Co-Scientific Director, PolicyLab
Cynthia J. Mollen is assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and attending physician in emergency medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed both her pediatrics residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and was hired as faculty upon completing her training in 2001. She also completed the Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology during her fellowship.
Since joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital, Dr. Mollen has developed and refined a research and clinical interest in adolescent health, with a particular focus on utilizing the emergency department and non-primary care settings as sites for interventions related to major public health issues affecting adolescents, such as unintended teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. She has also pursued training in qualitative research methods, and has utilized those methods in a variety of research projects. Recent projects have included interviewing adolescents to learn about their attitudes about developing an intervention aimed to improve the use of emergency contraception; exploring minority adolescents’ perception about bias when seeking family planning care; and assessing the decision-making processes of parents with terminally ill children. She is also working on developing a DVD about sexually transmitted infection prevention for adolescents that will be pilot tested in the emergency department setting, with the hope of expanding the use of the DVD to settings where adolescents have medical exams, such as intake for the foster care system and the juvenile justice system. Based on her clinical and research interests and expertise, she serves as co-scientific director at PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital, a cross-disciplinary research and policy center focused on children’s public health.
Research Interests
Pregnancy education and prevention
STI education and prevention
Contact Information
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Select Publications
Goyal M, Zhao H, Mollen CJ. Exploring emergency contraception knowledge, prescription practices, and barriers to prescription for adolescents in the emergency department. Pediatrics. 2009;123(3):765-70.Mollen CJ, Barg FK, Hayes KL, Gotcsik M, Blades NM, Schwarz DF. Assessing attitudes about emergency contraception among urban, minority adolescent women: An in-depth interview study. Pediatrics. 2008;122(2):e395-e401.
Mollen CJ, Lavelle JM, Hawkins LA, Ambrose C, Rudy BJ. Description of a novel emergency department-based HIV screening program for adolescents. AIDS Patient Care and STDs. 2008;22(6):505-11.
