Board Statement About PPGNY's Leadership Transition

On January 1, 2021, the Board of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) issued the following statement about Laura McQuade, PPGNY’s former President & CEO.

In the five months since the PPGNY Board announced that PPGNY and Laura had parted ways, the reporting of this change - as reflected in the ensuing media coverage - may have created some inadvertent impressions, which we now take this opportunity to address for the benefit of our various constituencies.

In September 2017, Laura joined Planned Parenthood of New York City, which successfully merged with four other New York State affiliates to form PPGNY on January 1, 2020. In addition to the merger, during her Planned Parenthood tenure in New York, she led important initiatives to expand patient access to healthcare, including expanding PPGNY’s Bronx and Brooklyn health centers, extending operating hours, implementing telehealth throughout the affiliate, expanding mobile medicine, and initiating other measures intended to increase patient access to much-needed healthcare. Laura also expressed to the Board a commitment to moving racial equity forward by advancing multiple race equity initiatives and inclusive hiring practices across the organization with Laura’s particular focus on the Senior Team.

Earlier this year, like so many organizations and communities across the country, PPGNY experienced the rapid and significant dislocations of the Covid-19 pandemic. PPGNY’s leadership was called upon to make some hard decisions to reduce expenditures such as staff layoffs, which resulted in painful hardship to those affected.