Karen Sheffield-Abdullah, PhD, RN, CNM

About

Dr. Karen Sheffield-Abdullah is a nurse-midwife, mindfulness expert, researcher, and national thought leader in the areas of health inequities within maternal morbidity & mortality, Black perinatal mental health, and women’s reproductive health. She incorporates holistic approaches such as mindfulness-based stress reduction as a modality to address stress and psychological distress for minoritized, underserved, and overlooked populations. Through her clinical practice, research, and service, Dr. Sheffield-Abdullah has demonstrated a commitment to advancing health equity through the utilization of holistic, integrative, multi-sector strategies to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being for individuals and communities. She is passionate about developing strategies to reduce the long-term health effects of stress, psychological trauma, anxiety, and depression on women’s health. She has a particular interest in the development of culturally relevant interventions to reduce disparities in stress-related adverse outcomes during the perimenopausal period and to provide a platform to guide successful models for women’s health care provision that incorporate stress management and improve wellness across the lifespan. Dr. Sheffield-Abdullah’s thought leadership and research have elevated national conversations surrounding patient-provider communication with regards to mental health during the perimenopausal period and how to improve shared decision making. Dr. Sheffield-Abdullah has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Connecticut College, a Master of Science in Nursing specializing in Nurse-Midwifery from Yale University School of Nursing, and a PhD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Notably, she served as director of her own nurse-midwifery practice in Connecticut for several years.