Reflecting on her extensive career, Dr. Espey shares, “My involvement with the Society of Family Planning helped me, along with many others, to increase synergy throughout professional organizations to advance science for advocacy in public policy. I have also had the privilege to lead our University of New Mexico team to build an impressive academic Complex Family Planning program and to join with state-wide partners —the ACLU, reproductive justice organizations, and other healthcare organizations — to keep our state on the path to reproductive freedom. By focusing on science, the Society ensures the integrity of its policy and practice guidance to support reproductive freedom and equity.”

Dr. Espey is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award.  She is a prominent reproductive health advocate renowned for her expertise in family planning, contraception, and abortion care. Her research focuses on improving access to contraception and advocating for reproductive autonomy and freedom, particularly among underserved communities. Dr. Espey is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico. In addition to her clinical and academic roles, Dr. Espey is a passionate educator and mentor, committed to training the next generation of obstetrician gynecologists. She has been a key figure in national organizations such as ACOG where she contributed to developing clinical guidelines and policy statements. She is a past President of the Society of Family Planning and immediate past President of the Council of University Chairs of Ob-Gyn. She was instrumental in helping Complex Family Planning achieve ACGME subspecialty status and is a member of the ABOG Complex Family Planning Division. She has received numerous awards for her teaching and leadership, reflective of her dedication to excellence in medical education and patient care. Her experiences working with New Mexico’s diverse communities inspired her lifelong interest in public health policy, advocacy, research, and her unwavering commitment to reproductive health.

Analyzing the impact of science on equity, Dr. Gómez says, “I came to this work as an immigrant who grew up in Western Kentucky, when virginity pledges were popular and sex ed was non-existent. This, combined with the stories of gender inequality and reproductive loss experienced by the women in my family, really lit a fire in me to make a difference in sexual and reproductive health. Now, I am especially motivated by partners at community-based and reproductive justice organizations who have entrusted me with the absolute privilege of bearing witness and using rigorous methodologies to co-create knowledge that can make a difference for their communities.”

Dr. Gómez is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Beacon of Science Award. Anu Manchikanti Gómez (she/her) is a scholar of sexual and reproductive health equity who uses participatory and engaged approaches to produce knowledge that centers the communities most affected by reproductive oppression. As an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare and the director of the Sexual Health and Reproductive Equity Program, she has a long track record of conducting innovative and rigorous research that puts reproductive justice into practice and that has affected programs, policy, and practice. Her ongoing projects focus on advancing birth equity and contraceptive access. Dr. Gómez is co-PI on the evaluation of the Abundant Birth Project (ABP), the first guaranteed income program for pregnant people in the US. Initially a pilot program in San Francisco launched by Expecting Justice, ABP has now expanded to five California counties. The evaluation seeks to identify the impact of unconditional income supplementation on adverse pregnancy outcomes, maternal mental health, and infant development among Black-identified program participants. Dr. Gómez is also currently leading a project focused on contraceptive misinformation — documenting its presence on TikTok, understanding how it affects young people, and developing strategies to disrupt it. Other recently completed projects include a national, stakeholder-engaged effort to advance person-centered metrics of contraceptive access and a participatory study of facilitators and barriers of implementing pharmacist-prescribed contraception in rural California.

Asked to reflect on the importance of mentorship, Dr. Stulberg says, “I love working with medical students, and when I get really lucky, they stick around as residents, fellows, and then become colleagues! In this case, I am honored to be nominated by a Complex Family Planning fellow who started working with me on research when she was an amazing medical student doing her summer research project. She has led multiple studies of different methods, continuing to grow and evolve in her skills, and now mentoring junior trainees herself. I also love that in our institution, as a family physician I have the privilege of working with students, residents, fellows, and colleagues from a huge range of disciplines. Of course my goal is to recruit the best medical students into Family Medicine! But the respect I have for my Ob-Gyn Complex Family Planning colleagues, and the collegiality they extend to me, means that it is accepted and normal when I, as a Family Medicine researcher, mentor students, residents, and fellows from Ob-Gyn or other fields.” 

Dr. Stulberg is a recipient of the Society of Family Planning Mentor Award. She is Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago. She joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2007, with a primary appointment in Family Medicine and secondary appointments in Obstetrics and Gynecology Section of Family Planning and Contraceptive Research, and the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Stulberg graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her Family Medicine residency at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. She received a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where she also completed fellowship training in Primary Care Research and Clinical Medical Ethics. Her research focuses on reproductive health service delivery in the US. This includes studies on incorporating reproductive health in primary care, addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in pregnancy outcomes, and understanding how institutional policies affect care delivery. She directs the Reproductive Health Outcomes and Disparities (RHOADs) Research Group and co-directs the Research Consortium on Religious Healthcare Institutions. She co-founded and co-directs the ExPAND Mifepristone learning collaborative. Dr. Stulberg provides patient care at a federally qualified health center on Chicago’s south side.

Asked about just and equitable abortion research, Ms. Hassan says: “Over the years, I have displayed a strong passion and commitment to developing a body of research that seeks to understand and dismantle structural barriers to reproductive equity. The Society of Family Planning has been the single most impactful membership of my career so far. From receiving the Emerging Scholars award, attending the last six Annual Meetings, and leveraging the Society’s networks and funding opportunities, I have been given the tools to grow as a researcher devoted to reproductive health equity and justice. The Society community’s support of young and emerging scholars is incredibly special and rare; I give so much credit to it for building my confidence to contribute to equitable family planning research informed by science.”

Asha Hassan is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Next Generation Award. She is a PhD candidate in the health services research PhD program, a Graduate Assistant at the University of Minnesota Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE), and Research Scientist and Manager at Planned Parenthood North Central States. Her research focuses on conceptualizing structural oppression’s relationship to family planning access and decision-making, understanding the reproductive health effects of police violence, and assessing the intersections of disability and reproductive justice in clinical policy. In 2020, Ms. Hassan was named a Society of Family Planning Emerging Scholar, and in 2021 a National Birth Equity Research Scholar. Her academic writing is published in several top health journals including, NEJM, JAMA, and HSR. Ms. Hassan strives to be a publicly accessible scholar giving frequent expert interviews on racism, equity, and reproductive health with media outlets like ProPublica, CNN, NBC, and The Guardian.