Linda S. Franck RN, PhD, FAAN

Dr. Franck holds the Jack and Elaine Koehn Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing and is the Co-Principal Investigator – California, for the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi). The PTBi is a multi-year, transdisciplinary research and implementation initiative to reduce the burden of preterm birth, funded by Marc and Lynne Benioff and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Franck has extensive experience in leading interdisciplinary teams to conduct clinical research to improve the quality and safety of hospital care for infants and children.

She has a particular interest in improving the patient and family experience of health care and has pioneered interventions to engage parents and children as partners in pain management and in research to improve the quality of care and quality of life for children and their families. Dr. Franck’s current work focuses on reducing disparities in health and health care access for women at risk for preterm birth and on improving care and outcomes for preterm infants. She is leading new research to engage women from communities at high socio-demographic risk for preterm birth in research strategy setting and incorporating mobile technology to further enhance patient and family engagement in healthcare. Dr. Franck received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of San Francisco and her master’s degree and PhD in nursing from UCSF. She rejoined the UCSF faculty in 2010, after a decade at the University College London, Institute of Child Health, where she was the first Chair of Children’s Nursing Research in the UK.