2026 Participant Biographies

Dr R Claire Roden (she) is the Medical Director of Alder Health since 2026. Prior to this, she was the Director of Adolescent Gender and Sexual Health Services at Milton S Hershey Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. She completed her undergraduate education at Haverford College, where she majored in biology, with a minor in French and a concentration in Africana Studies. She graduated Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA in 2013, followed by her pediatric residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ in 2016, and her adolescent medicine fellowship at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH in 2019. Her academic areas of expertise include contraceptive care, sexually transmitted infection and HIV prevention, gender incongruence in teenagers, and the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents with disability; in particular she is an expert in adolescent decision-making and autonomy and a skilled clinician-educator. In the clinic, she focuses in sexual and reproductive health including contraception and STI services and gender affirming care. In her spare time she loves gardening, hiking, swimming, knitting, and spending time with her husband Matt, daughter Rosa, and family dogs Bobo and Stubby. She is a native of Nashville, Tennessee.