Our Faculty

Lynn P. Freedman is the director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program and of the Law and Policy Project, both in the Mailman School?s Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health. Before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 1990, she worked as a practicing attorney in New York City. Professor Freedman has been a leading figure in the field of health and human rights, working extensively with women?s groups and human rights NGOs internationally. She has published widely on issues of health and human rights, with a particular focus on gender and women?s health. She is currently serving as a senior adviser to the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health and is the lead author of the Task Force?s Final Report "Who?s Got the Power: Transforming Health Systems for Women and Children."

MPH, Columbia University, 1990

JD, Harvard University Law School, 1981

BA, Yale University, 1976

Additional Affiliations:

• Member, APHA
• Member, New York State Bar Association
• Member, Association for Women's Rights in Development
• Member, American Society of International Law

Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program
In February 2005, Prof. Freedman became director of AMDD, which works in over 50 countries to reduce maternal mortality by increasing access to and utilization of emergency obstetric care. Before that, Prof. Freedman was part part of the core management team of AMDD and led the program's efforts to integrate a human rights perspective into the program's strategies and implementation efforts.


UN Millennium Project Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health
The Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health was one of 10 Task Forces of the UN Millennium Project established by the Secretary General of the United Nations to provide a road map for countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Since the Task Force's creation in 2002, Prof. Freedman has served as senior advisor and was lead author of the Task Force's Final Report "Who's Got the Power: Transforming Health Systems for WOmen and Children, which focus on the importance of developing health systems.


Law and Policy Project
The Law and Policy Project works with NGO networks, human rights organizations, and women's health organizations in the US and internationally, to address the legal and policy dimensions of health, with a particular emphasis on women's reproductive health.