In July 2023, we welcomed Dr. Sabrina Boyce into our department as a new Assistant Professor. Now, we introduce her to you all as an inspiring educator, dedicated researcher, compassionate mentor, and a wholehearted advocate for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH).
Academic Journey and Research Expertise
Professor Boyce’s academic journey began at Stanford University, where she pursued a degree in Human Biology. While her initial aspirations leaned towards a career in medicine, a pivotal moment occurred during a medical anthropology course where she learned about population-level health patterns and population-level prevention for the first time. This new perspective resonated with her deeply, thus steering her toward a career in public health.
After completing her undergraduate degree, Professor Boyce pursued a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Here, she delved into the intricate connections between structural racial and gender inequities, which intersected to contribute to poor health outcomes. During this period, Professor Boyce’s interest in violence prevention solidified–particularly against women and girls, gender and sexually diverse individuals, and racial and ethnic minorities–recognizing it as a tangible manifestation of the ongoing harm caused by these inequities.
For the next seven years, she worked in violence prevention practice and research in the United States and Central America. One noteworthy chapter of her career involved working as a domestic violence survivor advocate, providing support to youth and young adults experiencing violence in their relationships. She also collaborated with youth to develop and implement youth-centered prevention programs in schools and college campuses in California.
Professor Boyce’s passion for research took her to the Center on Gender Equity and Health at UC San Diego, where she honed her skills in designing and managing studies, data collection and analysis, paper and grant proposal writing, and collaboration with international and domestic partners in MCAH research. She collaborated on research projects led by renowned gender-based violence expert Dr. Jay Silverman, delving into areas such as gender-based violence (GBV), reproductive health, reproductive coercion, sex trafficking, and sexual violence among youth and women in various regions worldwide. This experience unveiled the persistence of gender inequity on a global scale and fueled Professor Boyce’s dedication to addressing these issues.
She continued this role as she pursued a Ph.D. in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley, enhancing her training in study design and biostatistics to complement her practical experience. Her work, both domestically and abroad, unveiled the widespread patterns of gender inequity that persist in the world, further igniting her passion for dedicating her career to ending these harmful patterns against women, girls, and gender and sexually-diverse people.
Though her graduation from Berkeley Public Health (BPH) occurred recently in 2022, the institution has left a lasting imprint on her professional trajectory. She shares that one of the most significant contributions of BPH to her career has been the excellent training she received in research and statistical methods. These skills have become an integral part of her daily work and will continue to serve her throughout her career. Furthermore, Professor Boyce acknowledges the profound impact of the people she met at BPH. The connections she established with faculty, colleagues, and mentors have been instrumental in shaping her perspective and career. The mentorship she received from BPH’s esteemed faculty members provided her with invaluable insights and guidance, while learning from her peers in the program expanded her horizons, enabling her to see her work from new and diverse perspectives.
At present, Professor Boyce’s research portfolio is centered on violence prevention in California, the state she has called home for a significant part of her life. With strong community and state-level partnerships, she is addressing the need for evidence-based community-level violence prevention approaches. Professor Boyce, alongside Dr. Silverman, is co-leading a comprehensive evaluation of a community-led, community mobilization approach to sexual violence prevention across 22 California communities. The project–with funding from the CDC and in partnership with the California Department of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch, ValorUSⓇ, and 22 local partners–employs a social network sampling design and utilizes school-based data from the California Healthy Kids Survey and social media.
Another vital focus of Professor Boyce’s current research is on gender and sexually diverse youth in California and their experiences of sexual and dating violence. LGBTQ+ youth often face disproportionately high levels of violence, yet research and prevention efforts addressing their specific needs are limited. With guidance from an advisory board of LGBTQ+ serving organizations, the National LGBTQ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence, and a youth advisory board, Professor Boyce’s work aims to expand the epidemiological evidence on LGBTQ+ youth’s experiences of violence, particularly those with intersecting marginalized identities to inform tailored violence prevention strategies in schools.
Teaching Philosophy and Mentoring Approach
Professor Boyce’s approach to teaching in the MCAH field is deeply influenced by her commitment to lifelong learning and her recognition of the importance of acknowledging one’s own limitations and biases. She left her Master of Public Health (MPH) program with a clear understanding that, despite her own experiences related to GBV and its impact, she had much more to learn about the diverse experiences of GBV and poor health that differ from hers. This realization was what led her to spend a significant part of her twenties learning from survivors of GBV while working as an advocate at domestic violence agencies and collecting qualitative data in Central America.
Her training as a domestic violence advocate instilled in her not only the principles of trauma-informed care but also the belief that each individual is an expert on their own life. Professor Boyce’s experience taught her that, no matter how many academic degrees one holds, one can never be a better expert on someone else’s needs and lived experiences than the person themselves - particularly when it comes to decisions about their safety and well-being. Her teaching approach is rooted in the understanding that her role as an educator is to create an environment where everyone can learn from one another and expand their understanding of what it’s like to walk in each other’s shoes. Her goal is to foster a space that brings in voices that are often underrepresented but crucial for comprehending the MCAH-related needs of communities.
Furthermore, her training in trauma informs her teaching methods. Professor Boyce recognizes that many individuals–including her students–have been personally impacted by societal inequities, violence, and the harm they cause. This understanding underscores the importance of establishing a safe and trusting environment where learning can occur. Safety and trust are foundational to her teaching approach, enabling her students to engage with sensitive topics and discussions in a supportive and respectful manner.
One of the aspects of her new position that Professor Boyce is most excited about is getting to learn from and support the next generation of MCAH professionals. She looks forward to a long future of mutual inspiration and learning with the students she will interact with at Berkeley Public Health. She hopes that her teaching and mentoring will provide opportunities for students to learn how to root one’s MCAH work in the communities they hope to serve and to learn from their expertise, how to critically examine the ways public health can perpetuate social hierarchies and colonialism and alternative paths to equity-based public health, and tangible skills that will enhance their impact on MCAH.
Community Engagement and Collaborative Initiatives
Professor Boyce’s impact extends far beyond the classroom. She actively engages in several collaborative initiatives and partnerships with a focus on violence prevention, gender-based violence, and addressing the unique needs of marginalized populations.
Since 2016, Professor Boyce has been working closely with CDPH’s Rape Prevention and Education Program as their primary evaluation and research partner. This partnership has enabled her to collaborate with over 25 sexual and domestic violence prevention agencies across California. Together with these agencies, as well as California’s sexual violence coalition and the national sexual violence prevention leader, ValorUSⓇ, they have undertaken a range of projects aimed at building rigorous evidence to support violence prevention practitioners. One of the latest initiatives involves the creation of an online data hub for local and state practitioners, which brings together a wide array of community health, safety, and equity data indicators. Additionally, they are also working to build up a state-wide advisory board to guide a California GBV research agenda to advance GBV prevention in the state.
Professor Boyce also collaborates with five LGBTQ+ serving organizations in Southern California and works closely with the National LGBTQ+ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence. Together with these organizations, she learns about the research needs of the LGBTQ+ youth community regarding violence prevention and fills significant gaps in the research evidence that is necessary to inform LGBTQ+ specific violence prevention for adolescents.
Balancing Academia, Family, and Passion
Beyond her academic and professional pursuits, Professor Boyce leads a fulfilling life enriched by her personal interests and family.
Much of her non-academic life revolves around her partner and their two young children, aged 2 and 4. They enjoy various outdoor activities such as biking, hiking, camping in the redwoods, and swimming. Family time is precious to her, and these outdoor adventures provide a wonderful way for the family to bond and create lasting memories.
In addition, Professor Boyce nurtures her passion for musical theater. She has a history of performing in musical theater from her youth and, after a nearly two-decade break, rekindled this love for the arts. She has become involved in a local, low-key, and amateur theater group in the East Bay. This creative outlet not only brings her personal fulfillment but also provides her with a supportive and welcoming community of new friends.
Balancing work, family, and personal interests can be challenging, particularly in academia. However, for Professor Boyce, it’s about making the most of the time she has available.
Interview with Dr. Sabrina Boyce
We were lucky to interview Dr. Sabrina Boyce and learn more about her background, pivotal life experiences, goals, and more. Please enjoy the interview below.
Can you briefly share your academic background and research interests in the field of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH)?
Sabrina Boyce (SB): My interest in MCAH started while I was in undergrad at Stanford University where I studied Human Biology. Like many, I started as pre-med, but while taking a medical anthropology course I learned for the first time about population-level health patterns and population-level prevention. This public health perspective made absolute sense to me; I decided on a career in public health at that point and I really never have looked back. After undergraduate degree, I did my MPH in Health Behavior Health Education at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where I really grew my understanding of how structural racial and gender inequity intersected to cause poor health and focused my interest on violence prevention. I understood violence against women and girls, against gender and sexually diverse people, and against racial/ethnic minorities as this very tangible, undeniable expression of the ongoing harm of these inequities in society that must be prevented. I worked in violence prevention practice and research (both the US and in Central America) for the following seven years. During a few of these years I gained experience as a domestic violence survivor advocate working with youth and young adults experiencing violence in their relationships and working with youth to develop and implement youth-centered prevention in schools and college campuses in California.
From 2015-2023, I found my footing as an MCAH researcher at the Center on Gender Equity and Health at UC San Diego, where I gained experience designing and managing studies, collecting and analyzing data, writing papers and grant proposals, working closely with partners in international and domestic MCAH research. I helped manage a portfolio of research led by an internationally recognized expert in gender-based violence (GBV), Dr. Jay Silverman, focused on GBV, reproductive health, reproductive coercion (a form of gender-based violence in which a partner or family member interferes or sabotages a person’s efforts to prevent a pregnancy), sex trafficking, and sexual violence among youth and women in the US, South Asia, Central America, East and West Africa. I continued in this role while pursuing my PhD in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley, where I got really strong training in study design and biostatistics to bolster my field experience. These experiences both in the US and internationally made clear to me the pernicious and nearly universal patterns of gender inequity that persist in the world, which fueled my passion to dedicate my career toward ending these patterns of harm against women, girls, and gender and sexually diverse people.
Currently, my research portfolio is focused on violence prevention in California, the state where I have spent the majority of my life and where I have strong community and state-level partnerships that guide my research priorities. One of these projects is an answer to local, state, and national calls for more evidence-based community-level violence prevention approaches; with funding from CDC and in partnership with the California Department of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch, ValorUSⓇ, and 22 local partners, Dr. Silverman and I are co-leading a rigorous evaluation of a community-led, community mobilization approach to sexual violence prevention across 22 California communities. This project utilizes a social network sampling design of program participants and their peers, as well as school-based data from the California Healthy Kids Survey and social media.
Another focus of my current research is on gender and sexually diverse youth in California and their experiences of sexual and dating violence. LGBTQ+ youth experience disproportionately high levels of violence yet very little violence prevention research or practice is focused on their needs. With guidance from an advisory board of LGBTQ+ serving organizations, the National LGBTQ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence, and a youth advisory board, we are expanding the epidemiological evidence on LGBTQ+ youth’s experiences of violence, including those experiencing intersecting marginalized identities, and opportunities for LGBTQ+ specific violence prevention in schools.
Reflecting on your journey as an educator and researcher, what were some pivotal experiences that have shaped your approach to teaching and contributing to the MCAH field?
SB: I’ll spare you any repetition from above, as a lot of my journey as a researcher is described there, by focusing on the teaching aspect of this question.
I left my MPH program with a clear understanding of my role as a learner; while I have my own lived experiences related to gender-based violence (GBV) and its impact, I understood that I had a lot more to learn about other experiences of gender-based violence and poor health that were unlike my own. This is what led me to spend most of my 20’s learning from survivors of GBV while an advocate at domestic violence agencies and collecting qualitative data in Central America. My training as a domestic violence advocate was rooted not only in trauma-informed care, but also on the idea that each one of us is an expert on our own lives, and regardless of how many letters (i.e., academic degrees) I have behind my name, I will never be a better expert on someone else’s needs and lived experience than that person is themselves, particularly when it comes to making decisions about their safety and wellbeing. Even now, I start every one of my community advisory board meetings by acknowledging my role as a learner and my desire to better understand my partners and their communities’ experiences related to violence and inequity.
These experiences frame how I approach teaching. While I may be the one facilitating the class, my role as a teacher is to engage the class in a way that allows us all to learn from one another and to expand our understanding of what it is like to walk in one another's' shoes. My goal is to create space for and bring in voices that are underrepresented but critical to our learning about what are the MCAH-related needs of communities. My training in trauma also informs my teaching. Many of us are personally touched by societal inequities, violence, and the harm they have caused. My teaching is contextualized by an understanding that safety and trust is absolutely primary so that learning can happen.
In what ways do you envision nurturing the development of future MCAH professionals through your teaching, coaching, and mentoring roles within Berkeley Public Health (BPH)?
SB: One of the aspects of my new position that I am most excited about is getting to learn from and support the next generation of MCAH professionals. I so look forward to a long future of mutual inspiration and learning with the students I interact with at BPH. My hope is that through my teaching and mentoring, the main ways I will support the development of MCAH professionals is by providing opportunities to learn 1) how to root their MCAH work in the communities they hope to serve and to learn from their expertise; 2) how to critically examine the ways public health can perpetuate social hierarchies and colonialism and alternative paths to equity-based public health; and 3) tangible skills that will enhance their impact on MCAH.
As an alumna of Berkeley Public Health, could you share some highlights from your journey since graduating? How have your experiences in Berkeley Public Health (BPH) shaped your career in public health?
SB: While it has not been long since I graduated from BPH (2022), my experiences at BPH indeed has and continues to shape my career. The strongest motivator for me to come to BPH for my PhD and the greatest thing I gained was excellent training in research and statistical methods - skills that I use nearly daily and will serve me for the rest of my career. Two additional ways BPH has shaped me is via the people I met and the activism and leadership I witnessed. I continue to benefit from the incredible mentorship I received from faculty at BPH and the ways I learned from my colleagues in my program; they all helped me to see my work from new perspectives and the possibilities as more vast, all while providing such a wonderfully supportive community for my learning. I was also a student at BPH during the COVID-19 pandemic and the social reckoning with racism/racial injustice sparked after the murder of George Floyd. During these times, I got to observe the leadership of this institution in response to these very challenging times. BPH was at the forefront of COVID-19 research and expertise, while also taking such active, accountable, and genuine steps forward in confronting the racism and inequity rooted within our institution. BPH’s leadership during the hardest of times was a major reason I joined BPH’s faculty.
What collaborative initiatives or partnerships are you currently involved in that have the potential to benefit maternal, child, and adolescent health outcomes (domestically and/or internationally)? Please share some details about these collaborations!
SB: Since 2016 I have worked with CDPH’s Rape Prevention and Education Program, acting as their primary evaluation and research partner. This partnership has opened up doors to working directly with over 25 sexual and domestic violence prevention agencies across California, as well as with California’s sexual violence coaltion and national sexual violence prevention leader, ValorUSⓇ. Together we have worked on a wide range of projects to build rigorous evidence to benefit violence prevention practitioners and inform violence prevention, including one of the latest, which is an online data hub for local and state practitioners that brings together a wide range of community health, safety, and equity data indicators (https://calshare.axismaps.io/; in beta now). We are also currently working together to build up a state-wide advisory board to guide a California GBV research agenda to advance GBV prevention in the state.
Additionally, I partner with five LGBTQ+ serving organizations in Southern California, as well as the National LGBTQ+ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence (located in L.A.) to learn about the research needs of the LGBTQ+ youth community regarding violence prevention and to help guide my analyses of data on these populations. Together we are filling major gaps in the research evidence that are necessary to inform LGBTQ+ specific violence prevention for adolescents.
Beyond your academic and professional pursuits, what are some of your hobbies or interests? How do you balance work alongside personal interests and well-being?
SB: Outside of my research and academic life, I spend most of my time with my partner and kiddos, who are 2 and 4 years old. We love to bike and hike, go camping in the redwoods, swim, and sing together. It would be dishonest to say that I do much besides my job as faculty and my job as a mom, but I do find a tiny bit of time to do something that I love - musical theater! I grew up performing in musical theater and after a nearly 20-year break, I rediscovered this passion of mine at a very local, very low-key, very amateur theater here in the East Bay and have found an amazing community of people through it as well.