Sonia Hassan, M.D., professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been appointed associate vice president of Women’s Health and founder of the new Office for Women’s Health for Wayne State University.

The new office will integrate clinical medicine, research, economic, environmental and social factors to drive the health of women through research, education, program implementation and policy development. Dr. Hassan, a 1994 graduate of the WSU School of Medicine, will align the implementation of biomedical sciences and other disciplines for the study of the community and individuals to improve the health care of women. She also will work to increase the participation of women in the university’s education, research and health care programs.

The office also will collaborate with external stakeholders to play an overarching role toward transforming health care for women and their children.

“Wayne State University has a long track record of excellence in women’s health and research,” School of Medicine Dean Jack D. Sobel, M.D., said in announcing the appointment April 4. “Wayne State University is deeply committed to improving the health care of women and increasing the research enterprise with a focus on women.”

In her new role, Dr. Hassan will report to the vice president for Health Affairs and to WSU Vice President of Research Stephen M. Lanier, Ph.D.

“This new office will apply a trans-disciplinary approach to women’s health throughout the university,” Dr. Lanier said. “We are confident that Dr. Hassan will align the implementation of biomedical sciences and other disciplines for the study of the community and individuals to improve the health care of women. She also will aim to increase the participation of women in the university’s education, research and health care programs.”

Dr. Hassan has served as the lead faculty member at WSU in its relationship with the National Institutes of Health’s Perinatology Research Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for 13 years. She has also served as the associate dean for Maternal, Perinatal and Child Health at the School of Medicine.

The author or co-author of more than 350 publications, she was the lead author of a multi-center, international randomized controlled trial of vaginal progesterone for the prevention of preterm birth, which demonstrated that the use of progesterone in women found to have a shortened cervix decreases the rate of preterm birth before 33 weeks of gestation by 45 percent and respiratory distress syndrome by 61 percent. The recommendations provided by those findings have been adopted worldwide.

Dr. Hassan was the founding director of the Perinatal Initiative, a research initiative funded by Wayne State University that includes scientists with an emphasis on perinatal research. She also established the Center for Advanced Obstetrical Care and Research at the Perinatology Research Branch, a clinical research center for pregnant women. She is the founding director of the Make Your Date program, designed to reduce the rate of preterm birth in Detroit. She co-chairs the State of Michigan’s Infant Mortality Advisory Council.

Dr. Hassan has received national and international awards for her work in the prevention of preterm birth, and in 2018 was awarded the March of Dimes Heroes for Babies Award. She has been recognized as the National Arab American Medical Association - Michigan Healthcare Professional of the Year and as a WSU School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni. She was named a Crain’s Health Care Hero and a Michiganian of the Year by The Detroit News for her work with progesterone, and received the March of Dimes Michigan Prematurity Prevention Hero Award.

A fellow of the third class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, she received the prestigious Rogerio A. Lobo Award from the Society for Reproductive Investigation, given annually for the most outstanding contribution to reproductive sciences.