Chelsea Polis

Dr. Chelsea Polis is a reproductive health epidemiologist in New York City who works towards improving global sexual and reproductive health, including on issues related to contraception, HIV, abortion, and infertility. Most recently, she served as a Senior Scientist for Epidemiology at the Center for Biomedical Research (CBR) within the Population Council. As part of CBR’s leadership team, she advised on product development strategy, provided essential perspective on key attributes for sexual and reproductive health products, and contributed to the understanding of the actual and potential impact of CBR’s work. She also holds an Associate appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She formerly served as a Principal Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, and as a Senior Epidemiological Advisor to the Office of Population and Reproductive Health at USAID. Her collaborations with the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control have contributed to efforts in updating global contraceptive guidance. She was awarded the 2023 John Maddox Prize as an early career researcher by Sense about Science and Nature.

Dr. Polis has published about 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been cited in outlets including BBC News, Time Magazine, NPR, CNN, The Economist, Kaiser Health News, Scientific American, Pacific Standard, STAT News, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Popular Science.

Dr. Polis received her doctorate in reproductive health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her undergraduate degree in medical anthropology from Brown University.