Penny Pullen

Penny Pullen is president of Life Advocacy Resource Project and editor of our Life Advocacy Briefing. A nationally recognized advocate for Life, she served 16 years in the Illinois House, where she was chief spokesman for the right to life, for home-based education and generally for pro-family policies. Her legislative accomplishments include abolition of the state inheritance tax and enactment of a pioneering package to foster traditional public health policies in confronting the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

She has served in three national posts, appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National Council on Educational Research and Improvement, again by President Reagan to his President’s Commission on the HIV Epidemic, and by President George H. W. Bush to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation. She served her party from 1984-1988 as Republican National Committeewoman from her state and has attended three of her party’s national conventions.

For 14 years, Penny served on the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council and served throughout its duration on the board of Project Reality, the abstinence-centered education pioneer. She has also served as president of Eagle Forum of Illinois and of two local Republican women’s clubs, one of which she founded. Immediately after leaving public office, she launched the Illinois Family Institute, serving 18 months as its first executive director.