Sophie M. Morse, PhD, MPP

Sophie M. Morse, PhD, MPP, (she/her) is a Philip R. Lee Health Policy Fellow and is working with the Beyond the Pill team on access and equity in contraceptive health care. Her research focuses on women's health policy and she is specifically interested in the implementation of policies, delivery of services, and health care utilization among women in various contexts. Her primary areas of interest are gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, she has worked on projects ranging from HIV prevention in Uganda to migrant women’s health and well-being in Costa Rica to postpartum access to health care for low-income women in Texas. Prior to starting the fellowship, she was completing her PhD in Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2022-2023, for her dissertation, she was a Fulbright-Hays DDRA grantee in Mexico where she conducted research on the implementation of health policies that address intimate partner violence. Sophie has also consulted for the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization on projects on gender-based violence and health systems. Previously, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda, taught health education at an NGO in the Dominican Republic, and conducted research on the health provider response to sexual violence in Colombia on a Fulbright-U.S. student award. Sophie received her BA in International Studies from Middlebury College, her MPP from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In tandem with her research, Sophie has also volunteered as a sexual assault victim advocate for many years. She lives in Austin with her partner and her dog Moose and loves to dance and bake. She will be coming to San Francisco about once a month and looks forward to meeting IHPS folks both on Zoom and in person!