Jennings Retires After Decades at Georgetown

Jack DeGioia hands Victoria Jennings a plaque at Convocation 2016
In 2016, Victoria Jennings, PhD, pictured with Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia, received the Lifetime Contribution Award during GUMC’s Convocation.

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Posted: August 14, 2020

Earlier this summer, Victoria Jennings, PhD, director and principal investigator at the Institute for Reproductive Health, retired after more than three decades at Georgetown University Medical Center. She was professor of obstetrics and gynecology and is now professor emerita. 

Victoria Jennings stands in front of a sign for the Institute for Reproductive Health
Jennings was director and principal investigator at the Institute for Reproductive Health.

An anthropologist by training, Jennings focused on health behavior and culture change, amassing more than 30 years of experience developing, managing, implementing and advising programs related to family planning and reproductive health in capacity building, evaluation and advocacy with millions in funding from agencies/funders including USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She developed the Standard Days Method® (SDM) and TwoDay Method® of family planning, testing their effectiveness and applicability in a variety of cultural settings. She also invented the patented technology CycleBeads®, used with SDM. 

Jennings’ work took her and her research to countries across the world and improved the lives of many of the world’s most vulnerable people, who benefitted from her research and advocacy. Jennings was also a loyal Georgetown citizen, serving on numerous committees. In 2016, she received the Lifetime Contribution Award during GUMC’s Convocation.

Learn more about Jennings’ work: