PRB Welcomes New Trustees Marta Tienda and Alaka Basu

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) welcomes two new members to its Board of Trustees, Dr. Marta Tienda of Princeton University and Dr. Alaka Basu of Cornell University.

Tienda is the Maurice P. During '22 professor of Demographic Studies and a professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton. She is the former director of Princeton's Office of Population Research, a past president of the Population Association of America, and a former Guggenheim Fellow. Tienda has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific papers and chapters covering U.S. racial and ethnic inequality, international migration, variations in family structure and reproductive behavior, and access to higher education.

Basu, a professor of Development Sociology at Cornell, is currently on leave and is serving as a senior fellow focusing on reproductive health at the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C. She was the director of the South Asia Program at Cornell from 2002 to 2008 and she has published extensively in the areas of social demography, gender and development, and South Asian Studies.  Basu has served on the committees on Reproductive Health and on Population Projections of the National Academy of Sciences and on the expert committees of several UN panels.

"We are extremely fortunate to welcome two new Trustees who are leading authorities in core areas of activity for PRB: domestic and international demographic analysis, gender, and reproductive health issues," said Jeff Jordan, president and CEO of PRB. "We look forward to benefiting from the valuable knowledge, insights, and experience that Marta and Alaka bring to the PRB family."            

PRB (www.prb.org), based in Washington, D.C., informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. PRB works with a variety of partners and stakeholders in the United States and globally, to ensure that population-focused data and research is accessible to general and expert audiences, with the goal of informing public debate and policy decisionmaking.

"As an avid users of PRB materials, I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the operations of a premier organization that generates policy-relevant research for the common good," said Tienda.

"I have always been fascinated by the complicated human stories that population numbers can tell us. PRB is a leader in this area and I am honored to join PRB's Board," said Basu.

Tienda and Basu join three other recent newcomers to the PRB Board of Trustees: Amanda Glassman, director of Global Health Policy and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.; Scott McDonald, former senior vice president for Research & Insights at Condé Nast and an expert in understanding audiences; and Elizabeth Schoenecker, former chief of the Policy, Evaluation and Communication division of the Office of Population and Reproductive Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The additions to the Board coincide with the implementation of a new strategic plan by PRB aimed at enhancing the organization's ability to engage in policy discussions on key issues. Specifically, PRB will broaden its use of new and emerging mobile and digital sources for both data sourcing and dissemination; conduct more analysis and segmentation of PRB's audiences to better target materials, training programs, and communication activities; refine PRB's internal measurement and evaluation framework to foster continuous learning and feedback loops; and leverage knowledge networks in which PRB participates.   

For more information, contact: Peter Goldstein, 1.202.939.4507; [email protected]

SOURCE Population Reference Bureau

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