Biography

Shari Lawson attended the Krieger School for the Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biophysics and graduated with university and departmental honors. At Hopkins, she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society in her junior year.

Dr. Lawson attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, excelling in all areas and graduating at the top of her class. At graduation, she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. After contemplating various specialties, Dr. Lawson chose OB/GYN because it offers the opportunity to combine medical knowledge and surgical skills, and provide comprehensive reproductive health care to people of all ages. She completed an OB/GYN residency at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and practiced briefly in a private group in northeastern Maryland, before returning to Johns Hopkins University as a faculty member in the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. 

At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Lawson dedicated herself to delivering comprehensive care to girls and women throughout their lifespan, serving as medical director of their outpatient clinic before being appointed as the inaugural division director for General Obstetrics and Gynecology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2013. Dr. Lawson later completed her master’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Medical Services Management. She is interested in improving efficiency of health care delivery while maintaining a high standard of patient safety and quality of care.

Prior to joining the faculty at Howard University College of Medicine, Dr. Lawson spent 7 years as an Assistant Dean in the Office of Medical Student Affairs where she worked closely with students longitudinally from orientation through graduation, providing academic and career advising, promoting wellness, and offering support. 

Dr. Lawson is a board member for the Society of Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology (SASGOG) and previously served as co-chair of SASGOG’s National Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Taskforce and as a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology National Clinical Consensus on Obstetrics Committee. She currently serves as an Oral Board Examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Certifying Exam and on the Board of Directors for the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. 

Her research interests include medical education and working to reduce or eliminate health care disparities, and she is published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, BMC Medical Education, and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM.