Joanna Scheib conducts research on psychosocial issues related to the assisted reproductive technologies. Findings are used to shape practice and policy in family building through gamete donation. Professor Scheib also directs the research program at The Sperm Bank of California in Berkeley.
Professor Scheib’s research focuses on understanding the experiences of families created through donor conception, and the donors who assist them. In collaboration with The Sperm Bank of California (TSBC) in Berkeley, she examines the experiences of (i) intended parents ("recipients") using a donor program to have children, (ii) donor-conceived people across different family types, (iii) donors after they leave the program, and (iv) the outcome of releasing donor identities to donor-conceived adults. Findings from this work help guide policy development in open-identity gamete donation, and the support needed for all participants.
TSBC is the oldest organization in the world to offer open-identity donation, meaning that people conceived with the help of this program are among the first adults to access their donor's identity in planned releases.
Goldberg, A. E., & Scheib, J. (2015). Female-partnered and single women’s contact motivations and experiences with donor-linked families. Human Reproduction, 30, 1375-1385.
Scheib, J. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2012). Donor-conceived children raised by lesbian couples: Socialization and development in a new form of planned family. In D. Cutas and S. Chan (Eds.) Families – Beyond the Nuclear Ideal (pp. 64-83). Bloomsbury Academic Series.
Joanna Scheib teaches in the area of biological psychology, including Gender and Human Reproduction and Current Research in Psychology.
Professor (Academic Federation)
Department of Psychology
© 2000-2024 by the Regents of the University of California, Davis Campus. All Rights Reserved.