Dr. Laurenia Mangum (she/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Mangum’s extensive clinical expertise spans family well-being, maternal-child health, community health, and community development, where she worked with women and children of under-resourced and historically marginalized communities to promote optimal ...Read more >

Dr. Manalew, a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in Women’s Health at East Tennessee State University, holds a PhD in Economics from Indiana University, specializing in Health Economics and Applied Econometrics, and a master’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University. Originally from Ethiopia, Dr. Manalew served as a university ...Read more >

Dr. Kristen Kirksey is a Project Director at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She received her PhD in sociology from the University of Connecticut and her MPH from Tulane University. Kristen’s professional experience in community health, training in sociology and public health, and positionality as a Black woman from the US South have ...Read more >

Zoë Lucier-Julian, MD, MPH (they/them) is a community-rooted clinician scientist and organizational leader in reproductive health and justice spaces in Atlanta, GA. Informed by reproductive justice and research justice praxis, Zoë’s work aims to achieve sexual, reproductive, and perinatal health equity through intergenerational and interdependent collaboration in health services research. They currently serve as the ...Read more >

Dr. Tyriesa L. Howard is an assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on socio-behavioral interventions to eradicate sexual, reproductive, and maternal health disparities that disproportionately impact Black women and adolescent girls living in the US. She is the director of the Fathers First Initiative at St. ...Read more >

Anindita Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Trained as a public health researcher, and social and behavioral scientist, Dr. Dasgupta’s research focuses on the intersection of gendered inequities of health as they negatively impact the sexual and reproductive health of women and birthing people who ...Read more >

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Duke University in 2016, I dedicated my career to improving women’s health. Motivated by a profound desire to impact women’s health outcomes on both structural and local levels, I completed a Master of Science in Nurse Midwifery and a Doctorate in Nursing Practice, specializing in midwifery, ...Read more >

My professional career trajectory changed since completing my C0mplex Family Planning fellowship in 2016. I entered the subspecialty with a strong desire to pursue abortion and graduate medical education. I started a Ryan Residency Training Program and became an Associate Residency Program Director. However, as I changed institutions, my desire to pursue graduate medical education ...Read more >

Dr. Gaby Alvarado is a physician and an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation who focuses on maternal health and sexual and reproductive health using a reproductive justice framework. She obtained her doctorate in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and her medical degree from the University of Costa Rica. She also ...Read more >

The field of family planning has historically focused on the uptake and continuation of hormonal contraceptive methods, specifically long-acting reversible methods. Our emphasis on the uptake and continuation of hormonal methods perpetuates the idea that these methods are superior to non-hormonal methods, regardless of individual preferences and circumstances, which can lead to stigmatization of non-hormonal ...Read more >