Jennifer F. Kawwass, MD ’07, has been appointed director of the Emory Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division. She will be assuming this leadership role on June 6, 2022.

Kawwass, an associate professor and the medical director of the Emory Reproductive Center, is a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She moved to Atlanta in 2007 for residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University, during which time she was elected by faculty and peers as an administrative chief resident.

As a reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellow at Emory, Kawwass initiated a collaboration with the Assisted Reproductive Technology Team at the CDC, where she remains a guest researcher. During her tenure as the medical director of the Emory Reproductive Center, in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes have been consistently above the national average, IVF volume has steadily increased, and patient satisfaction has remained high.

Kawwass is actively involved in the field of reproductive medicine on a national level. She served as a clinical director of the Executive Council of the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) and is currently serving as a member of the SART Research and Registry Committees. She is a member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Ethics Committee and the COVID-19 Task Force. She is also currently the academic director at large of the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (SREI).

Kawwass has published over 65 peer-reviewed publications, the majority of which are as first or final author. A few of her recent contributions to the literature include publications in Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fertility and Sterility, and JAMA. She is also an author of several MMWR CDC publications regarding the Zika virus in reproductive-aged individuals and male positive HIV discordant couples desiring conception. Her publications have received national press. She is among a handful of physicians chosen nationally by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine to participate in the CREST Scholars Program.

Kawwass is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She is fluent in English and French, medical Spanish, and conversational Lebanese Arabic. Her interests outside of medicine include distance running, foreign travel, and spending time at the beach. She and her husband, Peter Thompson, MD, a plastic surgeon at Emory, enjoy spending time with their two children.