Wendy Gordon

DM, MPH, CPM, LM

Wendy Gordon Headshot

Department of Midwifery

School of Natural Health Arts and Sciences

Seattle

Online

EMAIL

[email protected]

AREAS OF FOCUS

Midwifery

Wendy Gordon DM, MPH, CPM, LM is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Midwifery. Her teaching philosophy is to connect theory to practice wherever possible and engage the passion inside all of us as a means to stimulate learning. Becoming a midwife will change you, and sometimes we need some midwifing ourselves along the way.

Biography

Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University. Dr. Gordon has been a midwife since 2005 and has been teaching midwifery since 2007. Dr. Gordon's teaching and research interests include the provision of midwifery care in home and birth center settings, the role of racism in perinatal health disparities, and the ability to translate and evaluate research. She served as one of two Certified Professional Midwives on a committee for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) to assess health outcomes by birth setting.

Education:

  • Doctorate in Midwifery from Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA
  • Master's in Public Health from Oregon Health & Sciences University with a focus in health disparities
  • BS in Chemical Engineering from Oregon Health & Sciences University

Awards & Honours

  • Federal Grant: Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (2020-2024).
  • Project Director. $3.5M for scholarships for students attending Bastyr University’s MS in Midwifery program.
  • Jo Anne Myers-Ciecko Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership in Midwifery (2005)

Professional affiliations

  • National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM)
  • Midwives Association of Washington State (MAWS)
  • Association of Midwifery Educators

Research philosophy

It is necessary for midwives to conduct and publish research on what we do in order to return to our proper place in the US maternity care system as well-educated and safe care providers for people with low-risk pregnancies. Midwifery is a better model of care for low-risk folks, and the system demands that we prove it.

 

Research Interests

midwifery care;home birth;racial disparities in perinatal health

Research highlights

  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Committee on Assessing Health Outcomes by Birth Settings. "Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access and Choice." National Academies Press (2020). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32049472/
  • Gordon, Wendy, Gail Tully and Lisa Hanson. "Assessing Progress in Labor." In The Labor Progress Handbook: Early Interventions to Prevent and Treat Dystocia, 5th edition, edited by Lisa Hanson & Ruth Ancheta. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2022.
  • Nethery, Elizabeth, Laura Schummers, Audrey Levine, Aaron B. Caughey, Vivienne Souter, and Wendy Gordon. "Birth outcomes for planned home and licensed freestanding birth center births in Washington State." Obstetrics and gynecology 138, no. 5 (2021): 693.
  • Nethery, Elizabeth, Wendy Gordon, Marit L. Bovbjerg, and Melissa Cheyney. "Rural community birth: maternal and neonatal outcomes for planned community births among rural women in the United States, 2004‐2009." Birth 45, no. 2 (2018): 120-129.
  • Gordon, Wendy M., Safiya AU McCarter, and Susan J. Myers. "Incorporating antiracism coursework into a cultural competency curriculum." Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health 61, no. 6 (2016): 721-725.