User:ProLifeDC/Charmaine Yoest Rewrite

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. is President & CEO of Americans United for Life (AUL).

Yoest was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the July 2009 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whom Yoest unsuccessfully opposed. As part of AUL's opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Yoest authored an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on March 4, 2010 that detailed the reasons for opposing the legislation. On July 1, 2010, Yoest testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee (and Solicitor General) Elena Kagan. Yoest also opposed Kagan's nomination and called for a Senate investigation into alleged discrepancies in Kagan's testimony related to partial-birth abortion.

In 2011, Yoest was profiled by The Christian Science Monitor. The article points out that she "is not shrill, rigid, or somehow provincial in values or experience. She is not a fire-and-brimstone finger wagger, though faith is a centerpiece of her life."

In February 2012, a story in The Washington Post entitled "Meet the woman who got Komen to defund Planned Parenthood" discussed Yoest's role in the initial decision by Susan G. Komen for the Cure to stop giving funds to Planned Parenthood. Also in 2012, Yoest was appointed to the Congressional Award Board by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Education
Yoest earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College. . She studied at Oxford University under bioethicist David Cook. She earned a doctorate in politics from the University of Virginia. Yoest's dissertation dealt with parental leave policies.

Career
Yoest came to work in Washington D.C. as an appointee in the White House during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. She worked as Project Director of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia. Yoest was awarded Mellon, Olin, Bradley, and Kohler fellowships She served as Vice President for communications at the Family Research Council. In 2008 she was a senior adviser to Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign.

Yoest co-authored Mother in the Middle, an examination of childcare policy.

Personal Life and Family
Yoest, her husband Jack Yoest and their five children reside in a suburb of Washington, D.C.. She is a breast cancer survivor.