Smile Train is a non-profit organization that Brian Mullaney and Charles Wang founded in 1999 in New York City, New York, that provides resources and trains medical staff in over ninety countries to give free surgeries to children in need of cleft repair. Clefts are birth defects that affect one in 700 children all over the world. They occur when the roof of the mouth, or palate, the lip, or both have a gap or split, because the tissues and bones did not fuse properly during fetal development. Surgeons typically repair clefts within the first year of life because clefts can often cause problems with eating, speaking, breathing, and hearing. Beyond providing cleft surgeries, Smile Train also supports the needs of children with clefts with services such as speech therapy, dental care, and psychological and nutritional support. Smile Train helps provide better access to cleft surgery and care for thousands of children worldwide, which improves the quality of life for people born with the developmental condition.

In February 1975, leading biology researchers and lawyers participated in what became known as the Asilomar Conference, a meeting to discuss and recommend policy regarding novel recombinant DNA, or rDNA, technology. rDNA is DNA that scientists create in a lab by combining genetic material from two distinct sources. A group of researchers, including Paul Berg, Maxine F. Singer, and David Baltimore, organized the Asilomar Conference, which was held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. The purpose was to discuss how to manage the risk of researchers unintentionally creating harmful or deadly pathogens through rDNA research. The conference resulted in the creation of the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules in 1976, which outlines biosafety guidelines for researchers working with rDNA. The Asilomar Conference was one of the first instances when scientists gathered independently to discuss and establish precautionary guidelines for research using rDNA, a technology with the potential for wide-reaching applications for medicine, biology, and reproduction.

In 1991, the US National Institutes of Health, or NIH, launched the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI, which is one of the largest and one of the first long-term, nationwide studies of health conditions affecting postmenopausal females in the United States. Menopause is defined as the point in time twelve months after a female has had her last menstrual period. After menopause, females face higher risks of certain conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases. In 1991, Bernadine Healy, a physician who studied cardiology, became the first female director of the NIH and founded the WHI because she observed that research into female health was lacking. The WHI initiated several clinical trials to study whether changing diet, taking supplements, or undergoing hormone therapy could alleviate menopause symptoms. The trial of hormone therapy identified risks associated with that treatment and generated controversy. Despite the controversy, the WHI was one of the first organizations to produce comprehensive research into treatments and preventative methods for menopause symptoms, thereby improving healthcare options for postmenopausal females. 

The Vaginal Microbiome Consortium, or the VMC, established in 2007, consists of a group of researchers, clinicians, statisticians, and geneticists who study the impact of the vaginal microbiome on women’s health. Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia operates the VMC. The United States National Institutes of Health, or the NIH, funds the VMC’s ongoing project called the Vaginal Microbiome Project. Thousands of women have contributed samples for use in research studies by the VMC, which its members have used to research the communities of microorganisms that live in the vagina. A balanced vaginal microbiome can decrease the risk of preterm birth and sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, and pelvic diseases, which helps support women’s health. Researchers can use the VMC’s findings to develop genetic sequence testing for pregnant women to predict preterm birth, which accounted for 10.4 percent of live births in the United States in 2023. The VMC’s research in reproductive health has allowed physicians to prepare birth and treatment plans that improve maternal and infant health and survival.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, or ASAN, is a non-profit organization, based in Washington, D.C., that is operated by and for autistic individuals. Self-described autistic self-advocates Ari Ne’eman and Scott Michael Robertson founded the ASAN in 2006. Autism spectrum disorder, or autism, is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. As of 2025, an estimated one in thirty-six individuals is autistic. According to the ASAN website, Ne’eman and Robertson created ASAN because there were no autistic individuals involved in national discussions affecting autistic individuals and due to the prevailing view that researchers needed to find a way to cure autism. ASAN aims to spread awareness about the value of autistic individuals by providing them with support rather than a cure and by including them in societal decisions like law-making, research, and education. As of 2025, ASAN has around twenty-nine affiliate groups across the US, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, and Australia that share the mission of advocating for fair treatment and equal opportunities for autistic individuals and for general improvements to their lives.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, or ACLU of Arizona, is an organization that protects individual liberties through support for legislation, litigation of problematic laws, and public education. Tucson, Arizona, residents Alice Bendheim, Helen Mautner, and Cornelius Steelink established the ACLU of Arizona on 22 June 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona, and Tucson, Arizona. Among other activities, the ACLU of Arizona challenges restrictive abortion laws in Arizona through litigation, advocacy, and public education. The ACLU of Arizona is part of the national ACLU, which advocates for the rights of all people in the United States. Attorneys managed two chapters in Arizona in 1959, with the goals of influencing policy against systemic injustice and protecting the civil rights of all Arizonans. The ACLU of Arizona is one of the largest organizations that advocates against restrictive abortion laws through filing legal motions to safeguard abortion access and supporting initiatives like the Arizona for Abortion Access proposition, to ensure reproductive freedom and uphold the right to access abortion for people in Arizona.

The Human Genome Diversity Project, or HGDP, was an effort led by US-based scientists to collect DNA from members of Indigenous communities living around the world for the purpose of understanding human history, migration, and evolution. Launched in 1991, and led by Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a scientist at Stanford University in Stanford, California, the HGDP initially had the support of US funding agencies. However, the project eventually lost that support when representatives of Indigenous groups protested the project as being exploitative and fellow scientists accused it of racism. Though the project ultimately failed to collect most of the samples it had originally planned, the HGDP was one of the first attempts by scientists to catalogue worldwide human genetic variation, and the DNA samples it did collect formed the basis of many subsequent research studies concerned with understanding human genetic variation and migration patterns.