Dr. Elise Erickson, PhD, CNM, FACNM is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Pharmacy at the University of Arizona. She started her career as a Certified Nurse Midwife in 2005, she earned a PhD in 2018 at Oregon Health and Science University and has been conducting research on childbirth related physiology, care practices and maternal health. She incorporates epigenetic, pharmacogenetic and methods that include examination of social determinants of health in her work. She has received funding from NIH for a fellowship in Women's Health Research (BIRCWH K12) and a K99-R00 grant to pursue epigenetic aging biomarkers in relationship to maternal morbidity and advanced maternal age outcomes. She also uses wearable sensors in her research and is investigating physiologic signal patterns during pregnancy and postpartum events.
Dr. Erickson's work has also been focused on understanding the role of oxytocin in birth-related outcomes, including labor induction, postpartum hemorrhage and maternal morbidity. Her work has led her to investigate clinical, genetic and epigenetic variability in oxytocin use and sensitivity during the birth process. As the most commonly used medication during birth, the purpose of this work on oxytocin is to help improve personalization and precision use of the medication, thereby minimizing risks (e.g. postpartum hemorrhage) and maximizing benefits to individuals during their birth process.
As a nurse-midwife-scientist, Dr. Erickson's scientific approach is informed by her clinical experiences caring for childbearing families. She aims to integrate methods that help describe not only the physiologic condition of a person during pregnancy but also the social environment that influences their pregnancy and birth. She utilizes phenotype based statistical models to help understand discrete clusters or groups of people within complex datasets. This approach has led to several publications that help describe patterns within heterogeneous samples including patterns of birth complications, social determinants of health and clinical care practices.
Dr. Erickson collaborates with scientists in reproductive biology, physiology, pharmacy, genetics/epigenetics, psychiatry, obstetrics, epidemiology, biomedical engineering and with industry in her work.
