About
Dr Eichelberger is a physician and social justice advocate committed to equitable health outcomes for people living in the American South. She currently serves as the Executive Medical Director of the Women's and Children's Care Divisions for Prisma Health, and Samaritan Biologics Endowed Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Prisma Health.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Social Justice and Community Activism from Duke University as a Benjamin N Duke Leadership Scholar, Dr Eichelberger served as a Hart Fellow in Harare, Zimbabwe with the Oak Foundation, participating with HIV/AIDS grant making as well as documentary photography in the settlement communities. She completed medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina, and an Obstetrics and Gynecology residency and Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, during which time she spent three months practicing obstetrics in Lilongwe, Malawi. In addition to her current clinical and leadership work, she has the honor of serving as Medical Director of the Magdalene Clinic, a comprehensive trauma-informed prenatal and addiction care clinic for pregnant people with substance use disorder (SUD). She is a member of the Aspen Global Leaders Network and the Liberty Fellowship (class of 2018).
How their research is transforming health care
Dr. Eichelberger is in her fifth year as site principal investigator for the NICHD’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit (MFMU) Network, the largest perinatal research unit in the United States. Prisma Health–Upstatewas added to the Network as a satellite site in 2016, the only hospital system in the state to run the largest, most comprehensive studies in perinatal medicine. Over the past five years Prisma Health has successfully participated in eleven Network trials, several of which have significantly impacted our understanding of best practice in perinatal medicine. Dr. Eichelberger is also in her third year of a $1.15M grant for The Magdalene Clinic, a comprehensive trauma informed program for pregnant women with substance use disorders. Through the program evaluation arm of this grant, the team of clinician/researchers is working to better define optimal health outcomes for women with significant social and medical risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes.Very recently and in conjunction with Clemson University, Dr. Phil Thomas and Dr. Eichelberger were awarded a $500K HSRSA RCORP grant for a Magdalene expansion clinic in rural Oconee County with the goal of increasing access to behavioral health for women and decreasing the frequency of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome diagnoses in the community.
Health research keywords
Perinatal epidemiology, Adverse pregnancy outcomes, Women’s health disparities, Race and pregnancy
