Aletha Akers

Dr. Akers is an adolescent gynecologist, medical director of Adolescent Gynecology Consultative Services and a faculty member at PolicyLab at CHOP. Dr. Akers is an expert in pediatric and adolescent gynecology. She provides clinical care to children, adolescents, and young women with complex gynecologic care needs. She has expertise in providing routine, preventive care and addressing the contraception needs of adolescents with medical problems and those at risk of unplanned pregnancy. Dr. Akers also has experience developing and evaluating public health programs and health services interventions to improve adolescent and young adult health in both academic and community settings. Her research focuses on improving reproductive health outcomes among adolescent women by reducing teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) rates by increasing adolescents’ access to high quality reproductive health services. Her current projects include a clinical trial investigating pain management options during insertion of intrauterine contraceptive devices, a retrospective study of longitudinal datasets to understand sexual risk behaviors among obese adolescents, and the development of online educational modules to improve parental/child communication about sexuality. Dr. Akers is widely published in the fields of medicine, public health, and the social sciences. In addition, Dr. Akers has worked as a consultant for The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health and to the World Health Organization Quality of Care and Technologies Office. She has also served on the Data Safety and Monitoring Board for NIH-funded studies and lectures extensively on adolescent sexual decision-making and family communication about sexual health for community organizations and outreach programs.