Kathryn Kolbert

Kathryn Kolbert is president of People for the American Way.  She has been recognized repeatedly by The National Law Journal as one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America," named by The American Lawyer as one of 45 public interest lawyers "whose vision and commitment are changing lives," and by Philadelphia Magazine as one of its "76 Smartest Philadelphians."

Kolbert has been widely credited by commentators as having saved Roe v. Wade with her 1992 argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin writes in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court that in Casey Kolbert "devised one of the most audacious litigation tactics in Supreme Court history."

Before being named President of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation, Kolbert was a Senior Research Administrator with the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Executive Producer of Justice Talking, an award-winning weekly public radio show about law and American life. Hosted by NPR's Margot Adler, the program was distributed for nine years by National Public Radio to 110 stations nationwide and to 140 countries around the world via NPR Worldwide and Armed Forces Radio Network.

Kolbert also created Justice Learning, an award-winning educational web-site produced by the Policy Center with the New York Times Learning Network. Since 2000, Justice Talking and Justice Learning have won 20 national journalism awards, including the 2005 WEBBY in the law category. Kolbert also managed civics education initiatives in high schools, libraries and jury rooms, a new project to use simulation games to teach journalists about the First Amendment and Justice Talking's Constitution Day programming.

Kolbert is the co-author of four Justice Talking and Justice Learning books, including the new Hip Pocket Guide to the United States Constitution and Our Constitution, (coauthored with Don Ritchie) published by Oxford University Press. In 2006-7, she headed the International Women Leaders Global Security Initiative on behalf of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands in partnership with the Council of Women World Leaders, The White House Project and the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum.

Kolbert is one of the nation's leading experts in legal, legislative and policy issues concerning women's reproductive health. Prior to joining the Annenberg Public Policy Center, Kolbert had a long and distinguished career as a public interest attorney specializing in women's reproductive rights. She has participated on the legal team of nearly every abortion case in the Supreme Court from 1986-1997.

From 1992 until 1997, Kolbert served as Vice President and co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York where she directed its domestic litigation and public policy programs. Kolbert has also served as the State Coordinating Counsel of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project in New York and as a Staff Attorney with the Women's Law Project and Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. In 2000, she completed a two-year Individual Project Fellowship with the Open Society Institute.

A graduate of Temple University School of Law and Cornell University School of Arts and Sciences, Kolbert has been an adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania for over 25 years and has lectured at colleges and universities across the nation. She has also been a frequent commentator on women's rights and health in the national media.