James (jef) E. Ferguson Ii MD, MBA

Dr. James E. (Jef) Ferguson is The W. Norman Thornton, Jr., professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has served as chairman of the department since July 2009. Previously, he was the John Greene, Jr. professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dr. Ferguson is a 1977 graduate of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He completed a flexible internship at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco, California, then served as a resident at Stanford University School of Medicine from 1978-1980 before becoming a chief resident from 1980-1981 at North Carolina Baptist Hospital/Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was in private practice for one year then completed a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine from 1982-1984. He became an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1984, a position in which he served until becoming an assistant professor, associate professor and professor in the departments of obstetrics and gynecology and radiology at UVA School of Medicine beginning in 1987.

In 2002, Dr. Ferguson became The John W. Greene, Jr. professor and chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. From 2006-2008 Dr. Ferguson pursued an MBA in Healthcare Administration at George Washington University in Washington, DC and at graduation was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business honor society. In 2009 Dr. Ferguson returned to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine as The John M. Nokes Professor and Chair.

Dr. Ferguson has served on the Board for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine from 1996-2006 and as president from 2004-2005. He also served on council for the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society from 2001-2010 and as president from 2009-2010. He was elected as director of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Inc. from 2007-2010 and is currently an examiner for the oral boards. He has served since 2007 on the credentials committee, finance committee and written exam committee for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Inc. He currently serves on the strategic planning and advisory committee for the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society.

Dr. Ferguson research has focused on the pharmacologic treatment of preterm labor, techniques of prenatal diagnosis, the role of parathyroid hormone-related peptide in the human uteroplacental unit and more recently, the effects of periodontal disease and pregnancy outcomes. He was PI of the University of Kentucky Building Interdisciplinary Research Center for Women’s Health (BIRCWH), NIH-funded grant, as well as a site director of a march of Dimes Prematurity Prevention Initiative, “Healthy Babies are worth the Wait.” Currently, Dr. Ferguson is a referee for many respected journals including the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Journal of Perinatology and Editor for Obstetrics Section of the Journal of Women’s Health.