Family Planning Faculty & Staff

Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH – Division Director

Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH


Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH

Division Director

Paul D. Blumenthal, MD, MPH, is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Stanford Gynecology Service in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and also directs the Division of Family Planning Services and Research.

He received his medical degree from The University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School in 1977 and, after an internship in Internal Medicine, completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology, both at the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. He completed an additional residency in the Department of Preventive Medicine and a Fellowship in Family Planning and Reproductive Epidemiology at UCLA, under the mentorship of Dr. Irvin Cushner. After completing his postgraduate medical training, he served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (1984-1988) and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya (1988-1990). Dr. Blumenthal joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in 1990, where he directed Women’s Health Research and Programs and served as Director of the Fellowship Program in Family Planning.  He was also an associate in the University’s Population Center, and Director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Program (1999-2005) of JHPIEGO. Since 1988, Dr. Blumenthal has been a consultant to several international programs administered by such agencies as JHPIEGO Corporation, Ipas, Family Health International, Gynuity Health Projects, and the World Health Organization in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Blumenthal is a past medical Director of Planned Parenthood in Maryland (1994-2001) and has been a member of the National Medical Committee of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (1996-2002). He has also served as a special advisor to the World Health Organization on the development of technical guidelines for program managers in abortion care (2000); he has served in a similar capacity since 2005 to help introduce approaches to cervical cancer prevention in settings with limited resources. From 2005-2007 Dr. Blumenthal served as the special Advisor to Minister of Health and Family Planning of the Republic of Madagascar. Under his direction, the newly established Stanford Program for International Reproductive Education and Services (SPIRES) has provided technical assistance and training to family planning and reproductive health programs in 18 countries across Africa, Asia, and Central America.

Kate Shaw, MD, MS - Fellowship Director

Kate Shaw, MD, MS


Kate Shaw, MD, MS

Fellowship Director

Kate Shaw, MD, MS, is a northern California native and completed college at UC Davis with a degree in Nutrition Science. She moved to San Diego where she worked in BioTech until matriculating to medical school at Albany Medical College in Albany NY, where she got her medical degree. She then undertook and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University before coming back to California for a fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford. As a Clinical Associate Professor she enjoys teaching residents and medical students and her research interests include obesity and contraception, improving patient experience with abortion, decreasing barriers to access for abortion and contraception and use of mifepristone and misoprostol for abortion care and labor induction.  In addition to her clinical and research interests, Dr. Shaw is the Residency Program Director for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford. Dr. Shaw is the Fellowship Director of the Family Planning Fellowship and she is the Associate Chair of Education.


Erica P. Cahill, MD, MS - Assistant Fellowship Director

Erica P. Cahill, MD, MS, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Specialist in Complex Family Planning at Stanford University. Dr. Cahill enjoys connecting with patients during all phases of their reproductive lives, from explaining and de-mystifying the very first pelvic exam to supporting each individual pregnancy journey to celebrating menopause. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior. After college, she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health in clinical research on mental health during pregnancy and menopause. She subsequently earned her MD from The University of Vermont and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The George Washington University Hospital. Her research and teaching interests include expanding contraceptive options, examining the impact of legislation on reproductive health access, examining the social determinants of maternal health care, and optimizing sexual health knowledge. She is committed to supporting and creating medically accurate and experience-driven policy nationally and globally. She enjoys teaching residents and medical students as part of her generalist practice. She co-hosts a podcast called The V Word where she discusses the latest research and questions in reproductive health with colleague, Dr. Jenn Conti.

Lisa Goldthwaite, MD, MPH - Ryan Residency Program Director

Lisa Goldthwaite, MD, MPH, is a native of the Pacific Northwest, where she lived until moving to Minnesota for her undergraduate education in biology at Carleton College.  She returned to Oregon for her medical education, where she attended Oregon Health & Science University for both medical school and residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology.  She then completed a fellowship in Family Planning at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, while concurrently obtaining a Master of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health, with a concentration in epidemiology.  Dr. Goldthwaite is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.  She also serves as the Director of the Ryan Residency Training Program in Family Planning.  In addition to valuing her clinical practice, she enjoys her involvement in medical education. Her research and professional interests include immediate postpartum contraception, family planning in the adolescent population, pain control with outpatient procedures, studying the population wide impact of family planning public health programs, and political advocacy.

Michele Hugin, MD, MS - Faculty

Michele Hugin, MD, MS, grew up in Northern California, the only child of European immigrants who instilled in her the values of hard work and the importance of social justice. After attending UCSD for her undergraduate and Masters in Biology, she matriculated to medical school at Tufts University. She stayed on for residency at Tufts where she sought training in Family Planning. After completion of residency she returned to California to work at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a county hospital in San Jose. There she enjoys teaching residents and medical students. She is a generalist but also provides full scope family planning services and care to women with physical disabilities. Michelle is an active collaborator with Stanford’s Fellowship in Family Planning. Her research interests include weight variation in women using Mirena or Nexplanon, cervical preparation for second trimester abortion, and the use of methamphetamine among women seeking abortion. She is the mother of a teenage son and enjoys cooking and running in her spare time.

Jade Shorter, MD, MSHP - Director, Early Pregnancy Assessment Program

Jade Shorter, MD, MSHP, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Specialist in Complex Family Planning at Stanford University. After graduating with a BS in Biology from Pepperdine University, she completed a post-baccalaureate program at the University of California, San Francisco and attended medical school at the University of California, Davis. She then completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University followed by a fellowship in Family Planning and a Master of Science in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and research interests include improving patients’ experience with abortion and early pregnancy loss care and addressing disparities and health equity through a reproductive health policy lens. Through her role as the Director of the Early Pregnancy Assessment Program, she is committed to improving the continuity of care for early pregnancy loss patients. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, riding her peloton, and hiking with her golden retriever.

Amy Voedisch, MD, MS - Faculty

Amy Voedisch, MD, MS, was born and raised in a small farming community in Minnesota. She received her B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota for her medical training and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in Santa Clara, California. She worked at Kaiser Santa Clara for two years as an attending physician before starting her Fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford University in July 2009.  Her research interests include expanding access to contraception in low-resource international settings via post-partum IUD insertion. After completing her fellowship, Dr. Voedisch currently serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Gynecology at Stanford University. She enjoys spending time with her husband Nader, her daughters and her two labs Sasha and Simba, in her free time.

Andrea Henkel, MD, MS(c) - Complex Family Planning Fellow (2nd Year)

Andrea Henkel, MD, MS(c), is a Fellow in Complex Family Planning at Stanford University. After growing up in Minnesota, she has now lived, worked, or traveled to over 80 countries. As a medical student at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, she started the Georgetown chapter of Medical Students for Choice and was a speaker at the Whole Women’s Health Rally on the steps of the Supreme Court. As a resident in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Stanford University, she sat on the ACOG District IX Legislative Committee, advocating for evidence-based policy for the women of California. She helped pass AB 577 in 2019 to extend Medi-Cal to a full year postpartum in the setting of maternal mental health disorders and won the ACOG National Legislative Achievement Award for this work. Her Family Planning research interests focus on second-trimester abortion evidence-based policy and patient-centered practices. Outside of the hospital, she is an athlete that loves the outdoors. She was a member of the 2010 Croatian National Ultimate Frisbee team that competed at the World Championships in Prague and now loves mountaineering, backcountry skiing, and road biking.

Serena Liu, MD - Complex Family Planning Fellow (1st Year)

Serena Liu, MD, is our 1st year Fellow in Family Planning at Stanford University. She was born and raised by immigrant parents in Niagara Falls, Canada. She dedicated her undergraduate years at the University of Toronto helping students who had difficulty transitioning to university life, where she developed an interest in adolescent care. At Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, she sang in a cappella groups, PentaMedix and Ultrasounds. During her clinical year, she recognized the complexities involved with abortion care and gained interest in pursuing a career in Complex Family Planning. As an Ob/Gyn resident at Albany Medical Center, she was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society by her medical students. She was the Junior Fellow representative for the ACOG District II Legislative Committee and continued her involvement and dedication to ACOG on the Junior Fellow Advisory Committee as the District’s Junior Fellow Chair. She was awarded the Gellhaus Resident Advocacy Fellowship. Her research surrounded medical student education and pain management for osmotic dilator placement in the setting of dilation and evacuations. She is classically trained in piano and voice and has enjoyed singing at her close friends’ weddings. She loves her daily outdoor runs (even in east-coast winter), meeting new people, and staying in touch with friends throughout the country.

Kathryn Batham, CCRC – Research Manager, Gynecology Services

Kathryn Batham was born and raised in Redlands in Southern California. She received her B.A. from California State University, Northridge, where she studied cultural anthropology with a special focus in medical anthropology. She began her career in research and science as an Research Administrator at the Broad Medical Research Program, a nonprofit that focused on funding pilot studies for inflammatory bowel disease. She eventually joined the team at the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at UCLA, until her move to Northern California in 2012. Upon arriving to the Bay Area, Kathryn changed her focused to women’s health and joined Stanford University as the Program Administrator for Gynecology Services. In 2015, Kathryn became the Clinical Research Coordinator for the Division of Urogynecology, where she handled all the Industry, NIH, and PI-initiated trials. She now manages the clinical research team and clinical trials with all the divisions in Gynecology, including Family Planning, Minimally Invasive Surgery, general Gynecology, and Urogynecology. She received her certification for clinical research through the Association of Clinical Research Professionals. In her free time, Kathryn enjoys attempting to be a runner and spending time with her family and friends all throughout the best state in the country, California. 

Tayler Hughes - Clinical Research Coordinator Associate

Tayler Hughes was born and raised in Chino Valley in Southern California. She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology, emphasis in Cell and Developmental Biology, and Gender and Women’s Studies. She spent part of her time at Berkeley as a research assistant investigating sexual health needs of Black students on campus and developing programming to meet those needs. She is passionate about women’s reproductive health and justice and commits herself to eliminating barriers to access reproductive health services.

Meheret Semma - Clinical Research Coordinator Associate

Meheret was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She moved to Northern California in 2011, where she attended high school. She received her B.S. from Santa Clara University in Public Health Science and Biology, with an emphasis in Biomedical Sciences. Following her undergraduate years, Meheret served as a Primary Care Coordinator and Health Services Specialist II at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Through her role, she was able to work towards closing care gaps, tackling health barriers among the low-income community, provide a safe and supportive environment for women seeking family planning and sensitive reproductive health services, and advocate for patient rights. In her free time, Meheret likes to watch TV shows, attempt baking, watch basketball, and spend time with family and friends.