Gretchen sisson
Gretchen Sisson, PhD is a sociologist in the research group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the University of California, San Francisco. She has spent the last decade studying adoption and contemporary birth motherhood, conducting over 100 in-depth, qualitative interviews with birth mothers, and deeply considering the experiences of women who have relinquished infants for domestic adoption. In response the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in early December, she published invited op-eds in the Washington Post and The Nation, and had her work cited in New York Magazine, VOX, and NPR’s All Things Considered and Consider This, along with many other outlets.
In addition to studying adoption, Gretchen is a preeminent expert on depictions of abortion in American popular culture. As the lead investigator for the Abortion Onscreen program, she has tracked a century’s worth of abortion stories in film and television and published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on the content and impact of such portrayals. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, TIME, and New York Magazine, and covered on Good Morning America, Newsweek, Vox, Teen Vogue, Glamour, InStyle, Elle, The Daily Beast, Salon, Slate, Bitch, Ms. Magazine, Romper, Insider, Refinery29, andMarie Claire. Gretchen speaks frequently with screenwriters and showrunners about television’s abortion stories and has consulted with the writer’s room for Grey’s Anatomy.
Outside of her work as a researcher, Gretchen serves on the Boards of Directors for Emerge America and Women Donors Network Action Fund, and on the steering committee for Electing Women Bay Area. Her work as a donor has been featured on NPR and in San Francisco Magazine, and she has strong connections to movement and elected leaders all over the country.
Gretchen received her undergraduate degree from Amherst College and her doctorate from Boston College. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and three young children.