Dana M. Johnson, PhD

Welcome! I am a Health Disparities Research Postdoctoral Fellow in Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. I research and write about abortion, contraception, adolescents, and public policy.

My work is published in peer reviewed journals including Nature Medicine, JAMA Network Open, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health,  and Social Science and Medicine Qualitative Research in Health. 

My opinion pieces are featured in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Slate, Ms. Magazine, and other outlets.

My research is used in Amicus Briefs challenging restrictive abortion policies, including the U.S. Supreme Court cases Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I received my BA in Sociology and Social Justice from the University of Minnesota and worked as a community organizer in the Upper Midwest. I went onto receive my Master’s in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, and my PhD in Public Policy and Demography from The University of Texas at Austin.

At UW-Madison, I am the Principal Investigator of Understanding Barriers, Reclaiming Autonomy: A Needs Assessment of Adolescents Seeking Reproductive Care in Wisconsin, and an affiliated researcher with The Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE) and Reproductive Equity Action Lab (REAL).

In addition to research and writing, I co-chair the Board of Directors at Jane’s Due Process and sit on the steering committee for The Feminist Demography Collective.