May 20, 2020
Dionne Named Associate Director of Global Health
UAB’s UWIRC Center for Women’s Reproductive Health has named Dr Jodie Dionne-Odom to the new position of associate director of global health. She will join the CWRH leadership team in growing the center’s collaborative global health portfolio involving UAB investigators and partners at global health hubs. This portfolio includes the Cameroon Health Initiative at UAB (CHI UAB) which she co-directs and is supported by two MOUs between UAB and Cameroon partners. Working with the CWRH Director, Associate Directors and leaders of the CWRH Cores, the Dr Dionne-Odom will play an essential role in shaping and implementing strategies to advance global health research, training and service activities within CWRH.
Dr Dionne-Odom states, “My career passion for global health was kick-started when I learned about women’s health as an undergraduate living in Cameroon. Since then, I have led and participated in global health research and training initiatives in Cameroon, Zambia, Rwanda, Gabon, Haiti, and Peru with a focus on improving perinatal health in Africa.”
The mission of the CWRH is to conduct research aimed at improving the reproductive health (RH) and wellbeing of all women and their offspring, especially minority and under-served (including those in rural Alabama). It is also to facilitate collaboration between UAB researchers and developing scholars interested in women's RH. The major research themes at CWRH are currently maternal/child health and gynecologic conditions including genitourinary disorders and cancer prevention (reflecting the spectrum of benign conditions in women as they age) and their intersection with infections, cardiovascular disorders, obesity/diabetes, neurodevelopment and global health.
Jodie Dionne-Odom, M.D., MSPH
Asst Professor, Medicine – Infectious Diseases
Assoc Director, CWRH - Global Health
Assoc Scientist, Center for AIDS Research
Dr. Jodie Dionne-Odom is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Chief of Women's Health in the 1917 HIV Clinic. She is a physician-scientist with expertise in HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and perinatal hepatitis B infection. Dr. Dionne works in the US and Africa and she is a highly rated clinician, speaker, and mentor for students and trainees interested in women’s health. She is well-funded by NIH in her work to optimize the prevention and treatment of infections in pregnancy. Active clinical trials led by Dr. Dionne and conducted by the Cameroon Health Initiative Team (CHI UAB) were designed to test novel regimens to prevent malaria in pregnant women with HIV (PREMISE Trial) and perinatal hepatitis B transmission (REVERT-B Trial). Dr. Dionne also leads clinical trials at UAB that aim to improve STI treatment and prevention as part of the NIH-funded STI Clinical Trials Network and a prospective cohort study of outcomes in women and men living with HIV.