Women's Health Resource Center
To Make an Appointment with a Health Care Provider:
If you would like a referral to one of our physicians, please call (415) 885-7788.
About Us
Our History
The UCSF Women's Health Resource Center was founded in 1982 as the Great Expectations Pregnancy Program, part of an Alternative Birth Center at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco. This program offers women and their families the opportunity to learn more about their pregnancy and prepare for childbirth and parenting and continues to be an integral part of the current scope of our services.
In 1996, we began expanding to address women's health issues that cross the life span--from adolescence to menopause and beyond. This new focus culminated in the renaming of the program in October 1998, and it continues to direct our services today and for the future We currently serve approximately 1000 telephone and walk-in clients each month and continue to outreach to new community members.
UCSF Women's Health Resource Center is now located on the first floor of the new UCSF Women's Health Center, a University designated eight story clinical building. The UCSF Women's Health Center, located at 2356 Sutter Street, also houses OB/Gyn, Primary Care, Mammography, Pharmacy Program, Continence Center, Fibroid Center, and the center for Reproductive Health and Fertility. This centralization of services enhances our ability to provide multi-disciplinary care to women.
View a short video about services.
Our Goals
The UCSF Women's Health Resource Center strives to:
- Increase women's access to information about all aspects of their health.
- Provide excellence in the quality and variety of education available for women and their families.
- Encourage and create participatory, women-sensitive health education programming.
- Offer women a centralized resource for community and health care provider referrals specific to their needs.
Our Staff
Judy Young, Manager
Judy Young, MPH is the Assistant Director of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health responsible for community education and leadership development programs, the Women's Health Resource Center and "Fostering Excellence in Women's Health through Academic Community Partnerships", a national women's health program. Judy brings over 20 years of experience in women's health, working in both academic settings and community organizations. She has experience with peer health education programs, conducting community outreach for national programs and teaching and training on sexuality, women's health, LGBT Health, HIV/AIDS, and stress management.
Judy currently serves as Board Chair for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, is a board member for the Black Coalition on AIDS and a member of the National Advisory Council for the UCSF Lesbian Health and Research Center. She received her B.A. in Social Welfare from U.C Berkeley and her Master's Degree in Public Health, focusing on community health education, from San Jose State University.
Cate Arima, Perinatal Educator
Cate Arima, RN, FNP has been with Great Expectations since 2006. Her two children have been a huge influence in her desire to teach Childbirth Preparation and Surviving Parenting classes. Cate has also been a Labor and Delivery RN since 2003 and works at both UCSF and Alta Bates. Cate Arima completed the Family Nurse Practitioner program at UCSF in 2007 and hopes to one day provide care for pregnant women in the clinical setting as well as to continue caring for them in the hospital. Her philosophy on birth and parenting is the same...just Breathe!
Holly Coates-Bash, Perinatal Educator
Holly Coates-Bash, MSW, Certified Lactation Consultant Holly has taught classes for the Great Expectations Pregnancy Program since 2002, including breastfeeding, breastfeeding and working, and Surviving the First Six Weeks. She also does phone counseling for breastfeeding issues through Great Expectations.
Fritzi Drosten, Perinatal Educator
Fritzi Drosten, RN and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, teaches the prenatal breastfeeding multiples classes at UCSF. She has worked in all aspects of lactation consulting, including hospital post-partum care, intensive care nursery, out-patient clinic, home visiting, and phone advice. She authored the breastfeeding chapter of the text, Ambulatory Obstetrics and Gynecology, Third Edition, 1999, published by the UCSF Press. She is active in the International Lactation Consultant Association and the Bay Area Lactation Associates. She works as the lactation consultant in the Intensive Care Nursery at UCSF Children’s Hospital and she is on the facility wide Breastfeeding Task Force.
Sabrina Easterling, Perintatal Educator
Sabrina Easterling, MPH has been involved in health education and reproductive health since 1998. With a Master's in Public Health with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health (Boston University), she specializes in evidence-based health promotion and instructional design, focusing on the perinatal period. Formerly, she ran the Medical Services Training Program for a Planned Parenthood affiliate, and was responsible for designing curricula and training Medical Services staff on a variety of reproductive health services topics, such as birth control methods and providing client-centered counseling. Prior to returning to the Bay Area, she completed a fellowship in Health Communications at the NIH's National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Sabrina is an ICEA-certified Childbirth Educator, a U.C. San Diego-certified Lactation Educator and Counselor, and is pursuing her education and clinical hours to become an IBCLC (Lactation Consultant) in July 2009. She teaches childbirth education, breastfeeding, and newborn parenting classes at UCSF and CPMC and is on the Board of Directors at Birthways, a perinatal education and support services non-profit based in Berkeley.
Sarah Fry, Perinatal Educator
Sarah Fry, RN, teaches childbirth preparation and newborn care classes for the Women’s Center at UCSF, where she is also currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Midwifery. Prior to beginning her nurse-midwifery training, Sarah was a birth doula, accompanying and supporting women in labor to help ensure a safe and satisfying birth experience. Her interest in this work began in 1986 with the birth of her first child at UCSF. At the heart of her work is over twenty years of mindfulness practice in Zen meditation and Hatha Yoga. In addition to raising two children, Sarah has served families by co-founding a Waldorf-inspired preschool in Corte Madera (The Mountain School), teaching, and as administrator of the Greenwood School in Mill Valley. Sarah trained as a doula/labor support person at Natural Resources in San Francisco, and she has completed trainings in labor massage, HypnoBirthing, CPR, acupressure and other labor comfort methods. She is the mother of two daughters (aged 22 and 10).
Amy Galusha, Twins Coordinator
Amy Galusha, MFT, oversees the UCSF Twins or More Program. Amy plans bi-annual Twins or More conferences and counsels expecting parents who call the Twins or More support phone line (415.353.2562). Amy’s professional training as a Marriage and Family Therapist and her personal experience as a mother of twins gives her a full understanding of the specific challenges parents of multiples encounter. Amy holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University.
Barbara Gay, Perinatal Educator
Carole Hanson, Perinatal Educator
Carole Hanson teaches classes especially for parents expecting twins, triplets, or more. She teaches at several Bay Area hospitals, leads monthly support groups for pregnant and new parents of multiples, and offers private classes to mothers on bed rest. Carole is an active member of community outreach groups who support low-income families with multiples. Her passion is to provide valuable information to parents, helping them to prepare for the arrival of two or more babies at once, and to have realistic expectations about the first several months at home. Carole’s Odyssey began in 2001 with the arrival of her twin boys. She is a former President of the Marin Parents of Multiples Club, and is currently completing her certification as a Lactation Specialist.
Cherry Jones, Perinatal Educator
Cheryl Jones is a Mental Health clinician (Licensed Marriage Family Therapist of 16 years) who specializes in 0 - 5 years intervention and attachment issues. She works at an adoption/foster care agency in Berkeley supervising clinicians in training. She has been teaching Infant Massage Communication to parents for 6 years now at UCSF and another hospital in San Francisco. Cherry is a single parent of a vibrant 8 year old daughter, who when Cherry returns from teaching her class, she schedules a massage with her!
Stacy Kinkade-Erickson, Perinatal Educator
Stacy Kinkade-Erickson, MA, holds a Masters degree in Counseling with a Body Orientation from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her classes are experiential and practical to assist women in connecting with their inner resources in preparation for birth and parenting. Ms. Kinkade-Erickson, licensed as a hypnotherapist, works to gently guide a person to examine deeply held beliefs, and how these determine the course of one's life. In addition, she is currently a Marriage & Family Therapist intern, with various experiences in the human services. She offers Intensive Childbirth Preparation, Birth Alternatives, and Surviving the first six weeks. She feels that UCSF acknowledges the wisdom of bridging medical advancements with holistic health, to offer complete information to their clients. Ms. Kinkade-Erickson balances her career achievements with the joys and lessons of motherhood, being a mother of two lively children, and brings her commitment to helping others during this important life transition.
Georgia Montgomery, Perinatal Educator
Georgia Montgomery is certified as a Childbirth Educator, Newborn Care Specialist, Lactation Educator, and Infant/Child CPR Instructor. Georgia has been involved in the childbirth world since 1996, attending births and helping new families during their first weeks at home with baby. She has had hands-on experience with newborns for nearly 20 years and had three children of her own. She is a volunteer Newborn Care Educator for the Dept. of Health and Human Services for low-income moms and is a member of the Marin County Breastfeeding Coalition. Ms. Montgomery teaches Childbirth Preparation, Surviving the First Weeks, Breastfeeding and Infant Child CPR at UCSF, CPMC, and Kaiser and privately for bed-rest moms.
Patty Lipinska, Perinatal Educator
Patty Lipinska, Certified Childbirth Educator, has taught classes for the Great Expectations Pregnancy Program since January 1997 including Childbirth Preparation, Birth Alternatives, Intensive Childbirth Preparation and Refresher Childbirth. Ms. Lipinska has been a childbirth educator since 1989 and has taught in many different facilities including the Native American Health Center, Berkeley High School and Kaiser Permanente. Ms. Lipinska has been a labor coach for over 15 years in locations throughout the Bay Area. She is trained as doula and has attended approximately two births per month since 1986. In addition, she has three children of her own.
Gina Love, Administrative Assistant
Gina Love is an integral part of the direct patient education and community outreach efforts of the UCSF Women’s Health Resource Center. She is responsible for helping women and their family members obtain information on all aspects of their health by assessing their needs and directing them to appropriate classes, library materials, community resources, and clinical programs. Gina handles all the logistics for the Great Expectations Pregnancy Program classes and provides administrative support with our women’s health educational programs. Gina has been working in the medical field since 1990, and has extensive experience in medical office management.
Sarah MacDonald, Perinatal Educator
Sarah MacDonald, RN, Certified Childbirth Educator, has been teaching classes for the Great Expectations Pregnancy Program since 1999 including Healthy Pregnancy, Childbirth Preparation and Surviving the First Two Weeks. Currently, Ms. MacDonald is a clinical nurse in Labor and Delivery at UCSF.
Sabrina Rascon, Program Coordinator
Sabrina Rascon is our Referral and Education Specialist for the Women's Health Resource Center. She will be coordinating the Mom Mobile and UCSF Employee Lactation Programs that are based at the Parnassus Campus. She will also be giving the Birth Center Orientations and providing administrative support at the Resource Center. Sabrina comes to us from San Francisco Head Start where she was a Family Advocate for two years. She graduated from California State University, Chico in 2003 with a B.A. in Psychology. Sabrina is also a Massage Therapist with special interest in prenatal and infant massage. She plans to study Nurse Midwifery at UCSF.
UCSF Women's Health Resource Center
2356 Sutter Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94143-1750 (94115 for deliveries)
Phone 415.353.2668
Copyright 2009 The Regents of the University of California
Last updated:
October 14, 2009
Web Master: coe@obgyn.ucsf.edu