Jeffrey F. Peipert, M.D., has been named the Robert J. Terry Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The appointment was announced by Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. Peipert is the first person to hold the professorship, which was established in honor of Robert J. Terry, M.D., professor and head of the School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy from 1900 to 1941.
“Robert Terry was an outstanding teacher and scientist,” says Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “He introduced many reforms in the teaching of anatomy and was renowned for his research on the human skeleton. He also served as head of the Department of Anatomy for more than 40 years and was the only department head retained from the original faculty when the School of Medicine was completely reorganized in 1910.”
Terry, a popular teacher, also assembled one of the largest and best documented skeletal collections in the United States, which is now housed at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution.
“Given Dr. Terry’s distinguished career as an educator and as a researcher and his devotion to the Washington University School of Medicine, I am very honored to be given this chair,” Peipert says. “Support from this chair, from the dean, and from Dr. Macones will enable our division to perform interdisciplinary clinical research that will improve women’s health.”
“Dr. Peipert has demonstrated his ability as an outstanding clinical scientist who is actively engaged in women’s health research, and he has made substantial contributions to the field,” says George A. Macones, M.D., the Mitchell and Elaine Yanow Professor and head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “His work has directly resulted in improvements in the health of women in the United States and worldwide.”
Peipert, vice chair of clinical research in obstetrics and gynecology, came to Washington University from Brown University in 2006. He is developing a clinical research division at the School of Medicine to provide new knowledge to improve women’s health. The new division is fostering interdisciplinary research by collaborating with other departments and divisions at the University, supporting efforts to increase clinical research in the department and the community and training new investigators in women’s health research.
Peipert’s research focuses on clinical epidemiology, family planning and infectious diseases. He recently completed a National Institutes of Health-funded study to evaluate behavioral interventions to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy.
At Brown, Peipert was a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and community health for 13 years and director of the department’s research division. He also was the program director for two career development grants and was the principal investigator for the Women & Infants/Brown Epidemiology/Clinical Trials training program for obstetricians-gynecologists.
As an educator, Peipert has led courses on the national level in clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. He also received numerous teaching awards, including an Excellence in Teaching Award in Undergraduate Medical Education from the Association of Professors in Gynecology and Obstetrics and the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, Peipert has published more than 100 articles in his field.
He currently serves on a newly created National Institutes of Health study section on Health Behaviors & Context and on the editorial board for the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.