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About
Access is the subject Chelsey Harris researches, and it is the thread running through her training. After undergraduate work at UC Irvine she earned her MD at Morehouse School of Medicine, graduating magna cum laude and inducting into Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society. She then completed obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Southern California and was selected as chief administrative resident — the position that runs scheduling, systems and quality for the service, and the one where you see which patients quietly never make it to their appointment.
In 2023 the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility gave her its Resident Award for Excellence in REI, a national recognition from the professional society for her subspecialty. She is now an REI fellow at the USC Keck School of Medicine, practicing at HRC Pasadena, the network’s original campus and a Keck Medicine of USC affiliate.
Her research interests sit at the edges of the science: how patients get to fertility care in the first place, how menopause is managed as a reproductive-health problem rather than an afterthought, and how third-party reproduction — donor eggs, donor embryos, gestational carriers — is coordinated medically and ethically. She is a Los Angeles County native returning to practice in the community where she grew up.
Clinical Expertise
- Infertility evaluation: ovarian reserve and endocrine testing, ovulatory assessment, uterine cavity imaging and partner semen analysis, assembled into a staged plan before treatment is proposed
- IVF cycle support: stimulation, monitoring, retrieval and transfer alongside HRC Pasadena’s in-house embryology laboratory, with attending supervision as a fellow
- Menopause and perimenopause management: hormone therapy decisions, vasomotor and genitourinary symptoms, bone and cardiometabolic risk — a named research interest, not an incidental service
- Third-party reproduction: donor egg and donor embryo cycles, gestational carrier medical management, and the consent and coordination these paths require
- Access and navigation: insurance criteria, referral loops and scheduling obstacles worked through as part of the plan, informed by her research on fertility-care access
Why Choose Dr. Harris
She researched the barrier she now helps patients around. Access to fertility care is an explicit research program for her, which is why the practical questions — what your plan requires, what a prior authorization stalls on, what happens if you miss a monitoring slot — get answered by a physician who studies them.
Chief administrative resident is a different kind of credential. Elected by a program to run its systems, Harris spent a year on the operational side of an academic OB/GYN service. Patients experience that as fewer dropped balls between labs, scheduling and the clinic.
Menopause is in her research portfolio. Few physicians in REI training claim it. For patients in their forties — where a fertility plan and a hormonal-symptom plan are the same conversation — that overlap is useful.
AOA at Morehouse, SREI at USC. Two honors from two different institutions: academic distinction at a historically Black medical school in Atlanta, then national subspecialty recognition during residency in Los Angeles.
Local and reachable. Born and raised in Los Angeles County, practicing in Pasadena, and still in fellowship — which usually means shorter waits for an appointment than an established, fully-booked attending.
Professional Affiliations
Member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. 2023 SREI Resident Award for Excellence in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Research presentations and publications on access to fertility care, menopause management and third-party reproduction. In REI fellowship training at the USC Keck School of Medicine, with residency completed at USC as chief administrative resident.
Suitable For
Patients who have been stuck before reaching treatment. Insurance denials, referral churn and cost barriers are the practical subject of her research, and they get addressed as part of the plan.
Women in perimenopause with fertility questions. The overlap of hormone management and conception planning, handled by someone who studies both.
Families building with donor eggs, donor embryos or a gestational carrier. Third-party reproduction is a named research interest and a routine part of HRC Pasadena’s practice.
Anyone at the beginning of a workup. A systematic evaluation with clear reasoning about what to do first, before anything is escalated.
Patients who want early-morning monitoring in Pasadena. Fellow availability plus the campus’s weekday early sessions makes scan scheduling realistic around a job.