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Jeannette E. South-Paul, MD

  • Andrew W. Mathieson, UPMC Professor and Chair, Family Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Jeannette E. South-Paul, M.D., is chair of the department of family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she is the first woman and the first African-American to serve as the permanent chair of a department at the School of Medicine; and one of a small number of African-American chairs in medical schools nationwide.

Dr. South-Paul is widely recognized for her research in the area of maternal-child health-especially teen pregnancy. She has had multiple honors to include election into the National Academy of Medicine and the Gold Humanism Society.

Beyond her family medicine interests, she also has an interest in socio-cultural issues in health care and health care in special populations. Dr. South-Paul is a widely recognized speaker and author on cultural competence in medical education; the impact of race, ethnicity and culture on health; cultural diversity and academic medicine; and the development of minority faculty.

She served as an active duty colonel in the United States Army, retiring after 22 years of service prior to coming the University of Pittsburgh. While on the faculty of the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md. she served as chair of the department of family medicine, vice president of minority affairs and president of the Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. South-Paul is a former chair of the minority affairs section of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Physicians.