The regional office of Planned Parenthood has selected a new president and CEO.
Brandon Hill, formerly executive director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health at the University of Chicago, assumed the role on Thursday.
Hill says he's eager to move from reproductive research to advocacy.
“I think we’re in a particularly critical time in this political landscape to where I couldn’t just stay in my lab," Hill says.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which provides sexual and reproductive health services in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, is a frequent target of legal challenges to abortion in the states in which it operates.
Hill says he's dedicated to fighting those challenges and also plans to advocate for LGBT communities.
"One of my motivations is to continue to defend LGBT communities' rights to access health care," Hill says.
Hill is also a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, and he has a history of work as a clinic counselor for Planned Parenthood. He holds a Ph.D. in gender studies from Indiana University.
Planned Parenthood Great Plain’s previous president and CEO, Laura McQuade, left the organization to head Planned Parenthood New York City in June 2017.
