Molly dickens, co-founder and executive director

Molly Dickens is a scientist, writer, advocate, and mother of two. Dr. Dickens received her Ph.D. from Tufts University and conducted postdoctoral research at both the University of Liege in Belgium and at the University of California at Berkeley with a research focus on stress physiology and reproductive endocrinology. After leaving academia, she joined a maternal health startup as a founding team member, gaining in-depth experience helping to build a company while crafting brand, marketing, community, and partnerships.

Dr. Dickens’ advocacy work combines her expertise as a trained research physiologist with her passion for maternal health -- as a stress physiologist, she has extended her work to include support for women during pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood and continues to publish in academic journals and media. Dr. Dickens is an Aspen Ideas Fellow and an NSF and NIH grantee.

In science, academia, technology, and startups, Dr. Dickens has direct experience with the barriers that women face when they choose motherhood. She has witnessed the impact of a failure to support the needs of the modern family’s work/life balance and the repercussions of a working world that is not representative of women in society. She truly believes that improving the health of mothers and the health of the working world is inextricably linked and that women will lead the charge to generate much-needed structural change.