Yvonne Thornton

Yvonne Thornton Speaker Biography

Doctor Specializing in High-Risk Pregnancy & Author of the Pulitzer Prize-Nominated The Ditchdiggers’ Daughters

Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton MD is a double-board certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine and has risen to the academic rank of Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at CornellUniversityMedicalCollege. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow of the AmericanCollege of Surgeons.

Dr. Thornton is the first black woman in the United States to be Board-certified in High-Risk Obstetrics. She received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and, an Executive M. P. H. degree in Health Policy and Management from Columbia’s School of Public Health.

She and her husband volunteered for active military duty and she was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy at The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda (Hospital of The President). During her tenure at The New York Hospital, Dr. Thornton established and developed the program for a new form of early prenatal diagnostic testing known as CVS (chorionic villus sampling).

Dr. Thornton is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, the Best Doctors in the New York Metro Area and was recently listed as New York Magazine’s top six Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists in New York City. She has hosted her own television show, broadcast from New York City, on women’s health and has appeared on such popular television shows as “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, “The TODAY Show” and “Good Morning, America”.

She was the first woman in the 165-year history of the International Platform Association to win the prestigious Daniel Webster Oratorical Competition held annually in Washington, D. C.

Dr. Thornton is the national best-selling author of her family biography entitled, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, with over 300,000 copies now in print. The book was made into an award-winning World Premiere movie for cable television. Her other books include Woman to Woman and Primary Care for the Obstetrician and Gynecologist.

Dr. Thornton has been married for over 30 years to an orthopedic surgeon and she is the mother of two children. Her daughter is a graduate of Stanford University and her son, also a physician, was a cum laude graduate of Harvard University and is a recent graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.