Overview

Jenna Nobles, Ph.D., University of California, Berkley

For millions of Americans, the pathway to parenthood includes conception failure and miscarriage. These experiences are difficult to capture in administrative or clinical data—and therefore, difficult to study in populations. Indeed, much of what we know about variation in conception and miscarriage is shaped by how we have studied them. New forms of mobile device data provide a rare window into early pregnancy in large populations. In this talk, Dr. Nobles argues that pregnancy success is sensitive to social, economic, and environmental exposures, and that our understanding of these relationships can be significantly advanced through responsible use of mobile device data. Understanding the upstream drivers of pregnancy success has implications for how we interpret, support, and reduce infertility and miscarriage.

Biography

Jenna Nobles is a Professor and Chair of Demography at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the effects of migration on sending and receiving communities, the causes and consequences of population variation in fertility and fecundity, and the effects of environmental change on population processes. Nobles currently serves on the National Academies Committee on Population and recently served on the National Institutes of Health Stillbirth Working Group of Council. She received the Early Career and Clifford Clogg Awards from the Population Association of America.