As a senior consultant at Kinaura Partners, Ann Starrs works with the Women’s Health and SRHR team, tackling challenges at the intersection of gender equality and global health and development. She supports partners to strengthen advocacy efforts, policy change, and investment strategies in complex environments.
At Kinaura, Ann supported the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (PMNCH) to assess the global SRHR advocacy landscape and shape their five-year strategic plan. She also advised the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in reviewing their SRHR portfolio and developing a policy change roadmap. Her recent work includes analyzing the role of faith-based organizations in advancing SRHR in Africa.
Ann brings deep experience in strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement, and partnership development, including communications, advocacy, and resource mobilization. She is widely recognized for her technical expertise in SRHR globally and in the United States, and for her political acumen in complex policy environments.
Before Kinaura, Ann served as the director of family planning at the Gates Foundation and as president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, co-chairing the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission for SRHR. She also served as president of Family Care International (FCI), advancing reproductive, maternal, and newborn health in low-income countries.
While at FCI, Ann lived in Uganda for three years, supporting government and civil society to develop and implement national safe mother¬hood programs. She has worked in over a dozen African countries (including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, and Namibia) and has published extensively on global and U.S. health policy in The Lancet and other peer-reviewed journals.
Ann holds an MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs with a concentration in demography, and a BA (with honors) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of Upstream USA, and served over 15 years on the board of PMNCH.
Outside of work, Ann enjoys reading, cooking, and running, and completed the NYC Marathon in 2003 and 2013. She has two adult children on opposite coasts (NYC and San Francisco) and is fluent in Spanish, having grown up in Spain, Guatemala, and Mexico, as well as the U.S.
