NEW YORK – Physicians for Reproductive Health (Physicians), a network of doctors across the country working to improve access to reproductive health care, announced Dr. Kristyn Brandi’s role as the organization’s new board chair, effective immediately.
Dr. Brandi, an obstetrician-gynecologist who provides abortion care in New Jersey, is Latinx and has focused her work as a physician and researcher around racial bias in reproductive decision-making. She takes great pride in her teaching and mentoring others about abortion care, receiving an ACOG CREOG National Faculty Award and a Gold Humanism Award. Dr. Brandi is an outspoken advocate and her recent work and writing has also been highlighted in TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, NPR, Vox, among other publications.
I am a doctor not despite of, but because of, a family and community that supported me when the odds were against a person like me wearing a white coat.
“I walk through life at the intersections of many labels. I grew up as a woman of Puerto Rican descent that now stands at a time when Puerto Ricans are not considered by some to be national citizens. I am a bisexual cis-gendered woman. I am a doctor not despite of, but because of, a family and community that supported me when the odds were against a person like me wearing a white coat. There is so much work left to be done to get people like me to the places I am honored to stand in now.”
Dr. Brandi began her advocacy in 2017 as a fellow with Physicians’ Leadership Training Academy, a program that prepares physicians across the country to become lifelong leaders in reproductive health advocacy.
“The training I received through Physicians’ Leadership Training Academy helped me find my voice as an advocate. The Academy gave me the tools to demystify reproductive health care to those who don’t yet support it. Physicians helped give my passion for justice a direction and this work now feels even more so like a calling.”
As board chair, Dr. Brandi will serve as a national spokesperson for Physicians, and work to ensure that health care providers center patients in the conversation about abortion care.
I want everyone to feel confident about the bodies they are in and be able to understand how they work without politics blocking the facts.
“I want people to have full control over their bodies and decisions. I want people to be able to exercise their reproductive life goals—if they have them—free of personal and political coercion. I want patients to have access to the same reproductive health care regardless of their zip code, their reproductive history, the labels they carry, or their doctors’ preferences. I want everyone to feel confident about the bodies they are in and be able to understand how they work without politics blocking the facts.”
Physicians CEO and President, Jodi Magee said, “As part of Physicians’ leadership, Dr. Brandi will help mobilize the medical community to ensure that everyone has access to the reproductive health care they deserve. We are really thrilled to have Dr. Brandi join us at this critical time for our country and for our organization.”
For more information or to schedule interviews with Dr. Brandi, please contact Jen Girdish at [email protected] or 202-716-9694.
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