Felicia Stewart, MD

Co-Founder, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
Co-Founder, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH)

Biosketch:

It is with great sadness that the Bixby Center announces the passing of our co-founder and co-director, Dr. Felicia Stewart, in April of 2006.  Dr. Stewart's leadership and vision helped make the Bixby Center what it is today, and she will be dearly missed by her colleagues and staff.

San Francisco Chronicle article

Felicia Stewart, MD, was an Adjunct Professor and a co-director of the Bixby Center.  She also served as the director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH).  A reproductive health specialist and abortion provider herself, Dr. Stewart dedicated much of her career to designing research and policies that made safe, effective contraception and abortion accessible to women who need it.

Prior to her appointment as a member of the faculty at UCSF, Dr. Stewart directed the Reproductive Health Program at The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation for 3 years; she was responsible for grant making in the field of reproductive health and in supporting the Foundation’s work with media and public education.  From 1994 through 1996 she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she helped formulate and implement domestic and international policies on family planning and population issues.  In this position she had direct responsibility for management of the National Family Planning Program (Title X) and the Adolescent Family Life Program (Title XX). 

Prior to her appointment in the Department of Health and Human Services in 1994, Dr. Stewart was in gynecological practice as a member of the Sutter Medical Group, a large multi-specialty medical group in Sacramento, California.  She served as Director of Medical Research for Sutter Medical Foundation, and was responsible for developing a program of clinical research for the medical group as a whole.  Her special research interest in contraceptive development led to numerous clinical studies carried out in conjunction with her clinical practice.  She also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the CONRAD (Contraceptive Research and Development) Program that oversees research funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Her experience included work as Associate Medical Director for Planned Parenthood of Sacramento Valley, and as a part-time staff physician at the Student Health Service at California State University at Sacramento, and at Planned Parenthood of San Francisco.  She also served as a clinical faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.  Dr. Stewart authored Understanding Your Body: The Concerned Woman's Guide to Gynecology and Health, a non-technical reference book, and co-authored Contraceptive Technology, a major reference source in the field of family planning.  She was a nationally recognized lecturer, and spoke frequently to both professional and non-technical audiences.

Dr. Stewart's projects at UCSF included patient preference for and use of contraceptive methods, advanced provision of emergency contraception, teen pregnancy in diverse communities, gender power and risk for sexually transmitted disease and unplanned pregnancy, integration of early abortion into women’s primary care, and the economics of abortion provision.



For a complete list of publications, please click here: Publications on PubMed.

Citations:

  • Henderson JT, Hwang A, Harper CC, Stewart F. Safety of mifepristone abortions in clinical use. Contraception. 2005:72(3):175-8.
  • Foster DG, Biggs A, Amaral G, Brindis C, Navarro C, Bradsberry M, Stewart F. Estimates of Pregnancies Averted Through California's Family Planning Waiver Program in 2002. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 2006:3(38):126-31.
  • Henderson, JT, Hwang A, Harper CC, Stewart F. Safety of mifepristone abortions in clinical use. Contraception. 2005:3(72):175-8.
  • Stewart FH, Hwang AC. The Abortion Pill: Can a New Technology Change an Old Controversy? American Sexuality Magazine. Vol 1; 2003 Nov 8:2.
  • Stewart FH, Shields WC. ARHP Editorial. Contraception. 2003:67(4):251.
  • Foster-Rosales A, Stewart FH. Contraceptive Technology. In: Wingood GM, DiClemente RJ, eds. Handbook of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publisher; 2002.
  • Stewart F, Harper C, Ellertson C, Grimes DA, Sawaya GF, Trussell J. Clinical breast and pelvic examination requirements for hormonal contraception: Current practice vs evidence. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2001:17(285):2232-9.
  • Hatcher RA, Trussell J, Stewart FH. Contraceptive Technology. 17th Revised ed. New York: Ardent Media; 1998.
  • Trussell J, Stewart F. Efficacy implications of making the pill available over the counter. In: Samuels SE and Smith MD, ed. The Pill: From Prescription to Over the Counter. Menlo Park: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; 1994.