"I'm just trying to indoctrinate sexual health" into women's minds, "Grey's Anatomy" actress and former Tucsonan Kate Walsh said of her work on Planned Parenthood's Board of Advocates.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

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The life of a celebrity has its ups and downs.

For the past three years, it's been a lot of ups for Kate Walsh.

For starters, the San Jose, Calif.-born, Tucson-raised actress is one of the stars of "Grey's Anatomy," the three-year-old ABC hospital drama that birthed McNicknames and became TV's No. 1 show.

Her instant fame started the second Walsh appeared on "Grey's" as Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd, the jilted, philandering wife of Dr. Derek Shepherd and one-third of one of TV's greatest love triangles.

"I never imagined this," Walsh said in an interview here Saturday, as she returned to her onetime hometown, where she attended Catalina and Rincon high schools as well as the University of Arizona.

"For a show that's in a competitive environment to stand out is great," she said.

With celebrity comes the opportunity to become a celebrity face for issues she holds in high regard. Organizations came calling rather quickly.

She's been involved with the Special Olympics and the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and hopes to get Habitat for Humanity interested. But right now her priority is Planned Parenthood, the organization known mostly for its stance on abortion rights, but which also pushes for sexual and reproductive education.

Attending a benefit for Planned Parenthood at Club Congress on Saturday — the same place she once worked as a cocktail waitress while discovering herself as an actress — Walsh spoke with joy about the bizarre fact that people pay attention to her more now that she's on a hit show.

"For whatever reason, if you're on TV — especially if you're on TV — people will say 'We'll listen to her,' " Walsh said. "You can be a service for things. It's odd, but it's great."

Walsh, 39, said she's always wanted to push for women to speak out more about sexual topics, either with their doctors or sexual partners. It's a great coincidence that she plays an OB-GYN, and great fortune that she works on a show that aims, in the end, to be more than a sexual romp in the closets and bedrooms of Seattle doctors.

Walsh mentioned a recent episode featuring a Catholic wife who came to Addison asking for her fallopian tubes to be tied. "That was an episode I thought was going to create some controversy," she said. "But I was surprised that we were able to do the episode."

But Walsh isn't only representing Planned Parenthood and its ideals through her popular character. She serves on the organization's Board of Advocates, and she said she's working with her publicist and others to market a makeup compact that can hold a condom.

"It's still a stigma for women to carry a condom," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. "I'm just trying to indoctrinate sexual health into their minds. It'll help women feel empowered."

Walsh said she's comfortable being one of the public faces of a well-known organization. But the information she's learned from experts is overwhelming.

"I learned a lot of things on the job," she said. "But these people definitely have taught me much more than I imagined."