As Director of Domestic Research, Kathryn Kost oversees the Guttmacher Institute’s teams conducting large-scale data collection and innovative, policy-relevant research on sexual and reproductive health in the United States. In her nearly four decades at the Institute, and in collaboration with pioneers in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research, Dr. Kost has contributed research and journal articles on a number of topic areas in the SRH field. Trained as a demographer, she focuses on measurement of population-level incidence of pregnancies (births, abortions and fetal loss) and differentiation of trends according to desires for pregnancy, both at the national and state levels; the association between pregnancy desires and individuals’ health and well-being; and estimation of contraceptive-method failure rates, using population data sources. 

Dr. Kost also plays a critical role in the Institute’s strategic planning and management of the Research division. She is also a mentor, dedicated to the well-being and professional development of all staff and the improvement of research processes. Dr. Kost received her BA in sociology from Reed College and a PhD in sociology from Princeton University, where she specialized in demography at the Office of Population Research.