Wendy Chavkin, M.D., M.P.H.
Key Collaborator

Dr. Chavkin is Professor of Clinical Public Health and Obstetrics/Gynecology at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Dr. Chavkin currently serves as the director of the Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellowship and as the chair of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. From 1999 to 2003, Dr. Chavkin was an associate editor for The American Journal of Public Health and from 1994 to 2002 she was Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. From 1984 to 1988 she served as the director of The Bureau of Maternity Services and Family Planning in New York City’s Department of Health.

Dr. Chavkin received her medical degree from the State University of New York in 1978 and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, in 1981. She has written extensively about women’s reproductive health issues for over two decades, including the consequences of welfare reform for the health of women and children, occupational health and concerns during pregnancy, reproductive health in medical education, abortion in medical education, HIV, and illegal drug use in pregnancy. Dr. Chavkin is the recent recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship for research on fertility decline and the empowerment of women in an international context.

Areas of expertise
Reproductive health policy, with focus on policies affecting poor and minority women and the intersection between gender, work and social reproduction.

Selected recent publications

Chavkin W, Chesler E, eds. (2005) Where Human Rights Begin: Essays on Health, Sexuality and Women, Ten Years after Vienna, Cairo and Beijing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Handler A, Zimbeck M, Chavkin W, Adams EK. (2003) The Effects of Welfare Reform on the Reproductive Health of Women. In Wallace HM, Green G, Jaros KJ, eds., Health and Welfare for Families in the 21^st Century. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 149-163.

Chavkin W. (2003) Diagnosis and Prognosis: Women Physicians and Women’s Health. In Morgan R, ed., Sisterhood Is Forever. NY: Washington Square Press, 378-386.