Chief Scientific and Technical Officer
Dr. Andersen sets Ipas’s strategic technical direction and research agenda in support of the organizational strategic plan and mission. She leads Ipas’s work to understand and advance key issues in abortion and contraception care; such as increasing evidence for women’s self-use of medical abortion, measuring abortion quality, as well as abortion care for women experiencing gender-based violence and women in humanitarian settings. Her teams develop and implement strategies that build evidence to strengthen Ipas’s impact and ultimately, to increase women’s and girls’ access to safe abortion. During her 14-year tenure at Ipas, Dr. Andersen previously managed significant research activities at Ipas and provided technical support and guidance to researchers across the organization. She has extensive experience in research, monitoring and evaluation to Ipas programs across south Asia and Africa. She also serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as Consulting Editor for Research Methods for the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.