Dr. Franck holds the Jack and Elaine Koehn Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing and is the Co-Principal Investigator - California, for the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi). The PTBi is a multi-year, transdisciplinary research and implementation initiative to reduce the burden of preterm birth, funded by the Marc and Lynne Benioff and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations and led by UCSF (www.pretermbirth.ucsf.edu). In addition to providing strategic leadership for the Initiative, she currently leads multiple transdisciplinary research teams within the Initiative, working in partnership with community and service provider stakeholders, to conduct research aimed at reducing disparities in health care access and health outcomes for women at risk for preterm birth and preterm infants.
Dr. Franck has extensive research experience in maternal child health and development as well as in hospital quality and safety and ethics related to pediatric healthcare. She has over 200 peer-reviewed research and review publications on a wide range of topics, including maternal and child health and development and ethics. Findings from her research have influenced the neonatal and pediatric healthcare and health policy worldwide. Dr. Franck received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of San Francisco and her master’s degree and PhD in nursing from UCSF. She rejoined the UCSF faculty in 2010, after a decade at the University College London, Institute of Child Health where she was the first Chair of Children’s Nursing Research in the UK.
