Jack and Elaine Koehn Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing and Director of Postnatal Research for the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi-CA)
The PTBi-CA is a multi-year, transdisciplinary research and implementation initiative to reduce the burden of preterm birth. Dr. Franck leads a transdisciplinary research team, working in partnership with community and service provider stakeholders, to conduct research aimed at reducing disparities in health care access and health outcomes for preterm infants and their families. She is currently leading transformative work to change the care delivery model in neonatal intensive care, so that it better integrates families as partners in caregiving to achieve better developmental outcomes for preterm infants. Dr. Franck has extensive research experience in maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and development as well as in hospital quality and safety and ethics. She has a particular interest in improving the patient and family experience of health care and has pioneered interventions to engage parents and children as partners in pain management and in research to improve quality of care and quality of life. She has over 200 peer-reviewed research and review publications. Findings from her research have influenced perinatal, neonatal and pediatric health care 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.