Central Pa. physician reappointed to Gov. Shapiro’s Advisory Commission on Women

• By Sarah Nicell/LNP | LancasterOnline

Sharee Livingston will once again represent Lancaster County on the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Women.

The commission announced the reappointment of Livingston, a practicing physician for 20 years and the department chair of obstetrics and gynecology for UPMC Lititz, on Wednesday for another two-year term. She first joined the commission in August 2023, when Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order to create the advisory body on women’s issues in Pennsylvania.

“What I learned as a department chair is not much happens unless we have government on our side,” Livingston said.

The commission currently has 29 members who review and recommend policies to the governor that affect women and girls across the state. For the next two years, Livingston will be the only member from Lancaster County.

Her proudest accomplishments with the commission thus far, she said, include an allocation in last year’s state budget for menstrual products in schools and an October 2024 state law providing Medicaid coverage for doulas, people who offer physical and emotional support during pregnancy and labor.

Those moves fit into her work outside the doctor’s office. Livingston is co-founder of For the Love of Women (FLOW), a nonprofit that distributes free menstrual products to communities who need them, and Patients R Waiting, a nonprofit that promotes diversity in medicine, including amongst doulas.

Livingston is one of 15 returning members. Sarah Hammond, also of Lancaster County, was appointed in 2023 but not named on the new list.

The commission is divided into three subcommittees focused on women’s health, women in the workforce and violence prevention. Livingston serves on the women’s health committee, which prioritizes menstrual equity, maternal health, menopause and aging.

In her second term, Livingston said she hopes the commission will turn its attention to women in their post-reproductive years, with a renewed focus on perimenopause and menopause.

“Older women deserve that attention, too,” Livingston said.