Elaine Catherine Pierson-Mastroianni, clinical associate professor emeritus of obstetrics & gynecology and former head of student health at Penn, died of lung cancer on October 10. She was 89 years old.

Dr. Pierson-Mastroianni was born in East Tawas, Michigan and graduated from East Tawas High School in 1943. She attended the University of Michigan on a full scholarship, earning her bachelor’s degree in zoology and then her medical degree (1956). In 1957, she joined the faculty at Yale as a resident in obstetrics and gynecology.

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Pierson-Mastroianni moved to Philadelphia with her husband, Luigi Mastroianni Jr., who became the head of obstetrics & gynecology at Penn, and their three children. In 1968, she joined Penn as a staff physician for the student health clinic in obstetrics & gynecology. In 1969, she also joined the faculty as an instructor.

In 1971, she wrote Sex is Never an Emergency: A Candid Guide for College Students, which cost only $1 and was given to every incoming student at Penn. More than 200,000 copies were sold. She also co-wrote Female and Male: Dimensions on Human Sexuality with sociologist Bill D’Antonio (1974).

In 1979, she was promoted to clinical associate professor (Almanac January 31, 1980). She was accorded emerita status in 1992.

Dr. Pierson-Mastroianni is survived by two sons, John and Robert; a daughter, Anna; her brother, James Edward Pierson; and seven grandchildren. Her husband, Dr. Mastroianni, died in November 2008 (Almanac December 9, 2008).