1st Annual Faculty Research Lecture in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences
Awarded to Diana Greene Foster, PhD
The Academic Senate is pleased to announce the selection of Diana Greene Foster, PhD, as the recipient of the First Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences for her work on advancing new standards in reproductive health. The lecture, titled “Studying the Consequences of the End of Roe v Wade” will take place on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, from 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. in Byers Auditorium at Mission Bay Campus, with a reception to follow. There will also be a Zoom broadcast.
Lecture Title: Studying the Consequences of the End of Roe v Wade
Date/Time: Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at 3:30-5:00 pm
Location: Byers Auditorium at Mission Bay and Zoom
Zoom Passcode: 712549
UCSF Events Calendar: https://calendar.ucsf.edu/event/faculty_research_lecture_-_diana_greene_foster_phd
Dr. Foster is a phenomenal scientist who has made unique and lasting contributions to one of the most contested medical and policy issues of our times, a pregnant person’s ability to make choices about childbearing. She led the team that took on the full array of misconceptions regarding the impacts of abortion care with her path-breaking research, The Turnaway Study. This ambitious, prospective, longitudinal study examining the consequences of receiving or being denied a wanted abortion in the United States improved women’s lives by providing rigorous scientific evidence about real-life effects of abortion and contraception provision and denial. Her research demonstrated that being denied a wanted abortion has negative consequences for women, including a higher risk of living in poverty, poorer physical health, and a greater likelihood of being tied to a violent partner. Dr. Foster thus positioned science to empirically address—and correct—a range of social assumptions and beliefs about abortion that are otherwise mired in ideology and politics. Dr. Foster’s central achievement was enabling advocates, policymakers, and the general public to understand scientifically what it means to deny access to abortion care to people who can become pregnant.
Using the Turnaway data, Dr. Foster and her team have published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in a broad range of disciplinary journals, as well as one full-length book, The Turnaway Study, published by Scribner Books. Dr. Foster was featured in Nature as one of the 10 people who helped shaped science in 2022 and was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2023. She has given a TED talk (available January 11, 2024), many grand rounds lectures and international talks, including at Universite Sorbonne. She has testified about the importance of access to abortion and contraception in women’s lives, including the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the science of later abortion in March 2016 and, most recently, the United States House Democratic Women’s Caucus in 2022.
In addition to Dr. Foster’s incredible research contributions, we want to highlight her tremendous generosity as a scientific mentor. She has mentored at least seven junior women scholars into UCSF faculty positions with thriving independent research careers from this one study alone. She created a vibrant hub of team science around the study of abortion. She is likewise mentoring investigators globally on conducting research that uncovers the costs of denying abortion care to women in terms of increasing the precariousness of their physical health, the well-being of their children, and household poverty.
Dr. Diana Greene Foster, PhD, is a UCSF professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. She is also a Demographer at the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) Program. She has made consequential and outstanding achievements in the social, behavioral, and health policy sciences throughout her career. She is a national leader in the field of reproductive health affecting policy and clinical practice through her work. It seems only fitting that she be recognized by UCSF for the Faculty Research Lecture in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences.
The First Annual Faculty Research Lecture in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences will be held on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. in Byers Auditorium at Mission Bay Campus and broadcast over Zoom.
The Faculty Research Lecture in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences award was newly established in 2023. This award is bestowed on an individual member of the UCSF faculty with outstanding achievements in social, behavioral, and health policy sciences research. UCSF faculty are asked to consider the outstanding research contributions of their colleagues and submit nominations for this prestigious award to the Academic Senate Committee on Research. The Committee on Research will select a recipient of this award of this award annually.