NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull CEO Sandra Sneed Appoints Wendy Wilcox, MD, MPA, MBA, FACOG as Chief of OB/GYN
As the new chief, Dr. Wilcox will pursue The Joint Commission Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care (ACPC) Dr. Wilcox will continue to serve as Chief Women’s Health Officer for the health care system, a role she has held since 2021
Aug 18, 2025
Sandra Sneed, MBA, FACHE, and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, today announced that Wendy Wilcox, MD, MPH, MBA, FACOG has been appointed as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the hospital. She remains the Chief Women’s Health Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals, a position that she has held since 2021. A board-certified OB/GYN, Dr. Wilcox has been instrumental in the health care system’s commitment to improving maternal and infant health. In her new role, Dr. Wilcox will oversee the expansion and renovation of the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which will include a new Labor and Birthing Unit, operating room suite, post-anesthesia care unit, as well as an alongside Birthing Center.
“Women’s health – maternal health – is extremely important to me, and I knew that I wanted Dr. Wilcox to join the clinical team as we begin a new era at Woodhull Hospital,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull CEO Sandra Sneed, MBA, FACHE. “Wendy’s work in the system will be essential as we move forward with several projects in our OB/GYN Department, including achieving national certification and adopting a new fetal monitoring system. In her new role she will also serve as mentor, Attending, and Chief for several of our providers on staff.”
“Dr. Wilcox is a true expert and a national leader on the subject of maternal health, and we’re so excited to have her lead the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull Chief Medical Officer Ross MacDonald, MD. “At Woodhull Hospital, we’re honored to attend the birth of more than one thousand babies every year. Dr. Wilcox will lead what I know to be a deeply caring team of midwives, obstetricians and advanced practitioners who work hand in hand with anesthesia, nursing, social work, behavioral health and others to provide truly excellent and person-centered care to our patients.”
“I have made maternal and women’s health care the foundation of my career as a physician, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join Sandra and the new clinical team here at Woodhull Hospital,” said Dr. Wilcox. “With the OB/GYN team, in collaboration with other departments, I will be implementing a number of new initiatives to enhance and expand the care here at the hospital. We will achieve every expectation the new CEO has set for us.”
One of Dr. Wilcox’s signature system-wide efforts, the Maternal Home, ensures that all pregnant patients at NYC Health + Hospitals receive extra support, if needed in coordination with on-site social workers. She launched the NYC Health + Hospitals Maternal Mortality Reduction Program, which created OB Simulation Labs across several hospitals and the curriculum for obstetric providers. Dr. Wilcox advises on the Cardio-Obstetrics program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, which works to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity among women of color by focusing on heart disease during and after pregnancy. She also helped develop the model for the innovative RISE center, which is a Family Substance Use Disorder clinic that will open at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln in 2027. Her newest endeavor is leading the implementation of a novel fetal monitoring system across all eleven H+H maternity care hospitals.
She has served in leadership positions at the health system for over 15 years. In 2008, she became the Vice Chair of OB/GYN at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx. In 2015, she became Chair of OB/GYN and Women’s Health at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County and the health system’s Clinical Service Line Lead for Women’s Health. In 2021, she was appointed the health system’s first-ever Chief Women’s Health Officer.
Dr. Wilcox is one of the leading experts on maternal mortality in New York State. As one of the Co-Chairs of the New York State Maternal Mortality Review Board, she reviews the health records of every woman in New York State who died within a year of being pregnant, in order to determine the cause of death, circumstances leading to the death, and recommendations to the State Department of Health to avoid future deaths. Dr. Wilcox also serves on the New York State Taskforce for Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes, and she is Co-Chair of the Brooklyn Borough Maternal Health Taskforce and the City Council Speaker Maternal Health Steering Committee.
She serves on several committees around women’s health. Dr. Wilcox is a member of the New York State Public Health and Public Health Planning Council, the New York State Birth Equity Advisory Board, Institute Board of America’s Essential Hospitals, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District 2 Advisory Council, Safe Motherhood Initiative and Legislative Committees, Pembroke Advisory Council of Brown University, and the New York Community Hospital Academic Maternal Health Equity Partnerships (NY-CHAMP) CHARGE Board.
Dr. Wilcox received her bachelors’ degree in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University, a Doctor of Medicine from SUNY Upstate Medical Center, a Master of Public Health in Healthcare Policy and Management from the Mailman School of Columbia University, and a Master of Business Administration from Wagner College. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Wilcox is a clinician, researcher, author, and teacher. She is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical OB/GYN at CUNY School of Medicine, and she has had prior academic appointments at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and SUNY Downstate School of Medicine. She has been featured in 2024 and 2025 Castle Connolly Top Doctors, Top Black Doctors, and Exceptional Women in Medicine.
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About NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull
NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, part of the NYC Health + Hospitals health care system, is the major tertiary care provider in the borough of Brooklyn. It is a premiere health care organization for key specialties, including surgery, women’s health, pediatrics, rehabilitation medicine, renal services, ambulatory care/primary care, emergency medicine, and behavioral health services. Last year, the hospital received close to 480,000 ambulatory care visits and close to 100,000 emergency room visits. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/woodhull, and stay connected on Facebook.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
