Program Teams

Meet the IMPROVE-CIP Teams

Program
Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone Community Implementation Program
Topic(s)
Maternal Health Disparities

Arizona State University 

Listen to the Villages is a culturally responsive, community-engaged process to promote maternal-infant health equity in Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic/Latino communities in Arizona. Doulas, with cultural connections and familiarity with the community, provide support to reduce issues causing stress in pregnant women, such as mental health challenges, drug use, and obesity.  

Academic Lead: Cady Berkel, Ph.D. (Multi-Principal Investigator) 

Community Lead: Jennie Bever, Ph.D., IBCLC (Multi-Principal Investigator) 

 

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center 

Verifying and Implementing evidence-Based pRograms Addressing Needed Transformations for Maternal health Outcomes, Measures, and Support (VIBRANT MOMS) focuses on prevention (with low-dose aspirin), screening, and blood-pressure management to address preeclampsia in underserved women in rural and urban counties of the Texas Panhandle. 

Academic Leads: Christine D. Garner, Ph.D., M.S., R.D. (Principal Investigator); Julie St. John, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., C.H.W.I.; and Stephanie Stroever, Ph.D., M.P.H. 

Community Leads: Casie Stoughton, M.P.H., R.N.; and Nancy Zamora, B.S.W. 

 

Thomas Jefferson University

Adaptation of the Centering Pregnancy model to enhance prenatal care in pregnant women with opioid use disorder in Philadelphia, PA.

Academic Leads: Vanessa Short, Ph.D., M.P.H. (Principal Investigator); Diane Abatemarco, Ph.D., M.S.W.; Meghan Gannon, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.; Dennis Hand, Ph.D.

Community Leads: Nicole Leighton, CRNP, PMHNPBC, Lead Nurse Practitioner; Kimberly McLaughlin, Ph.D., Executive Program Director; and Kelliann O’Hare, Program Manager at Maternal Addiction Treatment Education and Research (MATER), Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

 

University of Nebraska Medical Center 

Wellness Advocacy Zones: Opportunities for Kinship Involvement (WAZOKI) focuses on kinship involvement to improve maternal health outcomes, including the mental health of pregnant women in the Winnebago Tribe (Nebraska). 

Academic Lead: Regina Idoate, Ph.D., M.A. (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma)

Community Lead: Mona Zuffante, Ph.D., M.P.H., CPH (Seneca–Cayuga Nation)