Diana Taylor, RN, MS, PhD, FAAN

Professor Emerita, UCSF School of Nursing
Faculty, Primary Care Initiative, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health Program (ANSIRH)
Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, UCSF

Email: diana.taylor@nursing.ucsf.edu

Biosketch:

Diana Taylor, nurse practitioner, educator and researcher, is professor emerita in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Family Health Care Nursing and formerly the Director of UCSF's Women's Primary Care Program, the first women's health training program in California. Currently, she is the director of research for a statewide project to train and evaluate the safety of advanced practice clinicians in first trimester abortion care using a standardized curriculum with the goal to increase the number abortion providers and make professional and practice improvements to normalize abortion into women’s primary care.  Dr. Taylor received her BSN from the University of Oregon, her MS from UCSF and PhD from the University of Washington.

As a researcher, Dr. Taylor has an established track record of multisite clinical intervention studies, federally funded demonstration-evaluation studies, and peer-reviewed publications. Her extensive research program has been directed at the effect of the menstrual cycle on women's health, testing non-drug treatments for stress-related illness in women, and more recently evaluating innovative strategies to expand abortion provision in the U.S. This recent work is highlighted in a policy-shaping publication to advance access to abortion services titled Providing Abortion Care: A Professional Toolkit for Nurse-Midwives, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants with authors Taylor, Safriet, Dempsey, Kruse & Jackson ( www.apctoolkit.org , 2009).

Dr. Taylor has been at the forefront of developing the knowledge base in women’s health, especially the effect of the menstrual cycle on women’s health. Her books include Menstruation, Health and Illness (1992), and An Annual Review of Women’s Health Research (2001). In addition, Dr. Taylor has more than 100 scientific articles and publications in the area of women’s health and has co-authored a science-based consumer health book for women to assist them in managing symptoms and promoting their health (Taking Back the Month: How to Manage PMS and Enhance your Health (2002)). Recently, she has collaborated on practice-based scholarship and new practice models for unintended pregnancy prevention (Evidence to inform policy, practice and education for unintended pregnancy prevention and management, JOGNN 2011) as well as co-author of a technical report on policy options for advancing the reproductive health workforce (Nurse practitioners and sexual and reproductive health services: an analysis of supply and demand, RAND Health, 2012).

Other professional activities reflect her interdisciplinary endeavors on regional, national level and international levels. Specifically, in the development of innovative women's health care delivery models, interdisciplinary education programs, practice standards, and evidence-based practice guidelines, she has served on national boards and committees of the Health Professions Division of the US Public Health Service, the American Nurses Association, the National Organization of NP Faculties, the Association of Women's Health Nurses as well as state and local nursing practice and education committees. Dr. Taylor has also served in leadership roles on scientific panels for the IOM/NAS Board on Children & Families and the IOM Safety of Silicone Breast Implants Committee. Currently, Dr. Taylor is an active board member of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the Reproductive Options Education Consortium, Nursing Students for Choice, and founding Board chair of the San Francisco Women’s Community Clinic.

Among her many rewards and honors for the advancement of clinical practice and research, Dr. Taylor has received the Loretta Ford Nurse Practitioner Advancement Award, the Achievement in Research Award from the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, the Wisdom Keeper Award from the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, the Women Making History Award from the SF Board of Supervisors and the Commission on the Status of Women, and the first Clinicians for Choice Leadership Award. Dr. Taylor has been awarded a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1996 for a residency at its Bellagio Center in Italy and she was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1992 and serves on the Academy’s Women’s Health Expert Panel.

Areas of Interest:

  • The individual woman's experience of symptoms and illness within the context of women's lives
  • The effect of the menstrual cycle on women's health and illness
  • Conducting clinical trials of non-drug symptom management for women’s health & illness
        - Alternative and complementary therapies for women's health conditions
        - Women's health promotion programs
        - Symptom management for complex women's health conditions
  • Normalizing abortion into women’s primary care
  • Applying participatory action research methods to improve women’s primary care delivery
  • Evaluating the relationships between health professional practice and women’s health delivery outcomes
  • Developing and testing unintended pregnancy prevention interventions
  • Promoting competency-based education and training in sexual and reproductive health care.



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


Updated November 2013

Citations:

  • Hwang AC, Koyama A, Taylor D, Henderson JT, Miller S. Advanced practice clinicians' interest in providing medical abortion: Results of a California survey. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 2005:37(2):92-7.