Jody Steinauer, MD, PhD

Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair of Education, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Director, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
Director, Innovating Education in Reproductive Health
Director, UCSF Fellowship in Family Planning
Director of Research and Evaluation, Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program
 

Dr. Steinauer is thrilled to lead the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health into the next era, as we continue to improve sexual and reproductive health care, access, and policy worldwide. She is deeply committed to equitable and patient-centered health care, and believes diversity and inclusion are essential to attain this goal. She works to ensure that Bixby’s cutting edge research shapes the future of education and health care policies.

To help improve clinical care, Dr. Steinauer launched Innovating Education in Reproductive Health (IERH) in 2012. IERH creates free curricula and learning tools about sexual and reproductive health – including abortion – for clinicians and learners in the health professions. Over 10,000 viewers from more than 150 countries have watched IERH’s pioneering video-based online abortion course, which is available in English, Spanish and French. In her role with the national office of the Ryan Residency Training Program, Dr. Steinauer has trained faculty in 28 medical schools in empathy and professionalism in family planning care. She has personally worked with hundreds of medical students, residents and fellows at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to train the next generation of health care experts.

As part of her commitment to equity in care, Dr. Steinauer conducts research focused on how clinicians can provide patient-centered care for patients toward whom they feel negative emotions. She collaborates with many investigators on research exploring how to make contraceptive counseling more patient-centered and how to make abortion care more accessible and even safer. In collaboration with trainees and physicians of color at UCSF and reproductive justice experts around the country, IERH is now creating a comprehensive social justice-informed curriculum on equity in sexual and reproductive health care.

As a medical student, Dr. Steinauer founded Medical Students for Choice.