have been introduced. The facilities of the laboratory have been made more available to physicians throughout the state. A Steroid Research Unit was established in 1964 and has expanded progressively since. This program now includes increasing use of radioimmunoassay methods. Fellowship training is available in endocrinology, reproductive biology, fertility control, and gynecologic oncology. The Medical Director and the Director of Research of the local Planned Parenthood affiliate are members of the department. A combined health-care-educational program for unwed pregnant school girls has been developed in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Intermediate School District. All pregnant school girls in the county are transferred to a special unit in which they continue their education. We provide health care, health education, and preventive and rehabilitative services. Department members are active in community and University sex education programs. A new unit designed for perinatal research, financed by a contribution from the Holden Foundation, has been constructed between the Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital; the facilities of each of the latter two institutions are utilized. The new unit contains two labor-delivery rooms equipped for electronic monitoring of high-risk pregnant women, intensive-care newborn nurseries, research laboratories, and offices for public health nurses and social workers necessary for the care of high-risk obstetric patients. Obstetrics and Gynecology (1975) 31 [3] Obstetrics and Gynecology (2016) Alexandra Minna Stern Overview Over the past five decades, the University of Michigan’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has innovated, expanded, and specialized in important and trend-setting ways. Among many accomplishments, the Department has implemented novel approaches to medical school education, residency, and fellowship training; pioneered path-breaking research with proven translational value for improved clinical care; and provided international leadership in global women’s health, creating programs that have become models for effective training guided by principles of equity and reciprocity. In addition, the Department has excelled in providing the highest-quality primary care for women while successfully developing tertiary sub-specialties.1 Largely due to the Department, for nearly 20 years, U-M has ranked in the top 15 institutions in women’s health, according to U.S. News & World Report. The Department also has been a 1. Notes from conversation with Timothy R. B. Johnson, February 2, 2014. national magnet for federal funding, achieving a top 20 ranking from the National Institutes of Health since 2000 and annually procuring total grants in the $5 million range.2 Yet like many Departments in academic medical schools, Obstetrics and Gynecology often has struggled to maintain sufficient office, clinical, and research space; to adequately respond to the changing financial and organizational landscape of academic medicine and health care more generally; to deal with a rising tide of administrative and computerized tasks that divert time away from research and clinical care; and to navigate the benefits and demands of increasing growth and sub-specialization and the concomitant geographical dispersal of faculty and staff to satellite clinics. Moreover, as a department committed to women’s health and reproductive health, Obstetrics and Gynecology has faced unique challenges since the 1960s, related to the contested nature of reproduction, birth, and parenting in American society as well as to the aim of balancing a comprehensive approach to women’s health with well nourished specialties that concentrate on specific areas of clinical care and research. The Department stands out for its continuous engagement with pressing social, economic, cultural, and legal topics related to women’s reproductive health, on local, national, and international levels. The Department’s faculty members have been at the forefront of issues related to abortion access and training, embryonic stem cell research, inclusion of fathers in the birth process, the ethical parameters of international obstetric and gynecological training, support for teenage mothers, and the reproductive decision-making of people with developmental disabilities. Not surprisingly, operating in a society that is as litigious as it is politically contentious, faculty members have taken flak from multiple segments of the political spectrum. The Department’s growth over the past 50 years is evident in sheer numbers – from fewer than 10 faculty members and researchers on the eve of 1964 to over 80 faculty members in 2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Progress Report 2010-2012, University of Michigan, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital (provided by Department). Obstetrics and Gynecology (2016) 33 2017, as well as 20 residents (HOs-1 – HOs-4), enlarging cohorts of fellows, and a multi-versed administrative staff.3 One mainstay of this sustained and successful growth has been the development of the Department’s pillars — its divisions — a process that began to take shape in earnest in the mid-20th century and congealed in the 1990s. Alongside the consolidation of the Department’s divisions has been the establishment of equally robust programs, initiatives, and research areas. This