Bonnie Ruder co-founded Terrewode Women’s Fund in 2014 and leads the organization as Executive Director. After working as a midwife in the US for over 15 years, she and her family moved to Soroti, Uganda to conduct research with TERREWODE in 2011. The experience led Bonnie to dedicate her life’s work to improving maternal health and ending obstetric fistula.

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Bonnie holds a PhD in medical anthropology and a master's degree in international public health, with over three decades of experience in maternal reproductive health. She is also a licensed midwife with more than 20 years of experience, working primarily in the United States. She has attended births in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and at a regional referral hospital in Soroti, Uganda. 

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Her research has explored obstetric fistula and maternal health, traditional birth attendants, and social justice and systems of oppression — with reproductive justice as a throughline across projects in Uganda, Somalia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the United States.