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February 2025
Volume 11 | Issue No. 93
"To have someone like Dr. Robbie Harriford on the team that has
an innate ability to connect to patients, meet them where they are,
help them feel seen and heard, and connect with them on a deeper
level that they not only return but request her specifically, is huge.
We appreciate her and all of our providers. This is heart work.
They display this compassion in every patient they touch."
- Sam Rodgers Chief Operating Officer, Janelle Harvey Jordan.
In Missouri, Black women and birthing
people have a 2x higher mortality rate
than their white counterparts, according
to the most recent Pregnancy-Associated
Mortality Review (PAMR). For pregnant
people covered through Medicaid,
the mortality rate increases to 7x when
compared with pregnant people covered
by private insurance. As an OB-GYN at
Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, Robbie
Harriford, M.D., MSGH, is acutely aware of
the barriers that pregnant people of color
face.as an OB-GYN.
But before getting those credentials, her
medical journey had its share of contours.
Her dad is a retired Army lieutenant
colonel, which meant she spent her
formative years at Fort Leavenworth in
Kansas. In fourth grade, she thought she'd
become a cardiologist. Although a gifted
student, her teacher told her women
didn't make for good doctors and that she
should think about a different career. Dr.
Harriford said that comment has stayed
with her to this day.
She said the track to medical school is
not only difficult for people of color but
also even more difficult for women. "I
didn't really have anyone to look up to
in that respect," Dr. Harriford said. "I had
family members who always supported
me, and parents who pushed me, and
my sister, who is a lawyer, and had similar
challenges."
Harriford went on to graduate from
Leavenworth High School and attended
the University of Kansas on a track
scholarship. There she received an
undergraduate degree in microbiology.
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