Get Involved!

Join our network of supporters in advocating for change by participating in various activities.

Attend Virtual Events with guest speakers and our Global Partners to stay informed and connected with our work. Express your thoughts on population-related issues by writing LTEs or Op-Ed pieces, amplifying your voice on critical topics. Become a local advocate by raising awareness in your community—share resources, foster conversations, and be a catalyst for change. Take direct action by contacting your representatives, urging them to prioritize investments in family planning programs. Stand up for reproductive rights by working with our sister organization, Population Connection Action Fund.

Together, we can create a powerful force for positive transformation! Learn more about how to get involved with our efforts below.

UN CPD Virtual Side Event

What’s the story with family planning? How women’s empowerment, reproductive freedom, and storytelling build healthier, more sustainable communities

We’re marking the 58th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development with a virtual side event! Joining us for a 90-minute panel discussion are conservation experts, compelling storytellers, and population stabilization advocates.

Reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy are key to advancing SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being. During the panel, speakers will showcase how their organizations’ work helps remove barriers to family planning and empowers women and girls, leading to healthier, more prosperous communities. Improving access to reproductive healthcare also brings the added benefit of slowing population growth, allowing for more sustainable natural resource management, conservation of vital ecosystems, and greater climate change resilience.

Date: Thursday, April 10th
Time: 12 pm ET/9 am PT

Register Here!

Earth Day Presentation with John Seager

Deadly Silence: Ignoring Overpopulation Risks the Future of Our Living Planet

As our global population continues to grow, so do the pressures on our environment, natural resources, and climate. Yet, discussions about overpopulation still remain largely absent from mainstream sustainability conversations.

Join us for a discussion featuring Population Connection President and CEO John Seager, who will present the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to stabilize global population. During his presentation, John will highlight rights-based solutions such as improving access to family planning, providing quality education for all, and promoting sustainable economies to shape a more balanced future for people and the planet.

Date: Tuesday, April 22nd
Time: 2 pm ET/11 am PT

Register Here!

Page Turners Book Club

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Through a collection of insightful essays and conversations, Johnson’s 2024 New York Times bestseller features diverse experts—including farmers, financiers, architects, and advocates—to envision a flourishing world where climate action triumphs. The book uses data, poetry, and art to offer a multifaceted perspective on addressing the climate crisis at the intersections of science, policy, culture, and justice. Johnson invites readers to move beyond apocalyptic narratives and instead imagine and strive for a transformed and replenished world. She asks, “What if we get climate action right?”

Date: Thursday, May 8th
Time: 4 pm ET/1 pm PT

Register Here!

Katherine Schwarz

Member Since 2005

Katherine Schwarz has been an avid environmentalist for most of her life, inheriting an appreciation for the natural world from her mother at a young age. As a child, she loved to spend time hiking in the woods. Her love of animals inspired her to become a vegetarian at age 13. Kathy was 16-years-old on the first Earth Day, when she walked the busy intersections of her hometown and filled up bags of litter.

Bringing her passion for the environment to everything she does, she connected her knowledge in public health and nutrition to the environmental degradation that was getting worse since that first Earth Day, the global population that kept growing at a tremendous rate, and the obvious result: more food insecurity on the planet.

Kathy saw this firsthand when she worked for two years as a nutritionist at a hospital in Zomba, Malawi (sub-Saharan Africa) from 2004 to 2006. There was a special ward in the hospital for malnourished children. In that ward, Kathy observed a local Malawian nurse teaching mothers how spacing their children further apart would ensure enough food for the whole family.

Kathy returned to the U.S. even more committed to helping others make “the population connection.” Fueled by witnessing communities struggle with food insecurity while losing access to essential reproductive health care services, she explains: “I was making that ‘population connection’ every day and seeing the need for family planning with my own eyes and through my work with malnourished children.”

When asked how she has the “population connection” talk with family and friends, Kathy leads by sharing her personal choice not to have children. She personally never felt a desire for children but also lost her fertility during cancer treatments. “Ultimately, I would never even suggest to anyone that they not have children—I believe in choice. I also believe […] that all women should be educated and empowered to decide how many [children] they want to bring into this world—and have access to the [family planning services] to do that.  But if I were 29 today, and still had my fertility, I would not want to bring a child into this world to face all the environmental and political degradation that has happened in my lifetime.”

In addition to tabling for Earth Day on behalf of Population Connection, Kathy is a frequent attendee at virtual events, including our quarterly Page Turners Book Club.

Through her activism, Kathy says she wants to raise awareness of the fact that the growing global population, which has now surpassed 8.2 billion, results in natural resources being consumed faster than they can regenerate. She knows how important it is to discuss these topics to break the taboos around population and consumption issues and to help others understand the value of empowering and educating women. “This is a tough issue, no doubt. Making that ‘population connection’ is recognizing that what we really need are some big personal and even bigger cultural changes. It is a bigger picture and a bigger challenge, but it’s ESSENTIAL!”

Our team extends a HUGE thank you to Kathy for her dedication to our mission and commitment to raising awareness of population issues. If you’re interested in attending our virtual events, we encourage you to contact us at engage@popconnect.org. You’ll be in good company!

Membership Relations Staff