Current Roles
Dr. Gordon is a core faculty member and Chair of the Midwifery Department at Bastyr University. She also provides prenatal, birth and postpartum care to families through the Center for Birth Midwives in Seattle.
Education
- BS in Chemical Engineering from University of North Dakota in 1991
- Certificate in Midwifery from Seattle Midwifery School in 2005
- Master of Public Health from Oregon Health & Science University, Primary Health Care and Health Disparities track, in 2012
- Doctorate in Midwifery from Thomas Jefferson University in 2019
Teaching Interests
Dr. Gordon's teaching interests include the provision of excellent midwifery care in home and birth center settings; the role of racism in perinatal health disparities; the development of critical thinking skills; and the ability to translate and evaluate research for both clinical and political purposes.
Classes Taught
MS in Midwifery program:
- Pregnancy and Prenatal Care
- Labor and Birth
- Postpartum and Newborn Care
- Challenges in Practice
- Professional Issues Seminar: Power and Privilege in the Midwifery Profession
- Professional Issues Seminar: Social Difference and Implications in Practice
- Masters’ Project series
MA in Maternal Child Health Systems program:
- Professional Focus A: Power and Privilege: Strategies to Achieve Social Justice
Courses for faculty and staff:
- Critical Conversations on Power & Privilege in Education
Professional Leadership
Dr. Gordon serves as the president of the board of directors of the Association of Midwifery Educators (AME). She is active in the Midwives Association of Washington State (MAWS) as a member of the Data Committee, and is also a member of the Practice Committee Workgroup for the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM). Dr. Gordon has served as one of two Certified Professional Midwives on a committee for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) to assess health outcomes by birth setting.
Books or Articles Authored
Nethery, E., Gordon, W., Bovbjerg, M., Cheyney, M. (2018). Rural community birth: Maternal and neonatal outcomes for planned community births among rural women in the United States, 2004-2009. BIRTH, 45(2):120-129.
Gordon, W., Myers, S., Tully, G. & Hanson, L. (2017). Chapter 3: Assessing Progress in Labor. In P. Simkin & R. Ancheta (Eds.) The Labor Progress Handbook: Early Interventions to Prevent and Treat Dystocia, 4th edition. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Gordon, W. (2016). A racial equity toolkit for midwifery organizations. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 61(6):768-772.
Gordon, W., McCarter, S.A.U., Myers, S. (2016). Incorporating antiracism coursework into a cultural competency curriculum. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 61(6):721-725.
Cheyney, M., Bovbjerg, M., Everson, C., Gordon, W., Hannibal, D. & Vedam, S. (2014). Development and validation of a national data registry for midwife-led births: The Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project 2.0 dataset. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health 59(1):8-16.
Cheyney, M., Bovbjerg, M., Everson, C., Gordon, W., Hannibal, D. & Vedam, S. (2014). Outcomes of care for 16,924 planned home births in the United States: The Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project, 2004 to 2009. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health 59(1):17-27.
Gordon, W. (2013). “Expert Workshop Assesses the Significance of Birth Location on Maternal and Infant Outcomes.” Journal of Perinatal Education, invited guest editorial, July 2013.
Past Experience
Dr. Gordon has had a twisting career path that included refinery engineering in Minneapolis, corporate recruiting in Kansas, and human resources work in Portland. She discovered her calling to midwifery in 2001. She trained and worked as a doula, then entered Seattle Midwifery School's three-year program and graduated in fall 2005 with the Jo Anne Myers-Ciecko Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership. While helping to build a busy practice in Portland for seven years, Dr. Gordon began teaching at Seattle Midwifery School in 2007. She served as a midwifery subject matter expert for the Oregon Health Licensing Agency for two years. In 2012, she relocated to Seattle to take on a more intensive teaching load in Bastyr’s Department of Midwifery and became the Chair of the department in 2018. Dr. Gordon is a certified professional midwife (CPM) and is licensed in Washington.
Teaching Philosophy
As a lifelong learner, Dr. Gordon looks forward to learning along with her students and expects to foster the skills and drive for them to continue past their formal education to be lifelong learners as well. She strives to uphold the high standards for excellence that were set by Seattle Midwifery School and that continue on in the Bastyr Department of Midwifery. She is passionate about the integration of an anti-racism lens in everything taught in the Department of Midwifery, as it is only with a racially- and culturally-aware and diverse workforce of healthcare providers that we will be able to eradicate health disparities and elevate the health of all mothers, babies and families.
Related
Midwifery Study Finds Encouraging Data for Home Births