Director
Dr. Alison Huang is Professor of Medicine, Urology, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics; Director of Research for General Internal Medicine at UCSF Health; and a clinical scientist dedicated to advancing scientific understanding and improving management of the impact of aging on women’s health and genitourinary health. She has designed and led multiple NIH-funded randomized trials of pharmacologic, behavioral, and integrative health interventions in midlife and older women that leverage findings from her epidemiological research on urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, and menopause symptoms. She has also developed and validated patient-reported outcome measures of genitourinary health and function in older women of diverse backgrounds that have been adopted and translated into multiple languages by investigators in the U.S. and internationally. She directs NIH-funded training programs and teaches clinical research methods courses for early-stage investigators based in the UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and the UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute. With the support of an NIH K24 mentoring award, she mentors early-stage investigators in designing clinical research studies and launching research careers focused on diverse aging women's health, genitourinary health, and behavioral, pharmacologic, and integrative health interventions.
Co-Director
Dr. Vanessa Jacoby is a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences; Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research; and Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Her own research focuses on improving care for people with uterine fibroids, driven by patient-centered outcomes, community partnerships, and recruitment of underrepresented study populations. Dr. Jacoby has led multiple clinical trials of new, minimally invasive treatments for people with fibroids, including MR Guided Focused Ultrasound, laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation, and aromatase inhibitors. Her work has also addressed long-term health outcomes following hysterectomy and oophorectomy, particularly for people who are carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 pathogenic variants who undergo risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy. With the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Jacoby worked with multi-disciplinary collaborators to launch the PRIORITY study, a nationwide study of pregnant people and their newborns with COVID-19 (priority.ucsf.edu). This work led to further study of long-term outcomes following COVID-19 infection during pregnancy in the RECOVER study (recovercovid.org). Dr. Jacoby is also a dedicated mentor who has been involved in many research training programs at UCSF, including the CTSI K Scholars Program, the K12 Women's Reproductive Health Research Program, and the ARCHES program for faculty from historically excluded groups (archesprogram.ucsf.edu).
Co-Director
Dr. Gibson is a psychologist based at the San Francisco VA (SFVA), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and a health services researcher focused on women’s physical and mental health related to menopause and aging. Her current work examines women Veterans’ mental health, the impact of interpersonal trauma on health during menopause and aging, cannabis use in midlife, and complementary and integrative health approaches to menopause management. She is a member of VA Women’s Health Research Network workgroups advancing reproductive health services research in VA and a core investigator with the SFVA Stress and Health Research Program and the SFVA/UCSF Center for Healthcare Improvement and Medical Effectiveness. She provides research mentorship in women’s health through the SFVA Advanced Fellowship in Women’s Health Research, SFVA Psychology Internship and Postdoctoral Residency Program (Scholarly Project/Research Placement), UCSF Psychiatry Residency Area of Distinction in Women’s Mental Health, and UCSF Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Program. As a psychologist in the SFVA Women’s Mental Health Program, she also provides integrated behavioral health services and interdisciplinary consultation in the Comprehensive Women’s Health Clinic, evidence-based group psychotherapy, and clinical supervision to psychology trainees.
Administrative Director
Ann manages the administrative operations for the Women’s Health Clinical Research Center and is the Senior Project Director for multiple research studies focused on urinary incontinence, menopausal hot flashes, cardiovascular disease, and women’s health. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical research management, overseeing the start-up through the close-out of several multi-center clinical trials, longitudinal cohorts, and pilot trials. Ann studied Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles and before joining the Women’s Health Clinical Research Center in 2003, she worked in clinical operations and academic administration.