Mitchell Creinin receives national lifetime achievement award

Mitchell Creinin, a UC Davis Health distinguished professor and director of the complex family planning fellowship, has received the Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award.

Created in 2005, the award is for individuals and/or teams who have dedicated their careers to advancing the science of abortion and contraception, and have supported others in achieving their own success.

Creinin's lifetime of research has focused on new contraceptive technologies, management of miscarriage, and abortion techniques, all aimed to improve the quality of care available to patients in the U.S. and in lower and middle-income countries.

“I have always worked with the idea that I can help an individual patient and I can also help countless others with important research so we can all provide better care,” Creinin said. “I value that so much of the work I have done, with many collaborators, is present in how abortion and contraceptive care is provided throughout the world.”

Creinin has been at UC Davis since 2011, having previously spent 17 years at the University of Pittsburgh where he served as the director of family planning and the director of gynecologic specialties. He also held an appointment as a professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Creinin has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, USAID, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, private foundations and industry, which has enabled his continued involvement in abortion technologies and female and male contraceptive development, including medical and safety oversight of national and international trials. Creinin has been an innovator in abortion methodologies and miscarriage management. He has authored more than 300 peer-review papers, review articles, book chapters and books related to family planning and contraception, including the sixth edition of “Speroff & Darney’s Clinical Guide to Contraception.”

Creinin is a founding member of the Society of Family Planning and served on its executive board from 2004-2011, including his stint as society president from 2007-2009.

Creinin will be honored at the Society of Family Planning annual meeting on Oct. 26, 2025.