Kenneth C. Edelin, M.D....
is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and Associate Dean for Students and Minority Affairs. He is the Director of the Early Medical School Selection Program (EMSSP) and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Short Term Research Training Program at Boston University.
For eleven years - from 1978-1989- Dr. Edelin was Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital and Gynecologist-in-Chief at Boston University Hospital. In these roles he was also Director of the residency-training program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital. From 1996 to 1998 he was Managing Director of Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, the largest provider of primary health care services in Boston’s African American Community. Dr. Edelin was a member of the Public Health Commission of the City of Boston, appointed to that position on July 1, 1996 by Mayor Thomas Menino. His term ended in January 1998.
Dr. Edelin is or has been a member of many professional and civic organizations. He was Chairman of the Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and was a member of the Committee on Ethics and Discipline of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He was a member of the Board of the Alan Guttmacher Institute and is a member of the National Board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of OneUnited Bank, the first interstate African American owned Bank in America. From 1989 to 1992 he was the Chairman of the Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the largest private family planning agency in the country, with over 900 family planning clinics nationwide.
Dr. Edelin received his undergraduate education at Columbia University in New York City, and his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee during which time he was a founding member of the Student National Medical Association. After a tour of duty in the United States Air Force, he received his specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital, and became the first African American to become Chief Resident in the history of the department. Five years after completing his residency, Dr. Edelin became Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Edelin has published widely in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with special emphasis in the areas of teen pregnancy prevention and substance abuse during pregnancy. He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha -the Honor Medical Society, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among Black Americans and Who’s Who in the World. He has received the Good Guy Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Medical Association and was named One of America’s Leading Black Doctors by Black Enterprise Magazine. Over the last decade Dr. Edelin has been instrumental in preparing undergraduate students to be accepted to and successful in medical school. He has assisted undergraduate institutions in redesigning and strengthening their premedical academic and advising programs. He has received over $2 million in grant support for programs designed to increase the number of under-represented minority physicians in America.
He has lectured widely and has testified before congress on numerous occasions.
