Current Fellows
Samantha Auerbach, PhD, MSN, BSN, WHNP-BC
(2023-Present)
Sam Auerbach earned a PhD in Nursing from the University at Buffalo and a BSN and MSN in Nursing from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. She is a sexual and reproductive health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP-BC) with clinical experience in contraceptive and abortion care. Her program of research examines individuals’ attitudes towards pregnancy, abortion, and contraception, and their relation to behavior and the sociostructural context in which reproductive health decisions are made. Her dissertation work focused on contraceptive decisions among residents of Appalachia and highlighted the role of structural barriers, such as lack of insurance coverage and economic marginalization, and pregnancy attitudes, such as perceived subfertility and pregnancy fatalism, on contraceptive behavior. Using a reproductive justice lens to reflect how systems can constrain behavior choices and shape one’s attitudes and reproductive aspirations, her work aims to dismantle structural barriers to abortion and contraceptive care while centering the reproductive goals and autonomy of the individual. As an ACTIONS Postdoctoral fellow, she working to co-create, support, and evaluate abortion training programs for clinicians and community partners as part of the Reproductive Health Service Corps.
Cory Ellen Gatrall, PhD, MFA, RN
(2024-Present)
Cory Ellen Gatrall (she/her) is an interdisciplinary scholar whose interests lie at the intersections of nursing, history, public health, anthropology, and STS. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master of fine arts in creative writing, she worked as a full-spectrum doula and abortion clinic escort organizer, then became a nurse to turn her passion into her career. She has provided clinical care in labor/delivery/postpartum and abortion services, as well as public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is focused on the analysis, deconstruction, and reconceptualization of structures that stand in the way of health justice and equity. She sits on the board of the Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts, and co-organizes DARLA, the Doula Association for Reproductive Loss and Abortion. As an ACTIONS Postdoctoral fellow, she working to co-create, support, and evaluate reproductive justice curricula for clinicians and community partners in the Reproductive Health Service Corps.
Kierra Otis, PhD
(2026-Present)
Dr. Otis earned her PhD in Gender Studies at Arizona State University. Her research is concerned with the intersection of race, gender, and reproductive health; in particular, Dr. Otis is invested in understanding both the roots of the reproductive health disparities Black women experience and the Black feminist, reproductive justice informed strategies Black women deploy to address these disparities. Dr. Otis' dissertation focused on Black birth workers living and serving in Arizona. Informed by Dr. Otis' own experience as a full-spectrum doula, the ethnographic study explored why and how Black birth workers became involved in the work, what birth workers do and witness as reproductive health workers, and a vision of what Black birthing justice could be.
Allie Wampler Sagaga, DNP, ARNP, WHNP-BC
(2026-Present)
Allie (she/her) earned her DNP from the University of Iowa, and her MSN from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed the Graduate Certificate for Sexual and Reproductive Health reflecting on the history of abortion provision and clinical skill development at the University of Washington. Her work focuses on expanding abortion access and bolstering reproductive autonomy for pregnant people navigating barriers to care, particularly those marginalized by systemic inequities and legislated barriers. Her scholarly interests center advancement of reproductive justice, exploring the lived experiences of individuals forced to seek abortion care out of state, effects of carceral systems and punitive approaches to substance use in pregnancy, and reproductive oppression. With experience providing abortion care, as a sexual assault nurse examiner, and a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner caring for incarcerated women and pregnant people with substance use disorders, she brings a trauma‑informed perspective to her clinical practice and scholarship. Allie seeks to integrate trauma‑informed care, harm‑reduction principles, and reproductive justice frameworks to advance safe, equitable abortion and OBGYN care by bridging clinical practice, research, and advocacy.