Dr. Aletha Y. Akers (she/her) is Vice President for Research at the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy think thank committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. Dr. Akers trained as an OBGYN and is an expert in pediatric and adolescent gynecology and global women’s health services research. Prior to this, she was the inaugural Director of Gynecologic Services at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she was also senior leadership at PolicyLab (a children’s health policy research center) and faculty in the Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness and the Center for Global Health. Previously, Dr. Akers held faculty appointments in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Akers has more than 20 years of experience conducting policy-relevant research on a range of sexual and reproductive health issues. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, blogs, and commentaries. Dr. Akers' research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Office of Population Affairs, private foundations, and the private sector.