John W. Townsend

John W. Townsend, Ph.D. is the vice president and director of the Population Council's Reproductive Health program. He is responsible for overseeing the Council's contraceptive product development as well as the design and implementation of strategies to promote better reproductive health and family planning programs worldwide, especially among disadvantaged populations in developing countries, through research and policy innovations.

Townsend has worked for the Population Council for 25 years. He holds a doctorate in social psychology with supporting studies in public affairs and educational psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Townsend is a frequent presenter in professional meetings, with extensive publications and studies conducted on development, population, family planning, and reproductive health. He has worked and traveled extensively in more than 35 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and in 2006 he received USAID's Marjorie Horn Operations Research Award for excellence in conducting and utilizing research.