Anne Firth Murray has worked at the United Nations as a writer, has taught in Hong Kong and Singapore, and has spent several years as an editor with Oxford, Stanford, and Yale University presses. For the past twenty-five years, she has worked in the field of philanthropy, serving as a consultant to many foundations.

She is the founding president of The Global Fund for Women, established in 1987, which provides funds internationally to seed, strengthen, and link groups committed to women's well-being. She is currently a consulting professor in the human biology program at Stanford University.

Ms. Murray has served on numerous boards and councils of nonprofit organizations, currently including the African Women's Development Fund, Commonweal, GRACE (a group working on HIV/AIDS in east Africa), the Hesperian Foundation, and UNNITI (a women's foundation in India). She is the recipient of many awards and honors for her work on women's health and philanthropy, and in 2005 she was among one thousand women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Murray has one daughter, who is an attorney in California, and two grandchildren. She lives in Menlo Park, California.