Carol S. Weisman is Distinguished Professor of Public Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Health Policy and Administration at the Penn State College of Medicine, where she has served as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs since 2009. She received her BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Wellesley College and her PhD in Social Relations (Sociology) from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining Penn State, she was Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Professor and Associate Chair of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.
Dr. Weisman is Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Penn State BIRCWH (Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health) K-12 program, founded in 2007, which provides mentored research career development for junior faculty members at Penn State.
Dr. Weisman is Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Women’s Health Issues, having served as Editor-in-Chief from 2003 to 2006. She served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Preventive Services for Women (2010-2011). Recently she has consulted for the Society of Family Planning and for Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at UCSF. She is the author of over 150 publications, including Women’s Health Care: Activist Traditions and Institutional Change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).
Research
Dr. Weisman is a sociologist and health services researcher whose research focuses on women’s health care and policy. Her studies have addressed women’s access to primary and preventive care; organizational models for primary care delivery to women; and the quality of women’s health care. She has a special interest in women’s access to contraception and other reproductive health services, in evidence-based cancer screening for women, and in the impact of the Affordable Care Act on women’s insurance coverage and receipt of recommended preventive services. She has special expertise in survey research, including survey design and analysis.
Completed projects include the Central Pennsylvania Women’s Health Study (CePAWHS), funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (2004-2008). Co-Principal Investigator was Marianne Hillemeier, PhD. CePAWHS included two phases: (1) a population-based survey of health status and health risks in reproductive-age women in Central Pennsylvania, and (2) a randomized controlled trial of a small-group behavior change intervention designed to help women improve their health prior to pregnancy. Previously, Dr. Weisman led the team evaluating the quality of primary care in 15 DHHS-designated National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health around the country (funded by the DHHS) and was Principal Investigator on a project to develop the Primary Care Satisfaction Survey for Women (funded by AHRQ).
Currently she is co-investigator of the MyNewOptions project (funded by PCORI), which is led by Cynthia Chuang, MD, MSc. The project used a randomized controlled trial design to test on-line interventions (reproductive life planning and action planning) to help women make contraceptive choices consistent with their reproductive goals. Participants were privately insured women ages 18 to 40 whose health plans provided coverage of contraception without cost-sharing under the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Weisman is also investigating the impact of the Affordable Care Act on women’s access to contraception.