Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, FAAP, is Director of the Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is a retired Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service.
As DRH Director, Dr. Barfield leads efforts to provide optimal and equitable health to women, infants, and families through improved surveillance and applied public health research during the critical junctures of population health– pregnancy, infancy, and adolescence. Through building and strengthening strategic partnerships with multiple organizations, her division currently leads several activities to monitor: maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity; infant mortality and morbidity due to SIDS/SUID and preterm birth; the impact of emerging threats among pregnant/postpartum women and their infants (opioids, disasters, COVID-19); and women’s reproductive health issues ranging from contraception and teen/unintended pregnancy, to infertility and assisted reproductive technology.
She received her medical and public health degrees from Harvard University, completed a pediatrics residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Harvard. Dr. Barfield is a Professor of Pediatrics, at the Uniformed Services University. She continues to provide clinical care to premature and other critically ill newborns.