Resources

Career Development

Institute for Clinical Research Education 

The Institute for Clinical Research Education (ICRE) is a multidisciplinary institute that provides training in clinical and translational science and medical education. 

MWRI Training Programs

Magee Women's Research Institute and Foundation's (MWRI) culture of tenacity, creativity, fire, and focus continues through their varied educational programs for all levels of academic development, including faculty and postdoctoral scholars, graduate and medical students, even college and high school students.

The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center

The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center provides educational programs, resources, and consultation to health care organizations with the goal of optimizing quality, cost-effective health care for LGBTQIA+ people.

Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy

The Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy prepares physicians to become lifelong leaders in reproductive health care advocacy by helping them develop and internalize the skills they need to be powerful, effective advocates for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.

Preparing Future Faculty Program

The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program is a national movement to transform the way aspiring faculty members are prepared for their careers. PFF programs provide doctoral students, as well as some master’s and postdoctoral students, with opportunities to observe and experience faculty responsibilities at a variety of academic institutions with varying missions, diverse student bodies, and different expectations for faculty.

ReproJobs

ReproJobs believes in the radical possibility that organizations within the reproductive health, rights, and justice movements can lead the progressive movement by providing healthy, supportive, and empowering workplace environments that include inclusive cultures, generous policies, and thriving wages.

At the University of Pittsburgh

Maternal and Child Health Equity Scholars

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Dara Mendez, the Maternal and Child Health Equity Scholars program has served as a platform for learners and early-career researchers to exchange ideas, network, and collaborate on projects related to health equity, reproductive justice and maternal and child health. Resources and opportunities discussed and shared among the group focus on anti-oppression scholarship and critical race theory. 

Maternal/Perinatal and Reproductive Health Research Hub

Founded in 2021 by Dr. Jill Demirci, the Maternal/Perinatal and Reproductive Health Research Hub aims to increase the pace and impact of research in maternal, perinatal, and reproductive health science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. The Hub holds collaborative meetings and works in progress sessions, hosts a speaker series, funds pilot research, and supports grant development, research awards applications, and dissemination efforts (e.g., writing for publication).

Black Women and Femmes Health Initiative 

Through continuous community engagement and facilitation from Black-women led experts in strategic development, the Black Women and Femmes Health Initiative aims to develop a Black Women's Health Agenda for Allegheny County

Center for LGBT Health Research

The health problems faced by the LGBTQIA+ community are often the same as those in the general population. In some cases, however, LGBT people have been found to be at greater risk for health problems such as breast cancer, HIV, hepatitis, and stress-related conditions. As a result, the Center for LGBT Health Research was created to understand and improve the health of the LGBT community by maintaining an infrastructure that provides research concerning LGBT health and wellness needs.

Center for Health Equity 

Since 2011, the Center for Health Equity (CHE) seeks to understand and ultimately eliminate health inequities in under-resourced, vulnerable, and underserved communities and populations, particularly those in Western Pennsylvania. CHE addresses issues attributed to institutional racism, builds strategic partnerships across sectors and communities, acknowledges a social equity in all policies perspective, and the public sector's role in achieving health equity for its citizenry. 

The Center for Bioethics & Health Law

The Center for Bioethics & Health Law brings together clinicians, scholars, and researchers from schools and disciplines across Pitt to investigate issues in bioethics and health law by employing empirical, philosophical, humanities, and legal research methods. It was founded in 1986 on the premise that questions posed by contemporary healthcare and research are not the province of any single discipline but require the collaborative integration of insights garnered from myriad disciplines. 

Transgender Working Group

The Transgender Working Group is comprised of faculty, staff, and students from various groups and departments across Pitt. The group studies best practices in higher education, evaluates current University processes, and makes recommendations for creating a more inclusive campus for transgender individuals. The Working Group has implemented trainings for staff and faculty, responded to individual concerns or issues, and provided guidance on university wide initiatives such as the preferred name initiative.

Perinatal Health and Behavior Lab

The Perinatal Health and Behavior (PHAB) lab's goal is to improve the psychological, physical and emotional health and wellness of perinatal people through research, education and training. PHAB is particularly interested in understanding relationships among mood, eating, weight, smoking and other health behaviors prior to, during and after pregnancy and in developing, adapting, testing and providing interventions to address the needs of women and families from all backgrounds during this perinatal period.

Reproductive Justice

Overview Reading List
  • Sister Song developed an overview of understanding reproductive justice that address the following topics to help the reader understand the concept of Reproductive Justice by addressing the following questions: 1) What is Reproductive Justice? 2) How did the Reproductive Justice framework evolve? 3) How does SisterSong popularize the Reproductive Justice framework? 4) How does Reproductive Justice connect U.S. issues to global issues? 5) How can Reproductive Justice transform the Pro-Choice Movement?
     
  • In examining the intertwining histories of the reproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice movements, researchers at Berkley consider the relationship between law and social movements, including the limits of law to inform radical social movements. In this article, they highlight how the relationship between scholarship and activism on the right to not have children has expanded to include notions of the right to have children and the right to parent with dignity. 
     
  • Loretta Ross writes about reproductive justice as intersectional feminist activism in how it has built bridges between activists and the academy to stimulate thousands of scholarly articles, generate new women of color organizations, and prompt the reorganization of philanthropic foundations. This article defines reproductive justice, examines its use as an organizing and theoretical framework, and discusses Black patriarchal and feminist theoretical discourses through a reproductive justice lens.
     
  • The Black Mamas Matter Alliance's toolkit on Advancing the Human Right to Safe and Respectful Maternal Health Care lays the groundwork for policy change while highlighting Black mamas’ human right to safe and respectful care. This toolkit provides a comprehensive overview of information and resources on Black maternal health and identifies action policymakers can take to address maternal health within the human rights and reproductive justice frameworks. 
     
  • The Reproductive Justice Briefing Book is a primer on reproductive justice and social change that was developed by Sister Song. 
Indigenous and Native Resources

Reproductive justice is severely limited for American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Historically, Native women faced forced sterilization and infant separation as tools of settler colonialism. A study by NORC, titled Towards an Indigenous Reproductive Justice: Examining Attitudes on Abortion among American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, describes attitudes toward abortion among American Indian and Alaska Native communities in relation to political party affiliation and ideology in order to set the necessary groundwork for reproductive justice advocacy in a post-Roe v. Wade era.

Black and African American Resources
  • SisterSong is a Southern based, national membership organization; their purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities.
     
  • New Voices for Reproductive Justice builds a social change movement dedicated to the health and well-being of Black women and girls through leadership development, Human Rights and Reproductive Justice. 
     
  • In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, femmes, and girls. 
     
  • SisterReach supports the reproductive autonomy of women and teens of color, poor and rural women, LGBTQIA+ people and their families through the framework of Reproductive Justice. SisterReach achieves this work through a 4-pronged strategy of education, policy & advocacy, cultural shift and harm reduction, and our reach is local, regional, national and international.
     
  • SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW serves as an entry point and leadership pipeline for new social justice leaders, and a political home for Black women and young people, centering Black queer women, trans folx and folx living outside the gender binary. SPARK utilizes arts, culture and media to build resources for and shift narratives about their communities. SPARK engages in power building through grassroots organizing, advocacy, knowledge-building, and political development of their base and members in Georgia and across the US South.
Latine, Latina, and Latinx Resources

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice builds Latina/x power to fight for the fundamental human right to reproductive health, dignity, and justice. They center Latina/x voices, mobilize their communities, transform the cultural narrative, and drive policy change. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice amplifies the grassroots power and thought leadership of Latinas/xs across the country to fuel a larger reproductive justice movement.

Asian and Pacific Islander Resources
  • The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only organization focused on building power with AAPI women and girls to influence critical decisions that affect our lives, our families and our communities. Using a reproductive justice framework, NAPAWF elevates AAPI women and girls to impact policy and drive systemic change in the United States. 
     
  • The South Asia Reproductive Justice and Accountability Initiative (SARJAI) is a network of organizations, independent lawyers, and legal experts from the region working to advance reproductive rights. The network is committed to advance access to safe reproductive healthcare, secure legal recognition of women and girls’ reproductive rights, and hold governments accountable for their failure to guarantee such rights in law and policy.
LGBTQIA+ Resources
Disability Resources