Elizabeth (Beth) Garner, MD, MPH

President 2023 – 2024

Elizabeth Garner, MD, MPH assumed the AMWA Presidency on March 25th, 2023, during our 108th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Read her inaugural address here.

Dr. Garner was elected to AMWA’s Board of Directors in 2021. In 2022, she was recognized with the AMWA Woman in Science award, which is given to a physician who identifies as a woman, who is significantly advanced in career, who has had a lasting impact through exceptional contributions to medical science, especially in women’s health, through basic and /or clinical research, publications and through leadership in their field.

Dr. Garner has contributed to many initiatives for AMWA, including providing significant leadership in the areas of antiracism and gender equity. Among other contributions to our Antiracism Committee, she organized and led a series of discussions on race during the fraught period following George Floyd’s death in 2020. This past year, she participated on the AMWA Editorial Team for the AMWA/Korn Ferry Women in Medicine report, Women in Medicine: Setting the Agenda for Change, which was published in September, 2022.

Dr. Garner became Chief Scientific Officer, US, for Ferring Pharmaceuticals in May of 2022, after nearly 15 years in the Pharma industry, where she held roles of increasing strategic responsibility in large and small companies, including Merck, Abbott (AbbVie), Myriad Genetics, and Agile Therapeutics, and ObsEva SA.

At Ferring, Dr. Garner oversees clinical development, regulatory affairs, biometrics (statistics), safety and pharmacovigilance, and medical affairs (publications, interactions with healthcare providers, medical information, and HEOR (Health Economic and Outcomes Research). She also supports her commercial and business development partners. Dr. Garner enjoys being involved in a variety of issues and projects and being able to use her clinical daily. She also frequently serves as a company spokesperson for news media, which allows her to advocate for change and for more progress in women’s health, her greatest passion.

Before joining Ferring, Dr. Garner served as Chief Medical Officer for ObsEva, a women’s health pharmaceutical company based in Geneva, Switzerland.  As Chief Medical Officer, she oversaw all medical aspects of the company’s clinical development programs. Prior to this, she was Chief Medical Officer at Agile Therapeutics, where she led the company’s clinical development, regulatory, and medical affairs strategies., including designing and leading the Phase 3 SECURE trial, which supported FDA approval of the Twirla® contraceptive patch in February, 2020.

Prior to her tenure at Agile, Dr. Garner was Vice President, Medical Affairs, Women’s Health/Preventive Care at Myriad Genetic, where she managed the women’s health research, publication, and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) development programs, provided medical and scientific input on Myriad’s marketing and new product strategies, served as its media spokesperson, and directed an experienced team of Field Medical Specialists. Prior to that, she was Senior Director at Abbott Laboratories, where she oversaw all clinical aspects of the global Phase 3 endometriosis development program for Orilissa®.  From 2007 to 2011, Dr. Garner was Associate Director and then Director, Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories. As a leader on the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine program she was instrumental in achieving successful outcomes on important regulatory submissions. Dr. Garner also served as chair of the Gardasil®9 HPV vaccine program Product Development Team, leading scientific, regulatory, global access and medical affairs strategies. Dr. Garner was the core presenter for the 2010 FDA Gardasil® Advisory Committee Meeting for which she developed and delivered the company’s presentation that supported FDA’s approval of a gender-neutral indication for the prevention of HPV-related anal cancer. She also had substantial involvement in KOL development, provided medical input on commercialization strategy, and participated in due diligence activities on women’s health products.

Dr. Garner is a member of the Board of Directors of Kezar Life Sciences, a San Francisco based pharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and cancer.  She is also on the Boards of the Drug Information Association (DIA), CorStone (an international non-profit focused on resilience in girls), and the Executive Women of New Jersey.  She was a 2019 awardee of the PharmaVoice 100 most inspiring individuals in the life-sciences industry.

Dr. Garner received joint M.D. and M.P.H degrees from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. She was trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women’s/Massachusetts General Hospitals and completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Garner spent several years in academic clinical practice, basic science research in ovarian cancer, and teaching and mentorship at Harvard Medical School. She is an author on numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications.