Jennifer Occhipinti Howell

As an academician in Obstetrics and Gynecology, I serve as an administrator, educator, and well-respected clinician. My faculty practice provides primary healthcare throughout the female life cycle, prenatal care, and gynecologic services. While I am committed to providing full spectrum Obstetrics and Gynecology, I have also found a few specialized niches which make my practice unique:

➢I am a Certified Menopause Provider through the The Menopause Society and I serve as a referral provider for breast cancer patients with gynecologic problems: bleeding on Tamoxifen, vasomotor symptoms, contraceptive options, and women affected by BRCA mutations. I am a regional expert on non-hormonal alternatives for treating vasomotor symptoms among breast cancer survivors. I provide evidence based menopausal hormone therapy to patients undergoing a symptomatic menopause transition. I provide educational opportunities for other providers, so they can learn about these treatments.  I founded a Menopause Specialty Clinic in 2016 providing consultation and primary gynecologic care to all women at this stage of life which is held each week and I am continuing this work at Duke through the Center for Menopause at Arringdon.

➢I am one of the only pediatric and adolescent gynecologists in the Triangle and am one of only a few in the entire Southeast Region. Families across North Carolina seek my expertise on a range of pediatric and adolescent gynecologic conditions: labial adhesions, prepubescent bleeding and vaginitis, adolescents with bleeding diatheses and heavy menstrual bleeding. Through my collaborative work seeing complex young patients I have developed several other multidisciplinary collaborations serving important needs for populations that often have difficulty finding knowledgeable comprehensive care elsewhere. For example:


-I am the one of the founders of the Congenital GU Anomalies program at Duke along with Dr. Cassandra Kisby and Dr. Tara Streich-Tilles.  - a cross divisional and specialty group of clinicians that are working to improve education, collaboration, and a service-line here at Duke where patients come from all over the Southeast and even the country for holistic care into adulthood for congenital differences of the reproductive tract. 
-I provide the adult care as well as expert consultation to Turner’s syndrome patients, in collaboration with  Pediatric Endocrinology.
 -I also provide gynecologic care for disabled adolescents, whose care can sometimes pose additional challenges.  

In addition to high quality innovative clinical care, medical education has been the other focus of my academic career. I have served in leadership leadership roles in both Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education summarized below: 

• Vice Chair of Education for the Department of OBGYN 2022 - present
• Medical Director of Resident Continuity Clinic at UNC 2012 -2021
• DWHA Rotation Director for Duke PGY-1 and Curriculum Committee member
• Course Director; 4th year elective Ambulatory OB/GYN Women’s Health Selective since 2018 -21 UNC
• Reproductive Block Director - Duke School of Medicine - Spring 2022; Co-Course Director of UNC School of Medicine's Reproductive Medicine Block taught for 5 weeks each fall to second year medical students 2016 -2021
• Co-Clerkship Director of Care of Specialized Populations from 2016 –2020. This clerkship incorporated OBGYN, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics.