Reflecting on her extensive career in healthcare innovation, Fjerstad shares, “When mifepristone was approved in the US, I had a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to focus on one important healthcare innovation: integration of mifepristone medication abortion into the US healthcare system. I had a blank slate to figure out how to do this. Many innovators and allies worked with me. I traveled throughout the country to provide on-site training to all levels of staff. Soon, we also provided hands-on training in ultrasound and later produced an interactive CD. I produced a newsletter, highlighting the innovators and successes. I collected data about how many medication abortions and first-trimester procedures each affiliate provided per quarter. This data also captured all adverse events. The database subsequently led to publications in the journal Contraception and The New England Journal of Medicine. This database wasn’t perfect, but it was the largest database in the world about mifepristone medication abortion. I used these experiences to help introduce and integrate medication abortion into healthcare services in Nepal, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, The Federal District of Mexico, Canadian provinces and New Zealand.” 

Mary (she/hers) is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award. In early adulthood, Mary worked with a team of midwives and doctors in the poorest county in rural Tennessee. In the late 1970s, this group formed a small nonprofit to work with indigenous Mayans in the highlands of Guatemala. Mary worked with the team there to provide emergency care with Citizens Band radios placed in the surrounding villages. The midwives provided prenatal care and home delivery. Mary and her team saved some lives. Nonetheless, some people died; babies died of tetanus, children died of polio, whooping cough, and typhoid and many of all ages died of disseminated tuberculosis. Contraception, prenatal care, vaccinations, and safe abortion were not available for this population. In the late 1990s, Mary was a Nurse Practitioner administrator at Planned Parenthood in San Diego, one of the 18 study sites participating in the US clinical trial that led to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone. She was frequently the clinician providing care on day three, when patients returned to the clinic to receive misoprostol. Mary saw that medication abortion physiologically was virtually identical to spontaneous abortion. To some, this method was more acceptable than instrumentation. As part of her work training, collecting data, conducting research, and consulting with healthcare systems, Mary visited many villages, clinics and hospitals throughout the world. She believes that medical abortion has saved hundreds of thousands of lives globally, if not more. 

Dr. Popkin (she/her/hers) is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Beacon of Science Award. She is a program director in the Population Dynamics Branch (PDB) at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Dr. Popkin manages NICHD’s programs in social, demographic, and behavioral research on sexual and reproductive health, fertility, and infertility. She originally joined PDB in 2016 as a program analyst and became a program official in 2019. Her research interests focus on social and behavioral research on sexual and reproductive health, adolescent health, gender and health, sociogenomics, and health and risk communication. She is also the PDB contact for NICHD’s Small Business programs. Dr. Popkin earned her PhD and MPhil in sociomedical sciences, an interdisciplinary program in public health and sociology, from Columbia University, where she was supported by an NICHD-funded T32 grant. She holds an MS in curriculum and instruction/health education and a BS in women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her mixed-methods research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, American Association of University Women, and the Horowitz Foundation.

Asked to reflect on the importance of mentorship, Dr. Rice says, “I see mentorship as a deeply rooted imperative, especially in a time of large disinvestment affecting our national workforce, plus part of building freer, more just reproductive futures. Ones born out of community building, care, and resistance. I have the honor to direct and engage in research centers and teams that foster actionable research toward such a vision. Some of the greatest parts of the work I get to do are the people involved, particularly those that I/our projects offer access, guidance, and resources to. Their recognition and surprise effort to “give [me] flowers” here, reflects a valued reciprocity (thank you!).” 

Dr. Rice (she/her/hers) is a recipient of the Society of Family Planning Mentor Award. She is an Associate Professor of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences, Director and PI of the Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast (RISE) at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH), and a Co-Director within the Center to Advance Behavioral Health among Pregnant/Postpartum Women at Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory. Dr. Rice contributes expertise in participatory reproductive and maternal health services and policy research to her portfolio of research into social and structural factors that impede or enable reproductive and maternal health outcomes, care delivery, and scholarship, often in partnership with collaborators most proximal to social, systems and policy change. She is a public-facing scholar, who has discussed this work in expert witness testimony and in the media. Dr. Rice was awarded an inaugural Emory RSPH Faculty Leadership Award in 2023 as well as the Outstanding Young Professional Award by the American Public Health Association Sexual and Reproductive Health Section in 2019. Dr. Rice completed a BS degree in literature, media, and communication at Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management at Emory, and a Doctor of Public Health degree in Health Care Organization and Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also completed HRSA Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence-funded Doctoral Traineeship, and an AHRQ T32-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in Health Services, Outcomes and Effectiveness Research.

Asked what drives her to do research, Dr. Johnson says: “I am driven by four core themes: 1) Solving problems: Reproductive oppression relies on the assumption of powerlessness. I believe in using our training and resources to conduct rigorous research that solves problems — rejecting the idea that our current conditions are inevitable, and determined to stay energized by the prospect of building a better world. 2) Challenging the status quo: Family planning and demography were built on racist, ableist, and sexist assumptions about who “should” build a family. We have a duty to challenge this history throughout our scientific inquiry, and to stay creative and open to interrogating our methods, theories, and findings. 3) Empowering young people: Young people are brilliant, resilient, and have the greatest stake in our future. We must create more opportunities for them to build power. 4) Working together: I’m an organizer at heart. Real change requires bringing everyone in — community members, researchers, clinicians, lawyers, activists — and learning from their expertise.”

Dr. Johnson (she/her/hers) is the recipient of the Society of Family Planning Next Generation Award. She is dedicated to conducting, supporting, and disseminating innovative research that advances reproductive equity and justice. Her work focuses on access to abortion and contraception, with an emphasis on adolescents, self-managed abortion, and the safety and effectiveness of medication abortion. She received her BA in Sociology and Social Justice from the University of Minnesota and worked as a community organizer in the Upper Midwest. She went on to receive her MPA and PhD in public policy and demography from The University of Texas at Austin, followed by postdoctoral training as a Health Disparities Research Scholar at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Johnson believes wholeheartedly in scholarship for public education and policy impact. Her research has informed amicus briefs in landmark US Supreme Court cases, including Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v FDA. She has written on abortion, contraception, and adolescents for outlets such as The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Slate, and Ms. Magazine, and her research appears in peer-reviewed journals including JAMA, the American Journal of Public Health, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Contraception. In addition to writing and research, she co-chairs the Board of Directors at Jane’s Due Process and serves on the steering committee of the Feminist Demography Collective.