Family Planning Faculty & Staff

Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH – Program Director

Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH
Director, Family Planning

Paul D. Blumenthal, MD, MPH is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Stanford Gynecology Service in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and also directs the Division of Family Planning Services and Research.

He received his medical degree from The University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School in 1977 and, after an internship in Internal Medicine, completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology, both at the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. He completed an additional residency in the Department of Preventive Medicine and a Fellowship in Family Planning and Reproductive Epidemiology at UCLA, under the mentorship of Dr. Irvin Cushner. After completing his postgraduate medical training, he served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (1984-1988) and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya (1988-1990). Dr. Blumenthal joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in 1990, where he directed Women’s Health Research and Programs and served as Director of the Fellowship Program in Family Planning.  He was also an associate in the University’s Population Center, and Director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Program (1999-2005) of JHPIEGO. Since 1988, Dr. Blumenthal has been a consultant to several international programs administered by such agencies as JHPIEGO Corporation, IPAS, Family Health International, Gynuity Health Projects, and the World Health Organization in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Blumenthal is a past medical Director of Planned Parenthood in Maryland (1994-2001) and has been a member of the National Medical Committee of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (1996-2002). He has also served as a special advisor to the World Health Organization on the development of technical guidelines for program managers in abortion care (2000); he has served in a similar capacity since 2005 to help introduce approaches to cervical cancer prevention in settings with limited resources. From 2005-2007 Dr. Blumenthal served as the special Advisor to Minister of Health and Family Planning of the Republic of Madagascar. Under his direction, the newly established Stanford Program for International Reproductive Education and Services (SPIRES) has provided technical assistance and training to family planning and reproductive health programs in 18 countries across Africa, Asia, and Central America.

Kate Ayers Shaw, MD, MS – Faculty

Kate Shaw is a northern California native and completed college at UC Davis with a degree in Nutrition Science. She moved to San Diego where she worked in BioTech until matriculating to medical school at Albany Medical College in Albany NY, where she got her medical degree. She then undertook and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University before coming back to California for a fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford. As a Clinical Assistant Professor she enjoys teaching residents and medical students and her research interests include obesity and contraception, improving patient experience with abortion, decreasing barriers to access for abortion and contraception and use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion care and labor induction.  In addition to her clinical and research interests, Dr. Shaw also acts as the Associate Residency Program Director for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford. 

Amy Voedisch, MD, MS – Faculty

Amy Voedisch was born and raised in a small farming community in Minnesota. She received her B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota for her medical training and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in Santa Clara, California. She worked at Kaiser Santa Clara for two years as an attending physician before starting her Fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford University in July 2009.  Her research interests include expanding access to contraception in low-resource international settings via post-partum IUD insertion. After completing her fellowship, Dr. Voedisch currently serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Gynecology at Stanford University. She enjoys spending time with her husband Nader, her daughter Maya and her two labs Sasha and Simba, in her free time.

Fred Hopkins, MD, MPH – Clinical Associate Professor

Fred Hopkins, who as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, worked with women’s groups developing water-sanitation projects, was inspired by the generosity of African women and the heartaches of the families who lost their wives and mothers to complications of unintended pregnancies. Having trained at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, he investigated Abortion and Pregnancy-related Mortality at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after completing his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico.  Dr. Hopkins helped develop the Ryan Residency Training Program in Family Planning at U.C. San Diego in 1999 and co-directs the Family Planning Services at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for both residency training and collaboration with Stanford’s Fellowship in Family Planning.  Dr. Hopkins enjoys both the tranquility of mountaintops and the vitality of bustling markets in remote corners of the world.

Kamilee Christenson, MD – Clinical Associate Professor

Kamilee W. Christenson, MD is a Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology followed by her medical degree from the University of Southern California in 2008. She then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Permanente in 2012. She recently completed a Fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford, where she also completed a Masters Degree in Clinical Epidemiology from Stanford University.

Jennifer Conti, MD – Clinical Instructor

Jennifer Conti is a Clinical Instructor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a Northern California native and attended UC Davis for her undergraduate work, before moving on to UC San Francisco for medical school. Between medical school and residency, she obtained an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on medical and broadcast journalism. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland and is now completing a fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford University. In the past she has worked with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project and the ABC News Medical Unit headquarters in New York. Her research interests include contraceptive access and the integration of media with reproductive health.

Corinne Siese – Clinical Research Coordinator

Corinne Siese has been working to improve women’s reproductive health for the last decade and has advanced experience coordinating abortion care for women in California. She received her BA in Social Science from California State University-Chico. Corinne coordinates multiple studies within the Family Planning Division, including a clinical trial testing a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system for long-term, reversible contraception (IUD) and a study researching cervical preparation for second trimester abortion.

Klaira Lerma, MPH — Clinical Research Coordinator

Klaira Lerma holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Colorado School of Public Health at University of Colorado-Denver. Klaira has committed herself to advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice, both domestically and internationally. Her family planning experience includes qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, policy advocacy, health education, and direct clinical services. Klaira coordinates multiple studies within the division and is the evaluation coordinator for Stanford Program for International Reproductive Education and Services (SPIRES).