Ellen Chesler papers (MS.2020.002)

Biographical/Historical Note

Ellen Chesler is currently a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute where she focuses on women's rights and reproductive health in the United States and abroad. She earned her A.B. magna cum laude in History from Vassar College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

Trained as an historian, Chesler has spent the majority of her professional life in government, philanthropy and think-tanks and is widely respected for the practical and intellectual perspectives she brings to gender and public policy.

Chesler served as Chief of Staff for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy from 1978-1983. Beginning in 1985, Chesler researched and wrote the landmark text, Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America, published in 1992. From 1992-1996, Chesler was a Senior Fellow at the Twentieth Century Fund where she developed and edited books and papers and managed programs on public policy.

From 1997-2006, Chesler was a Senior Fellow and Program Director at George Soros' Open Society Institute. There, she helped launch a national electronic advocacy network and a robust web presence for Planned Parenthood; supported the development of Plan B emergency contraception; and supported Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone as an early option for pregnancy termination, among many other accomplishments. During this time, Chesler also served as a board member for the International Women's Health Coalition and began serving on the board for Planned Parenthood.

In 2007, Chesler joined the Roosevelt House at Hunter College as Distinguished Lecturer and Director for the Eleanor Roosevelt Initiative on Women and Public Policy. Before leaving this role in 2010, Chesler created a strategic fundraising plan, developed a Macaulay Honors College course on women and public policy, and led an interdisciplinary Hunter College faculty seminar on public policy issues addressing equal opportunity, social justice, and human rights. In 2011, Chesler became Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute where she edited Women and Girls Rising: Progress and resistance around the world, and where she continues to work today.

Chesler is married to Matthew Mallow, a New York lawyer, Brown University graduate with the class of 1964, honorary doctorate recipient, and member of the Corporation. They have two children, Jonathan Mallow, Yale University class of 2000, and Elizabeth Mallow, Brown University class of 2002, and two grandsons.