Tracy A. Weitz is a senior fellow with the Women’s Initiative at American Progress. Weitz is a national expert on abortion care, policy, culture, and politics in the United States. She is currently a professor of sociology and director for the Center on Health, Risk, and Society at American University in Washington, D.C. From 2014 to 2021, she served as the U.S. programs director for the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska. Prior to joining the foundation, from 2003 to 2013 as faculty in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Weitz co-founded and directed the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health research program. While at UCSF, she also served as the founding executive director for the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health in 1996, designated through a competitive award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Weitz has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in health care from Missouri State University, and a doctoral degree in sociology from UCSF. Among her honors is the 2012 UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award; the 2013 Steinem-Waters Legacy Award from Choice USA, now Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity; the 2014 Irvin M. Cushner Award from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals; the 2021 Charles S. Schultz Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2008 Felicia Stewart Advocacy Award from the Sexual and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association; and the 2015 Roger Baldwin Civil Libertarian of the Year Award from the American Civil Liberties Union – Nebraska for challenging the Nebraska ban on same-sex marriage. Weitz is a deputy editor for Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health and on the editorial board of Contraception.