Etoi Garrison, MD, PhD, has been appointed the Director of Equitable Clinical Outcomes for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Office of Health Equity. In this role, she will direct efforts aimed at applying an equity lens in clinical, quality and safety practices to improve outcomes for historically marginalized and socially disadvantaged populations. Key to this role will be providing consultation to clinical leadership across the enterprise as they meet health care equity benchmarks in the VUMC Racial Equity Plan and other initiatives addressing inequities in clinical outcomes.
“Etoi comes to this position with her own, special lens,” said Elisa C Friedman, M.S., associate vice president for Community Health and Health Equity. “She has spent the past 20 years seeing the impact of healthcare inequities on her maternal health patients and is passionate about reducing inequities, especially those due to race, ethnicity, and language. She is ideal for this expanded role focused on addressing how racism, social and structural drivers impact clinical outcomes, working closely with clinical and quality leaders to mitigate inequities across the enterprise.”
Garrison joined VUMC in 2006 as an associate professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology where she developed the resident obstetric emergency simulation program.
Garrison was recently elected to the Vanderbilt University Academy for Excellence in Education for her teaching excellence and high engagement. She currently serves as the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for her department, and leads the outpatient diabetes section for the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine.
Garrison received a grant from the Tennessee Maternal Mortality Commission in 2021 to develop an unconscious bias training program that was piloted by five hospitals in Middle Tennessee. In 2022, her multi-disciplinary women’s health team received a Health Equity Innovation Award from the Office of Health Equity and a Community Engaged Research Core Partnership Development award from the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
Garrison is a reviewer for national simulation curriculum for the American College of OB/GYN and serves as a national board examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is a native of Chicago and received early education in the Chicago public school system. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology from the University of Chicago, an MD, PhD in Pharmacology from Tulane University and completed her specialty training at the University of Chicago.
Learn more about VUMC’s Office of Health Equity here. Access the Racial Equity Plan here.