Godfrey Oakley, MD, Retires After Decades in Spina Bifida Research

By Sarah Timbie

Godfrey Oakley, MD, professor of epidemiology, has retired after a prolific career in spina bifida research. Oakley has held many titles, including director of the Center for Spina Bifida Research, Prevention and Policy and director of the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is board certified in genetics, pediatrics, and preventive medicine and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Oakley attended Duke University for his undergraduate training and then graduated from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1965. He completed training in pediatric medicine at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital in 1968. That same year, he joined the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, where he became excited about the detective work of solving epidemiological problems and found his interest in spina bifida after being assigned to work in birth defect research. He later earned a master’s degree in preventive medicine from the University of Washington in 1972 and spent most of his career as an epidemiologist at the CDC before transitioning to direct the Center for Spina Bifida Prevention (CSBP).

Oakley’s career hit a milestone in the early 90s when evidence was released that consuming folic acid alone, not with other vitamins, was vital for preventing neural tube defects. Oakley began to devote his career to spina bifida prevention. He advocated for adding folic acid to all grain products and helped persuade the FDA to issue new regulations, implemented in 1998, that required folic acid to be added to enriched grains in the U.S. Since then, rates of spina bifida and anencephaly in the U.S. have been cut in half.

“[Oakley’s] tireless efforts to expand supplementation of grains over many decades undoubtedly prevented tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of neural tube defects, which would otherwise have had lifelong consequences for those born with them,” says Timothy Lash, DSc, chair of the Department of Epidemiology.

Oakley won the American College of Epidemiology’s first Outstanding Contributions to Applied Epidemiology Award for his work with spina bifida in 2006 and founded the CSBP in 2012. The center serves as a training hub for students at Emory and holds many partnerships with other organizations, such as Food Fortification Initiative, March of Dimes, and the Task Force for Global Health. In his retirement, the center will now be led by Vijaya Kancherla, PhD, professor of epidemiology, whom Oakley describes as “a terrific teacher and a great researcher.”

"Oakley's vision of creating a world that is free of preventable birth defects has been a huge inspiration to me and many others,” says Kancherla. “He brought great passion to closing global inequities in spina bifida prevention. He has mentored many in his career and has given us all a goal to aim at and keep working toward, in spite of challenges and delays. It has been a great pleasure working at CSBP under his direction."

Oakley says that one of the best parts of his career was working with people and learning about their ideas. “Out of all of my interactions with people anywhere,” he says, “I can’t name more than a handful of people I wouldn’t want to sit down and work with again.” In his retirement, he hopes to continue to be a resource for students and stay updated on any developments in the field of spina bifida prevention.

After his two careers and a lifetime of world-changing research, Oakley looks forward to spending time with his family, engaging with the local Rotary Club, and sharpening his bridge skills. We wish him all the best in his retirement and extend our deepest thanks for all that he has done for Rollins and our students.

Looking back on his career, Oakley finds it full of "so many wonderful and happy things.”

“I really had a great time at it,” he says. “I’d do it all over again.”