Diana Foster, PhD, MA

Diana Greene Foster is a Demographer and Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH).

Dr. Foster uses quantitative models and analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unintended pregnancy on women’s lives. She led the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal prospective study of almost 1,000 women who received or were denied wanted abortions from 30 facilities across the United States. She also leads a Global Turnaway Study, documenting the experience of women denied abortions in five other countries where it is legal: Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, South Africa and Tunisia.

In addition, Dr. Foster studies women's preferences for specific contraceptive features, including IUD self-removability and over-the counter-access to oral contraceptives. Her work evaluating Family PACT, the California State family planning program, demonstrated the effectiveness of the program in reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancy, as well as the financial and health benefits of dispensing a one-year supply of contraception. Dr. Foster also created a new methodology for estimating pregnancies averted, based on a Markov model and a microsimulation to identify the cost-effectiveness of advance provision of emergency contraception.

Dr. Foster received her undergraduate degree in Political Economy of Natural Resources from UC Berkeley, her MA in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, and her PhD in Demography and Public Policy from Princeton University.