We write with heavy hearts to share the news that our beloved friend and longtime colleague, Joe Potter, passed away on May 13.
Joe had a remarkable and productive career as a demographer studying fertility and contraception in Mexico and Brazil and later applied his research curiosities and talents to examining changes in contraception and abortion access in Texas.
While there are so many reasons and accomplishments by which to remember Joe, we honor him as the founding director of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP). For nearly 10 years, he led a team of social scientists, clinicians, staff, and numerous mentees on multiple studies that rigorously examined the impacts of excluding Planned Parenthood from publicly funded family planning programs, the consequences of restrictive abortion laws, and the importance of recognizing and assessing people’s contraceptive preferences. Under his leadership, our team generated key evidence that informed policy debates and court decisions that helped restore access to essential healthcare.
Following his retirement from UT Austin, Joe continued to be regularly engaged in our team’s new research, including attending our inaugural Resound Research advisory committee meeting on May 7. He challenged us to think big and will continue to inspire our work at Resound Research going forward.
Our team – and those of you who have reached out since hearing this news – remember him as an advocate, courageous and generous, committed to his work and his family – and committed to having fun. For those who were there from the start or who got involved somewhere along this incredible journey, we share both the grief of this loss and the joys of remembering the moments we spent together.
