About AMWA – Board of Directors & Staff
Connie Baum Newman, MD, FACP, FAHA, FAMWA
Immediate Past President 2019 – 2020
Courtesy of Mary Ellen Morrow Photography
Connie B. Newman, MD is an endocrinologist and physician-scientist and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, UK. Dr. Newman is a nationally respected leader in the field of hypercholesterolemia and other lipid disorders, and a committed advocate for women's rights and access to reproductive healthcare. She is the Chair of an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline on the management of high cholesterol, and Chair of the writing group for the American Heart Association's Scientific Statement on the safety of statins. She is also Chair of the Endocrine Society's Special Programs Committee, and a Consultant to the Endocrine and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA.
Born and raised in Passaic, N.J., Dr. Newman decided to pursue a medical career at a time when few women were physicians. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1974, as a Durant Scholar, Trustee Scholar, and member of Phi Beta Kappa, and from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1978. After completing internal medicine training at Beth Israel Hospital, New York, NY and a Fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, she joined the full time faculty of NYU School of Medicine in 1984. Her research focuses on the safety of statins, which are taken by 25 million people in the U.S. She has published and lectured on statin safety and/or statin intolerance for many years. She is a member of the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration and co-authored the paper evaluating cancer in 27 trials, with 175,000 patients. She also was a member of the Steering Committee of CARDS, a landmark clinical trial that demonstrated that stains reduce heart attack and stroke in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Newman serves on the Leadership Council and Global Advisory Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and was elected to the National Medical Committee in 2012. On the local level, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central and Southern New Jersey.
Dedicated to helping other women pursue a medical career, Dr. Newman mentors pre-medical and medical students, and young physicians through the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA), Wellesley College, NYU, and Weill Cornell Medicine. In 2011, she founded the Wellesley Women in Medicine Group, a network of 900 women, including pre-medical and medical students, and physicians of all ages, that participate in online conversations on topics such as medical training, career paths, work-life balance, and gender discrimination.
Within AMWA, Dr Newman is a member of the Board of Directors, and co-chairs several committees including the Preventive Medicine Task Force, the American Women's Hospitals Service (AWHS), and the Fellowship Committee. She is an advocate for access to healthcare, reproductive rights, gender equity, research that includes female subjects, and ending violence against women and discrimination whether it is based on race, religion, gender, sexual identification, socioeconomic status, body habitus, or any other characteristic.
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