Postpartum Family Planning Study Group

The Postpartum Family Planning study group provides a private online space for posting questions and sharing more information and resources on this important topic, providing an opportunity to further galvanize and strengthen the community of PPFP practitioners.

The study group facilitators -- the course author and experts in the field of PPFP -- will be available to discuss the practical application of the theoretical components described in the course. The study group will focus on country experiences in PPFP, different PPFP integration models, use of effective training approaches, and how to effectively capture and monitor PPFP services.

The study group will kick-off on June 5, 2017, and wrap up on June 23, 2017.

Meet the study group facilitators

Anne Pfitzer is a public health professional with over 20 years of program design, implementation, and evaluation experience for health service delivery and human capacity building. Family planning was the focus of her early career and she returned to a full-time family planning focus in 2012 within the USAID-funded Maternal and Child Integrated Program (MCHIP). She is now the Family Planning Technical Team Leader for the USAID-funded global Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP). Prior to this, she was Deputy Director for Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives program, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also served as Country Director in Ethiopia for Jhpiego, and Performance Improvement Advisor for a family planning USAID bilateral program, called STARH in Indonesia.  She holds a Master’s degree in Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Twitter handle: @annepfitzer

Deborah Sitrin is the Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for the Family Planning Team at the MCSP. In this role, she designs and implements implementation research studies; facilitates program monitoring; and provides technical guidance to strengthen national routine health management information systems by advising on indicator testing and selection and assisting to develop or revise tools for data collection, reporting, and use. Previously, Deborah was a senior M&E specialist at Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives program and a research coordinator for the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project based in Lusaka, Zambia. She holds a master’s degree in Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Chelsea Cooper serves as Social and Behavior Change Communication Advisor for the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) Family Planning team, where she provides technical support for social and behavior change strategy design and implementation, including formative research to inform programming. She co-leads the Family Planning and Immunization Integration Working group and provides support for integrated programs/studies in Liberia, Tanzania, Malawi, Yemen, and Kenya.  She led the development of the SBCC for Postpartum Family Planning eLearning course and associated “Guide for Planning and Implementing Social and Behavior Change Communication Activities for Postpartum Family Planning