Carter named director of OB-GYN clinical research division

Ebony Boyce Carter, MD, a physician-scientist known for her research involving community-based interventions to promote health equity for pregnant women and their babies, has been named director of the Division of Clinical Research in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In the pursuit of health equity, the key aim is that everyone — regardless of identity, including race, ethnicity, gender or economic class — has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

“Ebony is an outstanding physician-scientist, gifted clinician, and dedicated teacher who possesses the expertise to grow our reproductive health clinical research to benefit all women,” said Dineo Khabele, MD, the Mitchell and Elaine Yanow Professor and head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Carter has extensive experience in the design and implementation of obstetric clinical trials. Her research on innovative prenatal care models to improve outcomes for pregnant women with diabetes is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and the American Diabetes Association. Carter is the principal investigator of a recently funded $3 million grant through the National Institute of Mental Health on behalf of the Elevating Voices, Addressing Depression, Toxic Stress and Equity in Group Prenatal Care (EleVATE GC) Women’s Collaborative — a community coalition led by Black mothers, clinicians, federally qualified community health centers, hospitals, academic centers and community organizations, and coordinated by the St. Louis Integrated Health Network.

“I was drawn to WashU OB-GYN for fellowship training because of the incredible advances in women’s health research that I saw regularly being produced by this institution from afar,” Carter said. “Today, I stand honored and humbled that Dr. Khabele has entrusted me to lead this incredible women’s health research infrastructure and support researchers and physician-scientists within the department and across the university to be trailblazers in women’s reproductive health research.”

Carter received her undergraduate degree in human biology from Stanford University, a master’s degree in public health in health policy from the University of Michigan and her medical degree from Duke University. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Harvard-integrated program at Brigham and Women’s/Massachusetts General hospitals. She then served as an academic general OB-GYN and faculty adviser at Harvard Medical School before completing a fellowship in maternal fetal medicine at Washington University.

Carter maintains an active clinical practice caring for patients with high-risk pregnancies at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She has authored almost 40 manuscripts and is a frequent speaker on reproductive health equity, diabetes in pregnancy and innovations in prenatal care.

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