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 among women

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.

J. Joseph Speidel, MD, MPH, Bixby Center Co-Director

J. Joseph Speidel, MD, MPH, joined UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health as a professor in 2003. Dr. Speidel is a cum laude graduate of Harvard College in chemistry and physics and a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. Between 1995 and 2003, he directed the population grants program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—a program that in 2002 provided $35 million for more than 200 active grants for population training, services, research, and advocacy. Between 1983 and 1995, Dr. Speidel served as vice president and president of Population Action International. Previously, Dr. Speidel served as chief of the Research Division and acting director of the Office of Population at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he directed USAID's $125 million annual program of population and family planning assistance. He is a recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding young men in government, the Carl S. Schulz Award of the American Public Health Association for significant contributions to international population work, the Family Planning Visionary Award of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and the Allan

Rosenfield Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Family Planning of the Society of Family Planning. Dr. Speidel recently served as founding co-chair and member of the board of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health & Rights. He currently serves as chair of the board of directors of Population Connection, treasurer of the board of Provide and secretary of the board of Venture Strategies Innovations. He is the author of more than 100 articles and chapters and editor or author of 14 books and monographs on issues relating to family planning, contraception, and population.

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 in Madagascar and is now conducting follow-up research in Uganda to introduce home pregnancy tests to resolve uncertainty about pregnancy status. 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 India, she is investigating the consequences of being uninsured on access to health services and health spending and the implications for longer term poverty. 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 previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar.

Jennifer Yarger, PhD, Assistant Researcher

Jennifer Yarger, PhD, is an Assistant 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 unintended pregnancy, 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.

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.

Marta Cabral, Research Analyst

Marta is a Research Analyst for Beyond the Pill. She works on a cluster randomized control trial testing an intervention to increase access to contraception among community college students. Marta also has experience with qualitative research exploring contraceptive knowledge and attitudes among this population. She holds a BA in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. She is passionate about access and equity in reproductive health care.

Jill Eversole, MPH, Education and Communications Coordinator

Jill is the Education and Communications Coordinator for the Beyond the Pill program. She manages digital communications and educational materials. Jill received her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and a BA in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist. Jill has a background in health and sexuality education, digital media, and research and previously worked for organizations such as Bedsider, Planned Parenthood, and the Public Health Institute. She is passionate about sexual and reproductive health, especially sexuality education and access to birth control.

Connie Folse, MPH, Lead Health Educator

Connie is a Certified Health Education Specialist and has provided health education and counseling in a number of settings, including Title X and STD/HIV clinics, school-based health centers, and university 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 lead health education trainer for Beyond the Pill, Connie trains staff and providers on client-centered counseling approaches and supports educational and outreach efforts with our community college partners.

Caitlin Quade, MPH, Contraceptive Training Specialist

As the Contraceptive Training Specialist for Beyond the Pill, Caitlin trains health facility staff and providers on client-centered counseling approaches and provides technical support for ongoing curriculum development. Prior to joining the Bixby Center, Caitlin supported international family planning and safe abortion initiatives at PSI in Washington, DC, where she worked to develop trainings on informed choice, values exploration, and health care ethics. Caitlin holds an MPH in Global Maternal & Child Health from Tulane University and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia.

Rosalyn Schroeder, MPH, MSc, Research and Evaluation Manager

Rosalyn is the Research, Evaluation, and Data Manager for Beyond the Pill and coordinates the program’s online training, training evaluations and community college research. She received an MSc in Demography and Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She also holds an MPH in Global Epidemiology from Emory University with concentrations in maternal and child health, global health in complex humanitarian emergencies, and human rights.

Abigail Smith, MPH, Training Coordinator

Abigail is the Training Coordinator for the Beyond the Pill program. Abigail received her MPH with an emphasis in epidemiology from Grand Valley State University and a BA in Psychology from Alma College. Abigail has a background in abortion care counseling and contraceptive research with a focus on LARC access. Abigail is passionate about health equity, specifically pertaining to reproductive justice.

Janelli Vallin, Program Analyst

Janelli Vallin is the Program Analyst for Beyond the Pill. She holds a MS in Global Health Sciences from UCSF and a BA in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She has a background in global health and person-centered maternity care research. She is passionate about health equity, reproductive health, and improving access to birth control.