R. Louise Floyd, RN, DSN

Dr. Louise Floyd is a Supervisory Behavioral Scientist and Team Leader of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Prevention Team, Prevention Research Branch, Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She began her career in public health at the Georgia Department of Human Resources where she worked prior to joining the Centers for Disease Control in 1988. At CDC she served as Project Officer of Smoking Cessation in Pregnancy (SCIP) Randomized Controlled Trial that was conducted by the Division of Reproductive Health, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In 1992 she joined the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities as Chief of the FAS Prevention Unit where she currently resides. In 1995 she received the Annual Faye G. Abbdellah Publication Award that is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the health-care literature by a nurse in the Public Health Service.  She is the CDC representative to the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on FAS (ICCFAS) and oversaw the development of the National Task Force on FAS/FAE, serving as its first Executive Secretary. She served as the CDC Primary Investigator of Project CHOICES, an innovative program shown to reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies in high risk women. In 2008, she received the Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Scientific Excellence Demonstrated in the publication that reported the efficacious findings of Project CHOICES research study.  She has over 50 publications in the field of FASD and in 2010 received the Henry Rosett Award from the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group, Research Society on Alcoholism, for outstanding contributions to scientific research and efforts to increase awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Dr. Floyd received her BS degree in nursing from Berea College, Berea, Kentucky and a Master’s in nursing from Emory University where she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society in Nursing. She received a Doctorate of Science Degree in Nursing from the University of Alabama. Her current activities include dissemination of the CHOICES intervention in multiple public health venues.