Maureen Greenwood-Basken is the Executive Director of the Universal Access Project and the Director of Policy Initiatives in the Women and Population Program of the United Nations Foundation. The Universal Access Project works to achieve universal access to reproductive health, which leads to healthier women, stronger families, and more stable, prosperous communities. She manages a multi-stakeholder effort of foundations and NGOs. For the past two decades she has worked on advocacy-based efforts for social justice. She previously worked as the Acting Managing Director of the Government Relations and Advocacy Development Unit of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). For a decade she served as an AIUSA Advocacy Director covering the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, women, and other human rights topics. She conducted human rights field work in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s working for the Union of Councils. She earned a M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Maureen is a back-country backpacker and participated in a Russian geological expedition in Kamachatka where she climbed a volcano. While she loves to cook, her children think she frequently burns things and give her instructions on how to better use the toaster.
