President & CEO Dr. Jamila Perritt Honored with the Society of Family Planning’s Beacon of Science Award
Society of Family Planning Beacon of Science Award
This award, created in 2019, is in recognition of individuals or teams who have made marked, visionary contributions towards just and equitable abortion and contraception informed by science.
Emphasizing the impact of fighting for equity in science, Dr. Perritt says, “As a physician and an advocate, I understand that there is power and privilege in the white coats we wear. This comes with responsibility. My hope, my obligation, my responsibility is to leverage that power to fight for the health and well-being of the communities I care for and care about. I came to medicine because I believe it can be a tool for liberation. Despite the chaos and dysfunction of the medical system, I still believe that. But I know it will not come without a fight. I fight the calls for us to be smaller, quieter, afraid. I refuse to participate in the destruction of our communities, of ourselves. I demand a world in which we ALL get to be well, not just cis folks, not just White folks, not just the able bodied, and not just the wealthy. I know that it must be all of us or it will be none of us.”
I demand a world in which we ALL get to be well, not just cis folks, not just White folks, not just the able bodied, and not just the wealthy.
Dr. Perritt (she/her) is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Beacon of Science Award. She is a fellowship-trained, board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), a physician-led organization that mobilizes the medical community, educating and organizing providers, using medicine and science to advance access to reproductive health care for all people. She has a comprehensive background in family planning and has worked more than 20 years in the reproductive health, rights and justice spaces.
She provides on-the-ground, community-based care focusing primarily on the intersection of sexual health, reproductive rights, and social justice. In addition to her work as a clinical provider in the Washington, DC area, she has led PRH since 2020.
Dr. Perritt’s work as a passionate advocate for reproductive health, rights, and justice has allowed her to work closely with many organizations in support of access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including Advocates for Youth and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Dr. Perritt serves via Mayoral appointment as co-chair of Washington DC’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and has served as Chair of ACOG’s Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women. She is a member of the Society of Family Planning, the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, the Black Maternal Health Federal Policy Collective and a founding member of Centering Equity and Racial Literacy in Family Planning (CERCL-FP).