Dr. Chelsea B. Polis is an epidemiologist who works towards improving global sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on issues including contraception, abortion, FemTech, HIV/STIs, and infertility. She serves as a Principal Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. She was awarded the 2023 John Maddox Prize by Sense About Science and Nature for defending scientific integrity, and was selected for the 2024 WomenLift Health leadership program.
Her collaborations with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have informed updates to global contraceptive guidance used by healthcare providers worldwide. Her 60+ peer-reviewed publications have been cited over 4,900 times in the academic literature, as well as in over 160 policy documents across 20+ countries.
Chelsea advocates for reliance on high quality scientific research in policies and programs, particularly when considering controversial issues in public health. She has testified to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and spoken with Congressional staff about the necessity of relying on scientific evidence to avoid unnecessary politicization of reproductive health. During 2020-2022, she successfully defended against a frivolous $1M lawsuit by a for-profit company in a classic SLAPP suit for sharing her scientific and regulatory concerns pertaining to their misleading marketing of a fertility device. Her work led to the retraction of the company's flawed paper and to FDA forcing the company to change its marketing language. She advocates for anti-SLAPP laws to protect researchers' free speech.
Dr. Polis holds a PhD (2005-2009, postdoc 2009-2011) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (where she maintains an Associate appointment in the Department of Epidemiology) and a BA in medical anthropology from Brown University (1998-2002). Her career spans roles at Ibis Reproductive Health (2002-2005), USAID (2011-2014), the Population Council's Center for Biomedical Research (2022-2025), and the Guttmacher Institute (2014-2021, 2025-present). She serves on the Editorial Board of Contraception and envisioned and led (as Executive Guest Editor) a special issue focused on the 'Emergence of FemTech in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Landscape'.
Chelsea is active in scientific communications, and believes it is important for public health professionals to engage with the public and the media. She has been featured in over 350 outlets including BBC News, Time Magazine, NPR, CNN, The Economist, Scientific American, STAT News, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Popular Science, and other outlets. She is also a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, a membership organization of researchers working to increase the accessibility of scientific findings to non-researchers, improve policy, and strengthen democracy.
Connect with Chelsea on Bluesky: @cbpolis.bsky.social
Her collaborations with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have informed updates to global contraceptive guidance used by healthcare providers worldwide. Her 60+ peer-reviewed publications have been cited over 4,900 times in the academic literature, as well as in over 160 policy documents across 20+ countries.
Chelsea advocates for reliance on high quality scientific research in policies and programs, particularly when considering controversial issues in public health. She has testified to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and spoken with Congressional staff about the necessity of relying on scientific evidence to avoid unnecessary politicization of reproductive health. During 2020-2022, she successfully defended against a frivolous $1M lawsuit by a for-profit company in a classic SLAPP suit for sharing her scientific and regulatory concerns pertaining to their misleading marketing of a fertility device. Her work led to the retraction of the company's flawed paper and to FDA forcing the company to change its marketing language. She advocates for anti-SLAPP laws to protect researchers' free speech.
Dr. Polis holds a PhD (2005-2009, postdoc 2009-2011) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (where she maintains an Associate appointment in the Department of Epidemiology) and a BA in medical anthropology from Brown University (1998-2002). Her career spans roles at Ibis Reproductive Health (2002-2005), USAID (2011-2014), the Population Council's Center for Biomedical Research (2022-2025), and the Guttmacher Institute (2014-2021, 2025-present). She serves on the Editorial Board of Contraception and envisioned and led (as Executive Guest Editor) a special issue focused on the 'Emergence of FemTech in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Landscape'.
Chelsea is active in scientific communications, and believes it is important for public health professionals to engage with the public and the media. She has been featured in over 350 outlets including BBC News, Time Magazine, NPR, CNN, The Economist, Scientific American, STAT News, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Popular Science, and other outlets. She is also a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, a membership organization of researchers working to increase the accessibility of scientific findings to non-researchers, improve policy, and strengthen democracy.
Connect with Chelsea on Bluesky: @cbpolis.bsky.social