Kia Guarino
Program Officer, Global Policy Family Planning, Gates Foundation

Kia Guarino is the Associate Program Officer for Family Planning and Gender Equality in Global Policy and Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). In this role, she works with government, donor, civil society, faith-based, and foundation partners to ensure that family planning and gender equality remain priorities on the local and global levels. Recently, she lead planning efforts for the July 11 Family Planning Summit with DFID, UNFPA, and FP2020 in London, which helped accelerate and facilitate increased access to family planning information and products for women and girls worldwide.

Kia received her BA in Communications and International Studies from Boston College, and worked with Operation Smile as a Program Coordinator in Asia, Central America, and North Africa. She later became Programs Manager for Africa based in Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa working across seven countries throughout the region where she focused on partnership development, government relations, and medical programming.Kia holds a Masters in International Development and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Master of Science in Public Health, International Health Systems from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). She received a Nonprofit Leadership Development Initiative fellowship at SAIS to support her continued work in the sector and the humanitarian assistance award at JHSPH. Prior to starting her current role, Kia worked with Albright Stonebridge Group on Health & Life Sciences client projects, with the Clinton Foundation focusing on Human Resources for Health, and with BMGF on polio eradication and GIS mapping.