Sharon Camp
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Sharon Camp | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 7, 1943 Easton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | October 25, 2025 (aged 81) La Plata, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | Pomona College Johns Hopkins University |
| Title | CEO and president of Guttmacher Institute |
Sharon Lee Camp (November 7, 1943 – October 25, 2025) was an American policy expert and women's reproductive health activist. She served as the CEO and president of the Guttmacher Institute for ten years until her retirement in 2013. A women's reproductive health campaigner, she was the force behind making the Plan B Contraceptive Pill available in the United States.[1][2]
Sharon Camp was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on November 7, 1943 to June (née Stout) and Albert Camp, which was the nearest hospital to her parents’ house across the Delaware river in New Jersey.[3] She was the eldest of three sisters. Her father worked for the US Navy as a scientist specialising in rocket fuels. She lived on a base in China Lake, California for part of her childhood as the family moved with her father's job.[1]
Camp was an honors graduate of Pomona College (class of 1965) where she had studied international relations.[4] She was on the yearbook staff, was a tour guide and played badminton as well as taking part in Model United Nations.[4] She also held a master's degree, rooted on African Studies with focus on development economics and political development. She spent a semester studying at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.[3] Following hitchhiking through Africa with female friend with a backpack and a sleeping bag she undertook a Ph.D. in comparative and international politics, doing her doctoral dissertation on Charles County, Maryland, researching political development in southern Maryland, a rapidly modernizing area of the country. The later two degrees were from Johns Hopkins University.[1][5][6] Whilst undertaking her Ph.D, Camp was elected to serve on the Democratic State Central Committee for Charles County, which included sitting on the Drug Abuse Committee and the local Mental Health Advisory Committee. She later credited this experience as getting her interested in state health activities.[3] Aged 23, she narrowly survived an illegal abortion in Mexico.[1]