ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT: SALLY GUTTMACHER

Why Am I An Activist?

I am an activist because working to improve the life of others is deeply rewarding on many levels. Engaging with an important issue and to effect change, even moderate change, that makes other people’s lives easier or less painful or even a little bit longer has been the most important goal of every major project I have taken on in my work life. Being able to see real change in people’s lives is more rewarding than any professional honor or high-profile publication. Additionally, struggling alongside colleagues to make a difference is an invigorating intellectual experience that helps me think about things in new and productive ways and creates deep personal bonds through shared purpose.

My Activist Background

My father Alan Guttmacher, who was a committed activist in women’s reproductive rights and social justice, encouraged me to be an active participant in making the world better from my very early youth. He may have inherited it from his dad who came to the United States from Germany to be one of the first Reform Rabbis in the United States. 

I started on my own personal journey of activism during graduate school, and the desire to support people through helpful interventions led me to switch fields from anthropology to public health. My activism was also influenced by the Vietnam war and the great spirit of activism that grew around the anti-war movement. This also made me want to take a leadership role in my own community and address injustices I saw in everyday life.

At Columbia University, I was elected to represent graduate students on the newly formed Executive Committee of the University Senate. During this time, I was one of the founders of Columbia Women's Liberation, where one of our first successes was to get the university to allow women to swim in the Columbia pool. I also became an active participant in public health professional organizations and, due to my activism in support of human rights, led a small group of members of the American Public Health Association to El Salvador to investigate the killing of health professionals during their civil war.

During my career as an academic, I focused my research on issues that were useful to the activist community, studying the availability of contraceptives in New York public schools and the effectiveness of certain types of HIV interventions in post-apartheid South Africa. Later, I became involved in the issue of immigrant rights and the undocumented both in New York City and in Cape Town, South Africa where I worked with NYU students and as a researcher for the past 25 years.

More recently, fearing the attack upon our democracy, I have taken on the issue of voting suppression, and for a year, before joining the Workers Circle Board, chaired the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights. I will continue to be actively involved in voting, immigrant and reproductive rights, and I am proud to direct my current activism as a Board member of the Workers Circle.