriage. Our new documentary, The Silent Partner: HIV and Marriage, explores this very issue. It tells the...

This Los Angeles dinner started in a limo. This is not my usual transport when dining with my Ethiopian colleague Boge Gebre. But tonight I was introducing friends from different worlds. Our Los Angeles hosts generously provided the transportation. The car's black velvet interior with blinking lights on the ceiling...

I've been in Mexico for almost a week. There's a growing behavior change challenge here: persuading Mexicans to change the way they eat and the way they have sex.

Why change the way they eat? Diabetes is on the rise in Mexico. Currently 9% of the population has type...

Numbers: Billions, trillions, ga-zillions. When's a number too big, too little, appropriate, effective? I mean, who gets numbers?

It's like gaggles of 3rd graders accelerating every conversation with their own numerical system:
"My dad has a million!"
"My mom saw a ka-zillion in New Jersey!"...

There are always complicated issues around mothers. Being one, having one, not having one, wanting one, losing one, not being one.

Personally, we love our mothers even when we don't. Culturally, we revere them. Globally, we say how important mothers are but still a woman dies every minute of...

Last week's Earth Day celebration reminded me of the first one. As a college kid responding to the passionate calls to action punctuated by pounding music, I came away thinking that if I hadn't already decided to work for women's rights, I would choose to work on environmental causes as...