Jessica L Dozier PhD, MPH

Photo of Jessica Dozier

Research Investigator

Department

Department of Systems, Populations and Leadership

Contact

(734) 647-4873
[email protected]

University of Michigan School of Nursing
400 North Ingalls Building
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5482

Interests

  • Gender and health

  • Sexual and reproductive health

  • Reproductive autonomy

  • Gender-based violence (reproductive coercion, intimate partner violence)

  • Abortion

Dr. Jessica L. Dozier is a public health scientist who studies how gendered power and social and structural factors shape health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence. With interdisciplinary training in public health and women’s and gender studies, she uses qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods across her work. Her program of research generates evidence to inform clinical and community-based interventions, person-centered health care, and health policy that support reproductive autonomy and advance health equity.

Dr. Dozier was the inaugural University of Michigan President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Nursing. She earned her PhD in Population, Family and Reproductive Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her MPH in Global Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and her BA in women’s and gender studies from the University of Michigan. 

Current Research Grants and Programs

  • Society of Family Planning, Changemakers in Family Planning (2026-2028), Role: PI

  • Institute for Research on Women and Gender Faculty Seed Grant, "Weaponizing the Law: Understanding How Abortion Restrictions Facilitate Abortion Coercion and Abuse in the Post-Dobbs Era" (2025-2027), Role: Co-PI

Teaching

Students learning with Dr. Dozier are asked to wrestle with the questions behind the evidence: How do we know what we know about health? How do we define and measure complex health experiences? What explains the patterns we observe? And what do those findings mean for health and health care? Dr. Dozier guest lectures in undergraduate and doctoral courses on reproductive health, gender-based violence, and research methods, bringing together substantive and methodological perspectives. Her teaching uses real-world cases and applied activities to help students learn by doing, evaluate evidence critically, and apply course concepts to questions they may encounter in research and practice. Beyond the classroom, she mentors nursing, public health, and sociology graduate students in research methods and undergraduate students through the University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). Across these experiences, she helps students develop the skills and confidence to make thoughtful research decisions and approach complex health questions with rigor and curiosity. 

Affiliations/Service

  • Member, Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International (NNVAWI), 2025-present

  • Member, Society of Family Planning, 2019-present (Annual Meeting Committee, 2025-2027)

  • Member, American Public Health Association, 2019-present

  • Member, Population Association of America, 2019-present

  • Faculty Affiliate, U-M Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), 2024-present

  • Member, U-M Center for Global Health Equity, 2024-present

Notable Awards/Honors

  • National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program, NIH / NICHD, 2026-2028

  • Fellowship, C. Sylvia and Eddie C. Brown Community Health Doctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, 2019-2024

  • Fellowship, Center for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education, Science, and Practice, Emory University, 2017-2019

  • NIH T37 Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Fellowship, NIMHD and the University of Michigan, 2013-2014

Education

  • PhD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 2024

  • MPH, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 2019

  • BA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 2016

Publications Highlights

  • Dozier, J. L., Wood, S. N., Yirgu, R., Shiferaw, S., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2026). Rural–urban differences in the association between reproductive coercion and postpartum family planning. Studies in Family Planning, 57(2), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/sifp.70050 

  • Grace, K. T., Dozier, J. L., & Decker, M. R. (2026). Intimate Partner Violence and Reproductive/ Urogynecologic Health. In C. Mitchell, E. Miller, B. McCaw, & K. A. Alexander (Eds.), Intimate Partner Violence (2nd ed., pp. 445–470). Oxford University PressNew York. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197758991.003.0016

  • Dozier, J. L., Zimmerman, L. A., Yirgu, R., Perrin, N., Shiferaw, S., & Wood, S. N. (2025). Prevalence and correlates of reproductive coercion in the months before pregnancy: Cross-sectional findings from pregnant women in Ethiopia. Reproductive Health, 22(1), 227. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-025-02192-x

  • Dozier, J. L., Wood, S. N., Perrin, N., Shiferaw, S., Yirgu, R., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2025). Short interpregnancy interval following reproductive coercion: A prospective cohort study of pregnant Ethiopian women. Pregnancy, 1(5), e70079. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmf2.70079

  • Wood, S. N., Dozier, J. L., Karp, C., OlaOlorun, F. M., Omoluabi, E., Mosso, R., Akilimali, P. Z., Sebina Kibira, S. P., Makumbi, F., Guiella, G., Gichangi, P., Khanna, A., Oumarou, S., & Moreau, C. (2025). Women’s and girls’ sexual empowerment differs by geographical context: A population-based validation study. BMC Women’s Health, 25(1), 331. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-025-03874-1

  • Dozier, J. L., Burke, A. E., McMahon, H. V., Berger, B. O., Quasebarth, M., Sufrin, C., & Bell. S.O. (2024). "Maybe if we weren't in the pandemic, I would have reconsidered": Experiences of abortion care-seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic in Maryland. Perspectives in Sexual Reproductive Health, 56(2), 124-135. doi: 10.1111/psrh.12265.

  • Bell, S. O., Dozier, J. L., Casubhoy, I., & Sufrin, C. (2024). Impact of new abortion restrictions on people in prison: Estimated number of incarcerated people without abortion access and distance to abortion providers. Contraception, 129, 110278.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2023.110278

  • Bell, S. O., Berger, B. O., Sufrin, C., Dozier, J. L., & Burke, A. E. (2023). An exploratory study of COVID-19-related changes in abortion service availability and use in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 55(1), 12-22. https://doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12220

  • Dozier, J. L., Sufrin, C., Berger, B. O., Burke, A. E., & Bell, S. O. (2022). COVID-19 impacts on abortion care-seeking experiences in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia regions of the United States. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 54(3), 68–79. https://doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12202

  • Dozier, J. L., Zimmerman, L. A., Ejigu, B. A., Shiferaw, S., Seme, A., Yihdego, M., Yirgu, R., & Wood, S. N. (2022). Pregnancy coercion and partner knowledge of contraceptive use among Ethiopian women. Contraception: X, 4, 100084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conx.2022.100084

  • Wood, S. N., Dozier, J. L., Karp, C., Desta, S., Decker, M. R., Shiferaw, S., Seme, A., Yirgu, R., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2022). Pregnancy coercion, correlates, and associated modern contraceptive use within a nationally representative sample of Ethiopian women. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 30(1), 2139891. https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2022.2139891

  • Sheehy, G., Dozier, J. L., Mickler, A. K., Yihdego, M., Karp, C., & Zimmerman, L. A. (2021). Regional and residential disparities in knowledge of abortion legality and availability of facility-based abortion services in Ethiopia. Contraception: X, 3, 100066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conx.2021.100066

  • Dozier, J. L., Hennink, M., Mosley, E., Narasimhan, S., Pringle, J., Clarke, L., Blevins, J., James-Portis, L., Keithan, R., Hall, K. S., & Rice, W. S. (2020). Abortion attitudes, religious and moral beliefs, and pastoral care among Protestant religious leaders in Georgia. PLoS One, 15(7), e0235971. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235971