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Elisabeth Howard Named Director of Nurse Midwifery

Release Date: 04/08/2016

Elisabeth D. Howard, PhD, CNM, FACNM, has been named the director of nurse midwifery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Dr. Howard joined the faculty and has been a clinical teaching associate at Women & Infants and Brown since 2004. She was promoted to assistant professor (clinical) in 2008. A graduate of William Smith College in Geneva, NY, Howard completed her midwifery training at the Yale University School of Nursing and her PhD in nursing science from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She has served as interim director of midwifery since 2014.

“Dr. Howard is a highly valued member of our department and is recognized for her clinical experience, her national leadership, her dedication to teaching, and her effective, collaborative leadership style,” said Maureen G. Phipps, MD, MPH, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, executive chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Care New England Health System, Chair and Chace-Joukowsky Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and assistant dean for teaching and research in women's health at the Alpert Medical School, and professor of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. “She has made significant contributions to enhancing the national recognition of the midwifery service at Women & Infants Hospital as an academic model of inter-professional education and clinical care, working collaboratively with physicians, advance practice nurses, and every member of the care delivery team.”

The mission of the nurse midwifery program is to support the educational goals of Brown University medical students and obstetric residents at Women & Infants Hospital regarding basic knowledge and skill acquisition in both obstetric triage and low-risk intrapartum care, including educational workshops.

The program further augments the clinical services provided by obstetric residents within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology by providing timely and expert care within the obstetric service – i.e. labor and delivery, operating room, maternal-fetal medicine, gestational diabetes clinic and obstetric triage.

The nurse midwifery program advances the academic mission of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology by participating in national and international presentations, publications and research projects advancing the scope of nurse midwifery.

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.