About Family Planning Elevated

Caitlin Quade serves as Program Director for Family Planning Elevated, bringing nearly a decade of experience in international and domestic contraceptive access work.

Caitlin oversees technical training and program implementation across the FPE CAP network of 27 community clinics in Utah. She is thrilled to be able to combine her background in health care provider training with her passion for reproductive autonomy by facilitating person-centered contraceptive counseling trainings for FPE CAP clinics and partners.

Caitlin’s pronouns: she/her

David Turok completed training in family medicine at Brown University and Ob/Gyn at the University of Utah. Currently he is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah where he directs the Family Planning Division. He also serves as the Director of Surgical Services at Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. He runs the multidisciplinary Family Planning Research Group at the University whose current focus is the HER Salt Lake Contraceptive Initiative. This community-wide collaboration with Planned Parenthood Association of Utah prospectively tracks social and health outcomes for 4,400 women in Salt Lake County who received no-cost contraceptive care. This program expanded to the state-wide contraceptive initiative, Family Planning Elevated. He is the principal investigator of several NIH, industry, and foundation grants overcoming barriers to contraception and developing new contraceptive methods. His local and national research mentoring efforts are supported by a NIH mid-career research and mentoring award.

Dave’s pronouns: he/him

Rebecca is a public health scientist with expertise in evaluating implementation interventions around sexual and reproductive health, in both domestic and global settings. She oversees the evaluation of Family Planning Elevated and is passionate about ensuring that FPE measures, reports, and disseminates the program’s results to partners and the community. In addition to directing evaluation efforts for FPE, Dr. Simmons conducts research assessing how contraceptive use and needs change over the life course. She is also involved in research on fertility-awareness based methods.

Rebecca’s pronouns: she/her

Dr. Jessica Sanders is an Assistant Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She serves as the Director of Family Planning Research and the Policy Director for Family Planning Elevated. Dr. Sanders received her PhD in Public Health from the University of Utah with an emphasis in reproductive epidemiology and Women’s Health. In recent years, Jessica has devoted much of her time to ensuring that research is used to inform and promote evidence-based policy in Utah and beyond. Dr. Sanders approaches contraceptive access through a public health lens, advocating for the full range of reproductive health options through interdisciplinary academic and clinical research to ensure an evidence-based and person-centered approach to education, policy and clinical care.

Jessica’s pronouns: she/her

Maddy received her Bachelors degree in Public Health from the University of Rochester and serves as the Administrative Manager for Family Planning Elevated. As Communications Manager, Maddy oversees communications, media campaigns, marketing, and the internship program for FPE and the Family Planning Division. Maddy is passionate about finding a long-term sustainable solution to helping individuals get the contraceptive care they want with out cost or distance being a barrier.

Maddy’s pronouns: she/her

Alex Gero is a Research Associate and is part of the Family Planning Elevated Evaluation team. She received her Master in Public Health from Boston University with a focus in epidemiology. Alex puts her passion for public health surveillance to good use at FPE by managing the collection and analysis of FPE clinic data. With the rest of the evaluation team, she also designs and implements surveys meant to capture the knowledge and experience of a broad range of community partners involved with FPE.

Alex’s pronouns: she/her

Jessica Lewis-Caporal, DNP is a Nurse Practitioner specializing in family planning at the University of Utah. She is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and will act as a community resource and provide clinician training and support as part of the Family Planning Elevated Program.

Jessica’s pronouns: she/her

Jami Baayd is a public health researcher whose passion is studying disparities in sexual, reproductive and maternal health outcomes. Jami’s background is in maternal global health, where she quickly learned that she was eager to understand not only if an intervention works, but also how and why it works. It was her fascination with understanding the complexity of interventions as they unfold that drew Jami to joining FPE as the process evaluator. Jami is also the program director of the LIFT Simulation Design Lab, which conducts family planning simulation trainings with each of the FPE CAP clinical sites.

Jami’s pronouns: she/her

Erica received her Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of Utah and serves as the Project Facilitator for Family Planning Elevated. As Project Facilitator, Erica manages the day-to-day operations of Family Planning Elevated, the billing and reimbursement protocol for FPE’s Contraceptive Access Program (FPE CAP), and event management for FPE’s Contraceptive Education and Training Conferences. Erica is passionate about serving and advocating for supportive policies for acceptance and implementation of family planning interventions

Erica’s pronouns: she/her

Sarah is the Operations Manager for the Family Planning Division. She has a background and expertise in business and program operations and is studying for her Master’s in Public Health. She is passionate about equal care access and reducing barriers that exist in the State of Utah to contraceptive care.

Sarah’s Pronouns: she/her