Stephanie R. Chung, MSPH

Reproductive Health Researcher

I’m Stephanie Chung, a researcher, educator, and advocate passionate about reproductive health, equity, and justice. I am completing my PhD in Maternal and Child Health with a minor in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where my work focuses on improving access to person-centered, high quality reproductive healthcare, both here in the United States and around the world. I am also a part-time Associate Scientist with FHI 360, where I work on creating a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure of contraceptive-induced menstrual changes (CIMCs) for contraceptive clinical trials.

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© Stephanie R. Chung. All rights reserved.

About

My path to public health began with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Washington and Lee University, where I also studied Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Poverty and Human Capability Studies. Since then, I’ve managed community mental health programs in Washington, DC, completed my MPSH in Maternal and Child Health at UNC Chapel Hill, and collaborated with global partners in Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Madagascar, and South Africa on reproductive health research.Currently, I am funded on an NIH F31 for my doctoral dissertation research, which investigates how structural inequities and inappropriate medical contraindications shape patients’ access to preferred contraceptive methods in Kenya’s public health system.I am also a part-time Associate Scientist at FHI 360, where I work across projects on contraceptive access, measurement, and innovation.

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CV

Want to know more about my background? View my CV by clicking on the picture to the right!

Reasons for Non-preferred method use in Kenya

This arm of my research is funded by an F31 from NICHD. I use mystery client data, in-depth interviews with providers, and standardized vignettes to better understand why women leave public health facilities without their preferred method of contraception.

Autonomy-Focused Intervention Evaluation

Also funded by my F31 from NICHD, one of my dissertation papers is evaluating two social accountability interventions for their effectiveness in reducing non-preferred method use in Kisumu.

The Role of Inappropriate Medical Contraindications (IMCs) in preventing preferred method use

Do medical reasons prevent women from using preferred contraceptive methods? One medical barrier to accessing preferred methods could be that providers misapply contraindication criteria. In this paper, published in Contraception, we found that providers self-reported inappropriately restricting contraceptive methods, especially for women of larger body sizes. In this paper, published in Women's Health, we found that medical rationales were used as tools of contraceptive coercion.

Measuring Contraceptive-Induced Menstrual Changes (CIMCs) In Contraceptive Clinical Trials

With FHI 360, I am working on a team that is developing a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure for reporting changes to the menstrual cycle in contraceptive clinical trials. See some our work on CIMCs here:Systematic literature review of measurements of changes to the menstrual cycleExpert consultation recommendations for how to measure and analyze CIMCs in contraceptive clinical trials

Developing a Measure of Adolescent-Centered Contraceptive Counseling

With Dr. Bianca Allison's Adolescent Research Lab, I am supporting the development and validation of a new measure of the person-centeredness of adolescent contraceptive care.