Message from the Chair:

Welcome to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Meharry Medical College. We are thrilled you are exploring a place where education, innovation and compassionate care come together to shape the future of women’s health.

At Meharry, we firmly believe women’s health is foundational to family and community well-being. When we deliver exceptional care, we not only improve individual outcomes, we strengthen families and build resilient, thriving communities across Tennessee and beyond. High-quality obstetric and gynecologic care drives high-value utilization by ensuring appropriate imaging, laboratory testing and procedures; supporting multidisciplinary care; and fueling discovery, reputation and research funding. This alignment is deliberate: Our clinics inform our curricula, our trainees fuel our research, and our research returns to the bedside to benefit the patients and communities we serve.

Education is the heart of our enterprise. Our residents and students learn to practice with rigor, humility and cultural responsiveness. They graduate prepared to lead in community practice, academic medicine, public health or health policy. We emphasize hands-on learning, simulation, interprofessional teamwork and continuous quality improvement. We also champion mentorship that opens doors for those historically underrepresented in medicine, staying true to Meharry’s legacy of service and excellence.

Our research portfolio spans health services, implementation science, maternal morbidity and mortality reduction, reproductive endocrinology, cancer prevention and community-engaged scholarship. We partner with community stakeholders to design studies that answer questions our patients are asking now, then collaboratively disseminate results in ways that change practice, narrow disparities and expand access.

To realize our vision, we are pursuing strategic investments that will accelerate impact, including:

• Recruitment of top-tier teaching faculty with competitive, nationally benchmarked salaries and clear academic pathways for advancement.

• Modernization of academic spaces, including simulation, team-based learning, and data and analytics capacity that support next-generation education and quality improvement.

• Expansion of clinical sites that reflect community standards and needs, both urban and rural, so patients can receive high-value care close to home.

• Leadership in teaching innovation, from competency-based assessment to longitudinal mentorship and novel care-learning models that integrate value, equity and outcomes.

Meharry has always stood for access, dignity and excellence. In obstetrics and gynecology, that means ensuring safe pregnancy and birth; delivering respectful, evidence-based gynecologic care; safeguarding reproductive autonomy; preventing and treating cancer; and partnering with communities to confront the structural drivers of inequity. It also means holding ourselves to measurable results, tracking outcomes, listening to patients and improving every day.

Thank you for visiting. Whether you are a prospective trainee, a future colleague, a community partner or a patient seeking care, I invite you to join us. Together, we can advance the science and art of women’s health and ensure that every person, in every community we serve and beyond, can thrive.

Leslie C. Appiah, M.D., FACOG
Professor and Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology | Meharry Medical College