Meet Our Team

Cynthia Harper, PhD, Professor and Principal Investigator

Cynthia C. Harper, PhD, is a Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences and a faculty of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She received her master’s in international and public affairs from Columbia University, doctorate in demography and public policy from Princeton University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research aims to improve family planning policies and service delivery through streamlined access to care. She has worked to remove unnecessary procedures in contraceptive care, including the pelvic examination for hormonal contraception and lengthy protocols for long-acting contraceptives. Her research has supported expanded roles of nursing and pharmacy professions in contraceptive delivery, including over-the-counter access. She has conducted research in emergency contraception that helped to transform clinical practice and policy, and led to the FDA approval of over-the-counter status of levonorgestrel emergency contraception and the removal of the age restriction. Dr. Harper completed a national cluster randomized trial on long-acting contraceptives in 40 Planned Parenthood health centers demonstrating the effectiveness of the UCSF Bixby Beyond the Pill Program's provider training curriculum in reducing unintended pregnancy among family planning clients. Her research team is conducting implementation science with provider training and patient education initiatives in a variety of clinic settings in addition to Planned Parenthoods, including departments of health, hospitals, and primary care. She also heads an initiative to bring contraceptive training and education to community colleges.

Dr. Harper has worked together with investigators in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, including a multi-center NIH study on physicians’ and nurses’ attitudes and clinical practices in HIV prevention and contraception. She has measured the impact of unsafe abortion on maternal morbidity and mortality in developing regions, and has evaluated the impact of policy changes on the safety of services. Dr. Harper is the 2013 recipient of Guttmacher Institute’s Darroch Award in Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research.

Areas of Interest: access to contraception, long-acting reversible contraception, provider training and clinical practices, emergency contraception, adolescent contraception, adolescent contraception, family planning policies, HIV/STI prevention.

Suzan Goodman, MD, MPH, Director of Training

Dr. Goodman serves as Training Director for Beyond the Pill. She conducted IUD and implant intervention site trainings for the UCSF-PPFA National Trial of Contraceptive Acceptability (2009-14), and intervention studies to improve IUD and implant utilization at Planned Parenthood (2004-08). She is also Fellowship and Curriculum Director of the TEACH Program which provides training support, curriculum development, and advocacy in reproductive health for a northern California residency programs. She serves an Associate Clinical Professor at UCSF Department of Family & Community Medicine, a member of Planned Parenthood’s National Medical Committee and Physicians for Reproductive Health's Residency Education Initiative's National Advisory Committee. In addition to her clinical, research and teaching activities, she brings broad experience in international health training and public health advocacy.

Corinne H. Rocca, PhD, MPH, Director of Research

Corinne H. Rocca, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. She received her doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley; an MPH in Population and Family Health from Columbia University; and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University. In her research, Dr. Rocca combines the approaches from her training in social epidemiology with those of demographers and clinicians interested in understanding sexual behavior, contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy. Broadly, her research examines how structural factors, such as access to reproductive health care and cultural norms, affect risk of unintended pregnancy among high-risk populations in the US and South Asia. Dr. Rocca’s research has focused on expanding our understanding of pregnancy intentions, including what influences adolescents’ and women’s attitudes towards pregnancy and how intentions translate into behavior. In her work, she has used quantitative psychometric techniques, including item response theory, to improve the measurement of pregnancy intention, childbearing attitudes, as well as other latent variables important to understanding pregnancy risk.

Alison B. Comfort, PhD, Health Economist

Alison B. Comfort, PhD, is a health economist who received her doctorate in Health Policy (Economics concentration) from Harvard University and her BA in Economics and Spanish from Amherst College. Her research has focused on evaluating interventions to improve reproductive, maternal and child health, both in the United States and in developing countries. She has worked on several randomized controlled trials, including an impact evaluation to assess the effect of providing community health workers with free pregnancy tests for distribution to improve provision of hormonal contraceptives and uptake of antenatal care counseling in Madagascar. She has also evaluated the long-term effects of in-utero conditions on maternal survival later in a woman’s life using secondary data from several African countries and conducted several studies related to malaria, including an impact evaluation assessing the effect of price on demand for anti-malarial bednets. In the United States, she is conducting implementation science research on provider training and patient education in clinic settings to increase contraceptive provision, including through school based health centers. She speaks French, Spanish and Malagasy and previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar.

Jennifer Yarger, PhD, Assistant Researcher

Jennifer Yarger, PhD, is an Associate Researcher in Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences. She received a doctorate in public policy and sociology (social demography concentration) from the University of Michigan, and a BA in Political Science from Wellesley College. Her work focuses on improving access to sexual and reproductive health information and services and reducing disparities in reproductive health outcomes, particularly among adolescents and young adults in the United States. Dr. Yarger has published papers examining racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities in the use of family planning services and related attitudes. In her work with Dr. Harper and Beyond the Pill, she is conducting a cluster randomized trial to test an intervention to increase awareness of and access to contraception among students aged 18-25 in community colleges. She is also engaged in developing and testing new youth-friendly, digital materials to educate youth about the full range of contraceptive methods available to them. Other areas of interest include health insurance and access to care, confidentiality in the provision of family planning services, and the evaluation of state family planning and teen pregnancy prevention programs.

Alejandra Alvarez, MPH, Research Analyst

Alejandra (she/ her) is a Research Analyst for Beyond the Pill. She has a broad background in global health, with experience in data management for clinical trials in Rwanda and Zambia as well as experience with a youth health education program in the Dominican Republic. Before joining the Beyond the Pill team, she was working as a database manager for the San Francisco Department of Public Health with the COVID response Epi Team. She completed her Master’s in Public Health in 2020 in Epidemiology where she focused on global health and infectious diseases

Maya Blum, MPH, Project Director

Maya directs and manages research, training and education activities for Beyond the Pill. Her work focuses on promoting reproductive health through innovation and rigorous research. She has extensive experience implementing high-quality studies in the US and globally, including in Nepal, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Maya received her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and served as Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa.

Stephanie De La Melena, Program Analyst

Stephanie is a Program Analyst for Beyond the Pill, implementing a cluster randomized control trial at community colleges to increase awareness and access to contraception among students. Although she is new to the field of sexual and reproductive health, she has experience assisting physical exams in free clinics in Cape Town, South Africa. She also has experience teaching about reproductive health and nutrition in San Pedro de Cajas, Peru. Stephanie received her BA in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has a passion for reproductive justice.

Sarah Elmes, MS, Research Data Analyst

Sarah is a Research Data Analyst for Beyond the Pill. She received an MS in International and Development Economics from the University of San Francisco and a BA in International Affairs and Human Services from Northeastern University. Sarah has a background in research design and econometric evaluation. She has conducted global health research using geospatial and nutrition data as well as conducted empirical field research in Latin America. She is passionate about using data and research to improve access to health services.

Connie Folse, MPH, CHES, Training and Education Manager

Connie is a Certified Health Education Specialist and has provided reproductive health education and counseling in diverse settings, including Title X clinics, STD/HIV clinics, school-based health centers, middle and high schools classrooms and on college campuses. Since earning her Master’s in Public Health in 2005, she has been providing direct services as well as training medical providers and allied health professionals to talk with both youth and adults about sexuality and contraceptive decision-making. As the Training and Education Manager for Beyond the Pill, she develops nationally-recognized patient education materials and resources around contraceptive options. Connie leads our team of expert health education trainers and manages the accreditation of our national training curriculum. She especially enjoys training clinic staff on patient-centered approaches to contraceptive counseling.

Erica Somerson, MSc, Training Coordinator

Erica (she/her) is the Training Coordinator for Beyond the Pill. She has backgrounds in sexual and gender-based violence prevention and is a fierce advocate for Reproductive Justice, queer liberation, and sex workers’ rights. Prior to joining Beyond the Pill, she worked in youth programming across spheres of education, research, and evaluation. Erica received a MSc in International Social and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BS in Integrated Studies — with foci in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies — from Ball State University.

Dani Van Liefde, Research Coordinator

Dani is a Research Coordinator for Beyond the Pill, working on a randomized control trial to increase awareness of and access to contraception among college students. She has a background in global health, previously working in West and Sub-Saharan Africa coordinating malnutrition research with Washington University School of Medicine and non-profit organization Project Peanut Butter. She also has experience working for the CDC’s National HIV Behavioral Surveillance project at SFDPH. Dani received her Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.