Dr. Uma Reddy, an internationally recognized maternal-fetal medicine specialist, has been appointed the inaugural Mary Lake Polan Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). The Indian American physician scientist’s appointment is for a term of 10 years, renewable by the YSM dean, according to Yale News.
Reddy rejoined the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at YSM earlier this year as executive vice chair after serving at Columbia University. Before that, she had been with Yale Ob/Gyn as professor and section chief of maternal-fetal medicine.
She is a recognized authority in maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) whose research has fundamentally advanced the understanding of stillbirth, neonatal morbidity and mortality, and labor management and its impact on maternal outcomes.
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During her 15 years at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Reddy oversaw many of the nation’s most influential obstetric research initiatives, including the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network.
She also served as project scientist for major collaborative studies, including the Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network, the Genomics and Proteomics Network for Preterm Birth Research, and the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be (nuMoM2b).
She joined Yale School of Medicine in 2018 as professor and chief of maternal-fetal medicine, where she led multiple NIH-funded studies, including the GO MOMs study, and was selected for the prestigious Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.
From 2022 to 2025, she served as the Virgil G. Damon Professor and vice chair of research at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and professor of population and family health at the Mailman School of Public Health, where she led several major NIH-funded initiatives focused on maternal health.
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Reddy has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and has played a key role in developing national obstetric guidelines through the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In 2024, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of her transformative contributions to obstetric research.
Reddy graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in biology from Brown University and earned her MD from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She received a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and subsequently completed fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The professorship is named for its benefactor, Polan, a physician-scientist, clinician, educator, and academic leader with deep roots at Yale. The first woman to complete the Yale Ob/Gyn residency program, Polan has produced influential work on the role of cytokines and inflammation in reproduction, specifically in implantation and ovulation.