Expert Work Group

Rachelle Abdelnour, MD

Rachelle Abdelnour, MD, is a graduate of an accelerated BS/MD program at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She is currently an OB/GYN resident at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. She aspires to become a maternal fetal medicine specialist and is currently applying for fellowship in this field. She is a proud graduate of the Tony Gorant Community Leadership Institute and was recently elected to be administrative and clinical rotation chief.

L. Joy Baker, MD

Dr. L. Joy Baker is a Board-Certified general Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Wellstar West Ga Medical Center in LaGrange, Georgia. She has experience working in both urban and rural communities over the past ten years, after completing her medical school and residency training with honors at the Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady Health System. Dr. Baker has been the recipient of numerous awards to include GA Top Docs 2020, Atlanta Magazine’s 2017 Top Doctors feature physician, Press Ganey Top Patient Satisfaction Award, Physician Community Service Award, Grady Health Foundation’s “Next Generation Healer” Award, two Arnold P. Gold Foundation Awards for Humanism in Medicine and many others.

She has served in various leadership roles like Advisory Board Member of the Georgia OB/GYN Society, President-Elect of Medical Executive and Credentialing Committee, and President of the Morehouse School of Medicine Resident Physician Association. In 2019, she became one of the first physicians in the United Stated to complete a HRSA fellowship in Transformational Healthcare Leadership at the Morehouse School of Medicine and one of the first OB/GYN physicians to earn special certification in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

Elizabeth M. Barlet, MD

Elizabeth Barlet, MD, completed her undergraduate work at Missouri Southern State College. She completed her medical degree and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has practiced in both private and academic settings, including the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is currently the section chair of Women’s Health for Mercy Hospital Joplin as well as the medical director of Labor and Delivery at Mercy Joplin. She is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of OBGYN for Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Kansas City and Joplin, Missouri.

Dr. Barlet has served as a consultant for the Midwest Regional Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Training Center (MRFASTC) and was a speaker for MRFASTC from its inception in 2002. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of FASD United. She also serves on the ACOG FASD Prevention Expert Workgroup and as an ACOG Physician Champion for FASD Prevention.

Samuel T. Bauer, MD, MBA, CPE, FACOG

Samuel T. Bauer, MD, MBA, CPE, FACOG, is a board-certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist through the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Medical Director of Duke Perinatal Consultants, and the Medical Director of Quality and Digital Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University. Dr. Bauer is a Certified Physician Executive and certified through the Certifying Commission in Medical Management. He holds certifications from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers and the Columbia Business School in Digital Transformation in Healthcare. His leadership style is grounded in the concepts from the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), the American Association for Physician Leadership, Duke Clinical Leadership Program, and the Beaumont Health Physician Leadership Academy.

Erin Tracy Bradley, MD, MPH

Dr. Bradley attended medical school at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, and did a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, followed by a Masters in Public Health degree in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a full-time faculty member in the Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is an Associate Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Bradley is a past national chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Junior Fellows and was the first young fellow on ACOG’s Executive Board. She has also served as an ACOG delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA). She is currently District I ACOG Chair-Elect, a past Chair of the Massachusetts ACOG Section, and a past chair of the Massachusetts Section Legislative Committee. She recently served on the advisory committee for the ACOG Political Action Committee and was a member of the AMA’s Women Physicians Congress Governing Council and served as Chair of this organization for three years. She has also served on several Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) committees and is an ACOG Delegate to the MMS House of Delegates.

Tara Banaszek Daming, MD

Tara Banaszek Daming, MD, is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Tulane University School of Medicine, where she was administrative chief resident and received the Hiram K Batson Award for outstanding residency performance. She was the ACOG Junior Fellow Vice Chair, then Chair of Louisiana while in residency, and volunteer staffed a medical student clinic at a women’s rehabilitation house.

She completed a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is interested in resident and medical student education, has designed a workshop given at APGO for building a mentor program, and has co-created two CME courses for nutrition and pregnancy in conjunction with the Goldring Center for Culinary Nutrition. Her research interests include cardiac disease in pregnancy and obesity in pregnancy. She also has a special interest in environment and teratogens, participating in the ACOG Green team during the Congressional Leadership Conference and is one of the District VII Fetal Alcohol Champions.

David Garry, DO, FACOG

David Garry, DO, FACOG, is the Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook. He is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, who trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens and did his clinical fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at New York Medical College. He now serves as the Director of Maternal Fetal-Medicine at Stony Brook Medicine. Dr. Garry is actively involved in basic and clinical research involving various aspects of maternal health. He serves as a reviewer for a variety of medical journals and is an academic editor for the journal PLOS One. He is actively involved with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) as a champion for prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and is the co-chair in ACOG District II Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy taskforce.

Douglas Kent Fenton, MD, FACOG

Dr. Douglas Fenton is the chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, California. He is physician founder and medical director of the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas/Connect the Docs Obstetrics Hospitalist program and the medical director of the Department of Maternal Child Health and Advanced Gynecologic Surgery. He remains a voluntary assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego, where he completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology in 1986. Dr. Fenton served as the North County Director of the San Diego Medical Society and as a delegate to the California Medical Association between 2004 and 2012. He remains in active clinical practice and serves on the Scripps Coastal Medical Center Board of Directors.

Dr. Fenton was vice chair of ACOG District IX, Section 8, from 2008–2011, and chair for the following three years. He currently serves on the District IX Advisory Council, Legislative Committee, Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Committee, and the Physician Wellness Committee. In 2018 he joined the ACOG FASD Workgroup as a prevention Champion. Dr. Fenton serves on the California Biobank Community Values Panel and is a delegate to the California Medical Association. His career continues to focus on advocacy for women and the wellness of clinicians.

Karen Harris, MD, MPH

Raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Karen Harris graduated from Vassar College in New York with a BA in Biology with honors. She received her medical degree from the University of Florida. Upon completion of her residency in 1989, she returned to Gainesville to begin private practice with North Florida Women’s Physicians where she practiced for 29 years. She was the managing partner of the 10-physician group for 13 years. In 2018 she left private practice to start Women’s Group of North Florida, the office practice for the new Ob/Gyn Residency at North Florida Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Harris became involved in the Florida Obstetric and Gynecologic Society in 1993, becoming its first woman president in 2001. In addition, she was the second woman president of the Alachua County Medical Society, is involved in the Florida Medical Association, and was on the Perinatal Quality Committee of a national hospital chain. She is active in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and was the Chair of ACOG District XII (Florida) in 2015 where she sat on the National Executive Board until 2018.

She returned to the University of Florida to further her education in women’s health care policy and received her Master’s in Public Health in December 2011. She currently is on the Steering Committee of the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative, is the MCH Grants Committee Chair for the Florida Chapter of March of Dimes and is a returning member of the Pregnancy Associated Maternal Mortality Review Committee. In addition, she serves on the ACOG Task Force for Maternal Mortality Reduction nationally.

Cresta Jones, MD

Dr. Cresta Jones currently serves as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, in the division of maternal-fetal medicine, at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She received her MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as her fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine, at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Dr. Jones has been focusing her clinical practice on substance use disorders in pregnancy, and currently serves as the physician lead in an inpatient substance use treatment program for pregnant women experiencing substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder. Her research interests including opioid use disorders in pregnancy and responsible opioid prescribing.

Elizabeth E. Krans, MD, MSc

Elizabeth E. Krans, MD, MSc, is Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and addiction medicine and serves as the Director of the Pregnancy and Women’s Recovery Center at Magee-Womens Hospital where she has been providing substance use treatment services for over 15 years. Following residency, she received training in health services research with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and runs a NIH-funded research program focused on improving healthcare delivery processes for pregnant and postpartum persons with substance use disorders. She is an addiction medicine expert for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and has served on various state and federal taskforces focused on improving clinical care approaches for this population.

Maria Manriquez, MD, FACOG

Maria Manriquez, MD, FACOG, FASAM, is a University of Arizona College of Medicine Alumnus. She is the medical director for ambulatory ObGyn and addiction medicine at Banner University Medical Center Phoenix which is the primary clinical affiliate for the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. Dr. Manriquez brings vast experience in program direction that spans undergraduate education, medical education, graduate, and continued medical education. Her ACOG service includes being vice chair and then chair of the Arizona section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), At-Large Fellow for District VIII, CREOG program chair, and ACOG representatives to the AAMC.

She was the principal investigator for a large CMS grant, awarded to Maricopa Integrated Health Systems (MIHS), aimed at investigating innovations in prenatal care models addressing preterm delivery rate, substance use disorders in pregnancy and care coordination. Currently has two grants as sub awards through SAMSHA addressing tele-mentoring for providers caring for patients with substance use disorder and telehealth direct services for pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorder. During Dr. Manriquez’s tenure at MIHS she was Associate Director of the Residency Program in OBGYN and was Vice Chair of the OBGYN department. Dr. Manriquez continues to maintain a clinical practice focusing on substance use-disorders in pregnancy. She developed and directs the Pathway Scholars Program, a program addressing diversity in the physician workforce. The program prepares underprivileged students for medical school through a yearlong curriculum designed to position them to thrive once they matriculate.

Vanessa Parisi, DO, MS, MPH, FACOG, NCMP, PMH-C

Vanessa Parisi, DO, MS, MPH, FACOG, NCMP, PMH-C is a graduate and former Global Health Academic Medicine Scholar from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. While in medical school, she earned her Master’s Degree in Neuromusculoskeletal Sciences and Certificate in Global Health from New York Institute of Technology. She simultaneously earned her Master's in Public Health from A.T. Still University's School of Health Management. Dr. Parisi continued her training in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program at Saint Barnabas Medical Center (SBMC) in Livingston, New Jersey where she served as administrative chief resident.

Dr. Parisi is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who worked as an OB/GYN generalist for six years. She has now transitioned out of solo private practice to a hospital-based and administrative setting. She is fully licensed without restriction in New York and New Jersey. She serves as the OB/GYN Hospitalist Director and Senior Attending OB/GYN physician at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, New York. She works per-diem as a Hospitalist with OB Hospitalist Group (OBHG) at Bellevue Women’s Center of Ellis Medicine in Niskayuna, New York. She also works per-diem as a Laborist with Mountainside Medical Center of Hackensack Meridian Health in Montclair, New Jersey.

Scott Petersen, MD, FACOG

Scott Petersen, MD, is an Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. He has a B.S. in Biology (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Oregon and attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD. He completed residency training at Tripler Army Medical Center and Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship training at Johns Hopkins. He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and is currently an oral examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

He served 24 years in the Army Medical Corps and received multiple awards to include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the “A” designator for academic achievement and was inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit. He serves as a reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed journals including, Obstetrics & Gynecology (former Editorial Board member), Transfusion, BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Journal of Reproductive Immunology, Journal of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound (former Editorial Board member). He recently served out his term as the Armed Forces District (AFD) Army section chair, has been named the AFD mentor of the year, and is the AFD Champion for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorders for ACOG. His research interests include prenatal diagnosis, novel fetal therapies, medical student and resident education, and global health.

Catherine Eppes, MD

Catherine (Carey) Eppes, MD is a maternal fetal medicine physician at Baylor College of Medicine and is the Chief of Obstetrics and Maternal Medical Director at Ben Taub Hospital and co-director of the Ben Taub high risk obstetrics infectious disease clinic.  In 2019 she and her colleague founded the Ben Taub substance use disorder clinic and program and partnered with Texas HHSC on the maternal opioid misuse model with the goal of improving care of women with substance use in Texas.

She attended medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and received both her Masters in Public Health and maternal fetal medicine fellowship training from Northwestern University.  Her clinical and research focus is on infectious diseases, substance use disorder and quality and safety in obstetrics.

She also serves as the TexasAIM Medical Director, Chair of Texas Collaborative for healthy moms and babies, and ACOG district XI patient safety and quality improvement chair.

Courtney Townsel, MD, MSc, FACOG

Courtney Townsel, MD MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree at Howard University in Washington, DC before returning to her home state of Florida for medical school at the University of South Florida. She completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at George Washington University. After completing her Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship and a Masters of Science in Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Townsel joined the University of Michigan Maternal Fetal Medicine faculty. She currently serves as the Physician Lead for the University of Michigan Program for Substance Use in Pregnancy and Co-Lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Von Voigtlander Womens Hospital Birth Center.

Tricia Wright, MD, MS

Tricia Wright, MD, MS, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously she was at the University of Hawaii and founded the Path Clinic, a perinatal clinic specializing in the care of pregnant and parenting women with Substance Use Disorders. She is board certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Addiction Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She has published multiple papers on pregnancy and addiction as well as a textbook Opioid Use Disorders in Pregnancy published in 2018 by Cambridge University Press. 

Dr. Wright completed her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her MD from the University of Michigan. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the University of New Mexico and obtained a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research from the University of Hawai‘i.

Yasuko Yamamura, MD

Yasuko Yamamura, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota. She received her medical degree from the Ponce School of Medicine in 2001. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mayo Clinic, and then subsequently completed a subspecialty fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Yamamura joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 2008. She is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and has a subspecialty certification in MFM.  Dr. Yamamura’s clinical interests include diagnostic and therapeutic fetal procedures, cervical insufficiency and preterm birth. Dr. Yamamura has held a number of leadership roles in the educational mission of the Department of Ob-Gyn, including Ob-Gyn Medical Student Clerkship Director and is currently the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Director.