Ronnie Lichtman

Ronnie Sue Lichtman (born February 10, 1950) is an American midwife, educator, writer and advocate for women's health. She has published widely for both lay and professional audiences. The Chair of the Midwifery Education Program at The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in New York City, she earned a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and her MS in Maternity Nursing with a specialization in midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing. She previously directed the midwifery programs at Columbia University and Stony Brook University.

Early life Ronnie Lichtman was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Her late father, Emanuel Lichtman, was an optometrist and her late mother, Gertrude Lichtman, was a bookkeeper. Her parents moved Lichtman and her two brothers, Allan and Steven, to the Bronx when she was 14 years old where Lichtman attended Christopher Columbus High School.

Lichtman would go on to become a childbirth educator and earn a registered nursing degree from Bronx Community College in 1974 and eventually her master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia University. that focused on well-woman gynecologic care. Lichtman, while working as a midwifery educator. She left North Central Bronx to become a midwifery faculty member at Columbia University School of Nursing where she later became Program Director. Lichtman wanted to be exposed to distance education in midwifery so she left Columbia to become Education Director of the midwifery education program at Stony Brook University. She was appointed Program Director at Stony Brook University before moving to her current position as Professor and Program Chair of the Midwifery Education Program at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2002. She was inducted into the American College of Nurse Midwives’ Fellowship (FACNM) in 2004.

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