Kathryn Rexrode headshot

Kathryn Rexrode, MD, MPH

Chief, Division of Women's Health, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director, Office for Women's Careers, Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Dr. Kathryn Rexrode’s women’s health research expertise lies in understanding cardiovascular disease in women, particularly the role of obesity and hormonal factors, as well as the influence and intersection of sex and gender in health and disease. Dr. Rexrode received her MD from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and completed her residency in primary care at BWH. She then completed an epidemiology research fellowship at BWH and earned her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In addition to her leadership roles and research efforts, Dr. Rexrode also practices primary care at Gretchen S. and Edward A. Fish Center for Women’s Health in Chestnut Hill. She is actively involved in a number of committees and professional societies, including serving as co-chair for the Connors-BRI Center for Research on Women’s Health and Gender Biology Research Advisory Committee (RAC) at BWH, and serving chair of the Women and Special Populations Committee of the AHA. Dr. Rexrode is recognized as a committed teacher and mentor, and in 2016, was awarded with the coveted A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from HMS as well as the BWH Pillar Award for Senior Mentorship in 2020. As director for the Office for Women’s Careers in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, she works to support women’s careers and their academic advancement, to address issues of diversity and inclusion, and to reduce the impact of unconscious bias. In this role, she also leads the Women’s Leadership Program for women junior faculty at BWH and has lectured widely on leadership skills for women in academic medicine.

Dr. Rexrode has broad and deep research experience in women’s health. She is the author of more than 250 research publications and she leads several large grants from the NHLBI and NCI, and has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2002. Her current research focuses on the impact of metabolism on the risk of heart disease and stroke in women. She is also examining interventions that might reduce breast density in women, thereby reducing the risk of breast cancer.