Beth A. Collins Sharp is Health Scientist in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH). Previously, Dr. Collins Sharp was senior advisor for women’s health and gender research and senior advisor for nursing at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Earlier, she was director of the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) program at AHRQ. Before joining federal service, Dr. Collins Sharp served on the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina’s College of Medicine and as director of research for the obstetrics/gynecology department. She has taught at three large university schools of nursing and has served as nurse coordinator in the NIH-NICHD Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Research Network. Dr. Collins Sharp has practiced in a community hospital’s general medicine and postpartum units, an obstetric emergency room, and a university mother-baby inpatient unit.
During the course of her career, she has served as a member of a university institutional review board, chair of a university’s general clinical research center scientific research committee, and president of the Southern Nursing Research Society. She was the science team leader for the development of evidence-based guidelines on cyclic perimenstrual pain and discomfort.