January 9, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
Background: Born in Bangladesh, Ms. Rahman, 45, who starts her new position in February, moved to the United States to attend college. She went on to law school and then worked for three years in private law practice before moving to the nonprofit world.
Previous jobs: She worked as a lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, in New York, before going on to run the organization’s global programs and policy unit. She later served as president of Americans for UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund), which supports reproductive-health programs around the world.
Education: Ms. Rahman earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, in New Jersey, and a law degree from Columbia Law School, in New York.
Why she was selected: Cathy Raphael, board chair of the Ms. Foundation, in New York, said: “We loved it when [Ms. Rahman] told us ‘fighting for women’s rights is in my DNA.’”
Why she took the job: Ms. Rahman says she relishes the opportunity to work at the Ms. Foundation, which she calls “a central organization for the women’s movement and a leading voice for gender equality.” She says she also appreciates the organization’s diversity—more than half of its governing board, staff, and executive team are members of minority groups.
Salary: She declined to reveal it.
Her inspiration: Ms. Rahman says her passion was ignited when she was a child in Bangladesh, watching her mother, grandmother, and aunt—who together raised her after her father left the family soon after her birth—struggle against what she calls “institutionalized sexism, where women have limited opportunities in education, limited professional opportunities, and nothing close to equality with men.”
