Erica Sedlander, DrPH, MPH
Dr. Sedlander is an Assistant Professor and Social and Behavioral Scientist. Her research portfolio seeks to uncover mechanisms to help women achieve their reproductive goals throughout the life course (from pregnancy prevention to infertility prevention).
Dr. Sedlander developed and validated the G-NORM, a gender norms scale, in India, Nepal, and Uganda. As part of her dissertation, Dr. Sedlander and colleagues also implemented and evaluated a randomized controlled trial in India to improve nutritional behaviors among women using a social norms approach.
In her prior research in Kenya and Ethiopia, she used mixed methods (including social network analysis) to show that women were not using contraception because they (or people in their networks) believed it would make them infertile, which is highly stigmatized. These findings inspired her to examine infertility more closely. She is currently studying beliefs about infertility among men, women, and providers in Tanzania. Given that couples living with HIV have higher rates of infertility but antiretroviral therapy (ART) improves their chances of getting pregnant, she is also studying perceptions about how HIV and ART affect their ability to get pregnant to inform a future ART adherence intervention.