2019 Lifetime Achievement: Bill Ryerson

Bill Ryerson
Founder and President
Population Media Center

Bill Ryerson has had a lifelong commitment to the environment and reproductive rights. Not only has Bill committed his career to his passion, but he and his wife decided to be “child-free” in order to take action against overpopulation concerns. He created Population Media Center (PMC) with the goal of empowering people to live healthier and more prosperous lives, and stabilizing global population at a level at which people can live sustainably with the world’s renewable resources.

PMC provides valuable information and resources to communities in a culturally relevant and sensitive ways, working to remove misinformation, connect people to health resources and, overall, empower them to make the best decision possible given current medical advances.

Bill oversees all the business activity of PMC and travels around the world to stay on top of current and new program development. In addition to his role as founder and president of PMC, he also serves as chair and CEO of Population Institute, located in Washington D.C., which works in partnership with PMC. He has over 40 years of experience working in the reproductive health field, including two decades of experience with social and behavior change communications.

PMC has celebrated 20 years with many successes: programming 40+ radio and TV shows in over 50 countries and in more than 40 languages, which has reached over 500 million people.

To see the winners in the remaining categories, click here.