FCM's Christine Dehlendorf, MD, MAS has been named the recipient of the 2022 Society of Family Planning Beacon of Science Award. The award recognizes individuals or teams who have made marked, visionary contributions towards just and equitable abortion and contraception informed by science.
On the impact of science on shaping policy and practice, Dr. Dehlendorf said in an interview with the Society of Family Planning, “I have always believed that science and research has the potential to move us towards justice. However, it also can reinforce oppression, depending on what questions are asked and how the results are interpreted. We need to expand our thinking about what questions can and should be asked and answered, and who should ask them, if we are truly going to move the needle towards equitable and person-centered reproductive health care.”
As a family physician with fellowship training in family planning and a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research, Dr. Dehlendorf is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, with additional appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
I have always believed that science and research has the potential to move us towards justice. However, it also can reinforce oppression, depending on what questions are asked and how the results are interpreted. We need to expand our thinking about what questions can and should be asked and answered, and who should ask them, if we are truly going to move the needle towards equitable and person-centered reproductive health care.
Christine Dehlendorf, MD, MAS
Department of Family and Community Medicine
Director, Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program
She founded and directs the Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program, which aims to advance reproductive autonomy and well-being by conducting research and designing programs that center people’s experiences and preferences for sexual and reproductive health and health care, guided by attention to the intersecting oppressions and structural injustices that impact people’s lives and health. She has a particular interest in measurement as a means to promote equity and justice-informed care, including having developed a measure of person-centered contraceptive counseling that has been endorsed by the National Quality Forum and participating in a collaborative effort to develop a definition and measure of Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing. She provides care in the San Francisco Bay Area.
