Dr.Sara Edwards is an Associate Professor, clinical track, and has been practicing as a certified nurse-midwife since she completed dual masters’ degrees in Nursing and Public Health at Emory University in 1994. She earned a PhD at Emory in 2018, acquiring the additional didactic and practical knowledge necessary to be an academic nurse researcher. With extensive background in caring for vulnerable and underrepresented women throughout nearly 30 years as a nurse-midwife, she focused her dissertation research on the Brain-Gut Axis and its influence on gestational weight gain in African-American women. Dr.Edwards has worked at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University since 2003 and currently teaches in the graduate nursing program while she continues her research. Dr. Edwards hails from North Carolina and is married to her childhood sweetheart with whom she has two children and two grandchildren.

Yang,  I., Edwards, S., Dunlop, A., Hertzberg, V. (2021). The Microbiome in Health  and Disease, In Systems Medicine: Integrative, Qualitative and Computational Approaches.
 
Edwards, S., Cunningham, S., Dunlop, A., Corwin, E. (2017). The Maternal Gut  Microbiome During Pregnancy, MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs., 42(6): 310-317.  (*Selected as a Continuing Education article by the publisher.)
 
Mutic, A., Jordan, S., Ferranti, E., Thul, T., Edwards, S., Yang, I. (2017).  The Postpartum Maternal and Newborn Microbiomes, MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs.,  42(6): 326-331.
 
Jordan, S., Baker, B., Dunn, A., Edwards, S., Ferranti, E., Mutic, A., Yang,  I., Rodriguez, J. (2017). Maternal-Child Microbiome: Collection, Storage and  Implications for Research and Practice, Nursing Research, 66(2): 175-183.
 
Dunlop, A.L., Mulle, J., Ferranti, E. P., Edwards, S.M., Dunn, A. B., Corwin,  E. J. (2015). The Maternal Microbiome and Pregnancy Outcomes That Impact  Infant Health: A Review, Advances in Neonatal Care, 15(6):377-85.

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Sara has taught extensively in both clinical and classroom settings. She also served as Director of the Nurse-Midwifery Program at Emory University from 2019-2022. She currently coordinates various  graduate clinical courses.

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She is building a translational program of biobehavioral research, currently focusing on the role of the brain-gut axis and weight, for the prevention and management of adverse health outcomes and health disparities among childbearing-age women.

2019 2020 WoodruffLeadership Academy Fellow Emory University

2016-18 F31 Research Fellowship Award National Institute of Nursing Research(NIH)

2015-16 Rosemary Berkel Crisp Research Award Sigma Theta Tau International

2015-16 Jean Stone Megenity Research Award Sigma Theta Tau, Alpha EpsilonChapter