The Michael T. Mennuti, MD Associate Professorship in Reproductive Health at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Established in 2019 through the generosity of patients, students and colleagues, this Professorship honors one of Penn’s outstanding leaders in obstetrics and gynecology for his nearly 50-year career as a clinician, educator and researcher. The Mennuti Associate Professorship enables the recruitment and retention of rising stars whose work is the future of their field and the institution.

Michael T. Mennuti, MD served as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1987 to 2005 and was appointed the William Goodell Professor in 2006. He also held the positions of Professor of Human Genetics and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the Reproductive Genetics and the Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis Programs at Penn Medicine.

Dr. Mennuti received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University. He completed his residency and fellowships in maternal-fetal medicine and genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine. His research and clinical interests included serum screening for Down syndrome, screening for cystic fibrosis and prevention of folic acid-dependent neural tube defects.

In addition to holding numerous leadership roles at Penn, Dr. Mennuti served nationally as Vice President of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and President of the Association of American Obstetricians and Gynecology Foundation.

Current Chairholder

Lisa D. Levine, MD, MSCE 

Dr. Levine is a physician-scientist who currently serves as Chief of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Penn. She completed a BA in Chemistry/Pre-med at the College of the Holy Cross, followed by an MD and a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Levine came to Penn as a fellow in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine. She is a trained perinatal epidemiologist and received her Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology at Penn. Dr. Levine is active in research, clinical care, education and mentorship. One of her overarching academic goals is to improve maternal morbidity during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the postpartum period through innovative and novel research as well as through providing outstanding clinical care, all while teaching and growing the next generation of clinicians.

Dr. Levine has developed two areas of clinical research within women’s reproductive health, both addressing different aspects of maternal morbidity. One area of research focuses on optimizing labor management to reduce morbidity for all pregnant women. Dr. Levine will be starting a large multi-center randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of starting labor induction at home in reducing cesarean delivery risk and maternal morbidity. Another area focuses on morbidity and disparities among women with pregnancy hypertension or cardiac disease, which are two leading causes of maternal mortality in the United States. She most recently completed a study evaluating cardiovascular health 10 years after a pregnancy complicated by pregnancy hypertension and is starting a large NICHD funded multi-center trial evaluation inducing labor at home. Since Dr. Levine’s appointment as Assistant Professor at Penn in 2014, she has published over 80 peer-reviewed, original research manuscripts and has received intramural and extramural funding for her research.

Dr. Levine founded and directs the Pregnancy and Heart Disease Program at Penn, which blends both her clinical and research interests. This program focuses on preconception and pregnancy-related counseling and interdisciplinary care for women with acquired or congenital heart disease and was featured on the Today show in February 2020. Her team has evaluated pregnancy outcomes among women with congenital heart disease and evaluated racial disparities in peripartum cardiomyopathy, with their work being published in Hypertension and JAMA Cardiology.

In addition to her successes in research and clinical work, Dr. Levine focuses much of her career on teaching and mentoring the next generation of physicians. She provides hands-on clinical teaching on labor and delivery, in patient rounds, in the ultrasound unit, and in the high-risk office practice, and provides teaching through both formal and informal student, resident, and fellow didactic lectures. She is the Program Director of the Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship and is an active mentor for multiple residents and fellows within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She also serves as a mentor for the summer pipeline program to increase under-represented minorities in medicine.