Dr. Sascha Ellington

Pregnant women/COVID-19 vaccine plans/Challenging environments/Leadership/Clinical guidance and patient management strategies

Dr. Sascha Ellington’s is nominated for her exemplary leadership in protecting mothers and infants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Ellington’s leadership has achieved substantial impact in communication of scientific findings, advancement of national priorities, and creation of partnerships critical to protecting pregnant women and their offspring. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ellington authored 6 COVID-19 manuscripts (2 first author, 1 senior author) in high-impact journals (New England Journal of Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [MMWR]). These publications directly informed clinical guidance and patient management strategies of the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and WHO COVID-19 vaccine plans, as well as clinical recommendations for pregnant women. One of her most remarkable accomplishments was a first-authored MMWR documenting that pregnant women have increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness. The report emphasized the importance of prevention for pregnant women, influenced US and global vaccination planning, and was in top 5% of all Altimetric research (233 news outlets, 821 tweets, and 108,993 online page views). Dr. Ellington’s enduring leadership of CDC’s COVID-19 response pregnancy and infant team has ensured that pregnant women remained a priority, even amid uncertain and challenging environments with limited budget and human resources.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/special-populations/pregnancy-data-on-covid-19/what-cdc-is-doing.html