Heather Bradford (she/her) is a midwife educator, perinatal health services researcher with a passion for midwifery and women’s health. She strives to grow and diversify the midwifery and WHNP workforce, address inequities within perinatal care specifically related to weight bias and improve perinatal outcomes.
She serves as the Assistant Program Director for the Nurse-Midwifery/Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) and WHNP Programs and was selected in 2024 as the Mary L. and Raymond T. Holden Endowed Professor for Maternal and Infant Health with the Georgetown University (GU) School of Nursing. She was a 2019-2021 GU Medical Center Bias Reduction Improvement Coaching (BRIC) Program Trainer and in 2024 was an inaugural member of the Health Equity Influencers Program (HEIP) for Nurse Educators. She joined the GU Teaching Academy for the Health Sciences as a Principal member in 2024. Clinically, she served as a full-scope midwife from 2002-2024, attending almost 800 births. She became a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 2011. She has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in leading midwifery and women’s health textbooks on advancing health equity in nursing education, midwifery workforce development, and weight bias. She is an Associate Editor of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Midwifery and Women’s Health. She recently completed a PhD in nursing science from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, studying weight bias among midwives.
