Team of Experts

Building on an evidence-based model. Peer-reviewed literature finds that teams without substantial support from a coordinating body “are less able to produce results than staffed [teams].”¹ NCEMCH utilizes the public health team broker (concierge) model to provide staff time to support this team, leveraging their effort in support of this project.

Team of Experts Members

NATIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES (NPMs)

Adolescent Well-Visit

Research Expert: Charles E. Irwin, Jr., M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of California School of Medicine. He heads The National Adolescent and Young Adult Health Information Center. He also is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Implementation Expert: Eighmey Zeeck, M.P.H., is the founder and Principal Consultant of Silver Linings Public Health Consulting, LLC. Previously, Ms. Zeeck was the Women & Infant Health Program Manager at the Wyoming Department of Public Health. With more than 10 years of experience in public health, she is an expert in understanding best-practice and the importance of using evidence-base interventions to improve adolescent health.

Adult Mentor

Julie Hertzog, M.A., is the Founding Director of PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, and a nationally recognized leader on bullying prevention. In addition to developing classroom toolkits, curricula, and other educational resources, such as the peer advocacy project, she helped create nationally recognized initiatives such as PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Month, Unity Day, and Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying, which are now nationally recognized events.

Breastfeeding

Research Expert: Kinkini Banerjee, M.S., is Coalition Relations Director of the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee, leading capacity-building efforts for the network of state breastfeeding coalitions. These efforts seek to increase and enhance coalition participation in state and national strategic collaborations to improve the reach and impact of breastfeeding support and strengthen the public health infrastructure.  
Implementation Expert: Barbara Himes, IBCLC, is the Director of Education and Bereavement Services with First Candle. First Candle is an organization whose objective is to save babies and support families. They are committed to the elimination of SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths through education, while providing support for grieving families. Barbara is a SIDS mother who has been with First Candle since 2008. She leads the Straight Talk for Infant Safe Sleep program and First Candle’s 24/7 bereavement services. She also participates in national and international conferences and is a member of numerous working groups.

Bullying

Research Expert: Marla Eisenberg, Sc.D., M.P.H., is a Professor in Pediatrics in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health at the University of Minnesota. She conducts research focusing on social influences on health behaviors of adolescents, including teasing and bullying. She is Principal Investigator at the Healthy Environments and Stigmatized Youth (HealthEASY) lab and is conducting a multi-method pilot study on the practices and policies to prevent bias-based bullying in schools.
Implementation Expert: Julie Hertzog is Founding Director of PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center and a nationally recognized leader on bullying prevention. She has created content for the center’s websites, toolkits, and curricula. She also helped develop initiatives including National Bullying Prevention Month; Unity Day; and Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying, which are now nationally recognized events.

Childhood Vaccinations

Colleen Sonosky, J.D., is the Associate Director of Children’s Health Services in the District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance. She has spent her career working to improve pediatric and maternal health with a focus on legal and policy analyses relating to Medicaid managed care and maternal and child health service delivery issues. She serves on the Child and Family Health Steering Committee for the National Academy for State Health Policy. She was previously the Director of Public Policy Research at the March of Dimes Foundation.

Developmental Screening

Research Expert: Paul Dworkin, M.D., serves as executive vice president for community child health at Connecticut Children’s and is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Dworkin previously served as physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s. The Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health (the Office) is dedicated to addressing critical contemporary issues in children’s lives that can adversely affect their health and development.
Implementation Expert: Kimberly Martini-Carvell, M.A., is the Executive Director of Help Me Grow National Center. Most recently she served as Associate Vice President of Programs for The Village for Families and Children in Hartford, CT, where she was responsible for creating and managing prevention and early intervention programs for families and children.

Food Sufficiency

Sandy Perkins, M.S., R.D., L.D., is a public health nutritionist and the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nutrition Project Manager at the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists. In this position, she manages the Children’s Healthy Weight (CHW) state capacity building program and the CHW Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) project, and provides consultant support to the organization’s MCH Nutrition Council. She also serves as the liaison to the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the MCH nutrition training grantees.
Dena Herman, R.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at California State University, Northridge. Her research has focused on improving dietary quality among low-income populations, as well as the development of interventions to reduce childhood obesity. She also works clinically as a registered dietitian with children and their families in the FIT for Healthy Weight program at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine.

Health Care Transition

Research Expert: Patience White, M.D., M.A., is Co-Director of Got Transition and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at George Washington School of Medicine. She provides TA to integrated health care delivery systems, Title V agencies, and specialty-care practices. She is co-author of Supporting the Health Care Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood in the Medical Home.
Implementation Expert: Margaret McManus, M.H.S., is President of The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health and Co-Director of Got Transition. For more than three decades, she has directed federal, state, and private foundation projects related to adolescent health, CYSHCN, health insurance coverage and reimbursement, and pediatric subspecialty workforce.

Housing Instability

Eva Rosen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, and faculty affiliate in the department of sociology. She uses ethnography, qualitative, and mixed methods to study poverty, racial inequality, and American housing policy in the urban context. Her first book, The Voucher Promise, examines the Housing Choice Voucher Program and how it shapes the lives of families living in a Baltimore neighborhood. Her current work examines low-income housing and the role that landlords play in four urban housing markets. 

Medical Home

Research Expert: Jamie Jones, M.P.H., is the Manager of the Medical Homes Initiatives at the American Academy of Pediatrics and with the National Resource Center. In her role, she oversees the educational and training activities, the technical assistance needs and manages the priority projects at the National Resource Center (within the AAP) to support the utilization and implementation of medical homes. She participates on national, state, and local medical home committees
Implementation Expert: Hope Barrett, M.P.H., is the Senior Manager for the Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Initiative at the American Academy of Pediatrics. In her role at AAP, she manages systems of care to improve the medical home initiatives, activities and integration among CYSHCN, including those who have or at risk for birth defects, developmental disabilities and other chronic conditions. In her previous role, she was the Manager of Community-Based Initiatives at the AAP.

Medical Home Components: Care Coordination, Family-Centered Care, Personal Doctor or Nurse, Referrals, Usual Source of Sick Care

Christina Boothby, M.P.A., is the Senior Director for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Initiatives at the American Academy of Pediatrics. In this role, she directs a large portfolio of national programs focused on improving systems of services that support CYSHCN and their families, advancing family-centered care, and promoting access to a quality medical home.

Mental Health Treatment

Neal Horen, Ph.D., is the Director of the Early Childhood Division for the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human. He is a clinical psychologist who has focused on early childhood mental health for the last twenty years. He has worked closely with all 50 states, numerous tribes, territories, and communities in supporting their development of systems of care for young children and their families. He has lectured extensively on infant and early childhood mental health, challenging behaviors in young children, social skills development, and the impact of trauma on child development.
Lauren Rabinovitz, M.P.H., M.S.W., LCSW-C, is a Senior Policy Associate at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, Early Childhood Division. Lauren is the Program Director for the SAMHSA funded Center of Excellence on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation. She brings a unique perspective to policy, research, and technical assistance based on many years of clinical and community mental health provision.

Perinatal Care Discrimination

Tawara Goode, M.A., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Georgetown University Medical Center, Director of the National Center for Cultural Competence at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD), and Deputy Director of the GUCCHD’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. She is recognized as a thought leader in the area of cultural and linguistic competency and is involved in the development and implementation of programs and initiatives at the local, national, and international levels. 
Suzanne Bronheim, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. She served as faculty in the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development and the National Center for Cultural Competence. She has developed products for the field about the role of cultural and linguistic competence in infant mortality disparities, approaches to implementing cultural and linguistic competence in health promotion, and providing culturally and linguistically competent services and supports to families.

Physical Activity

Research Expert: Ross C. Brownson, Ph.D., F.A.C.E., is  Professor of Public Health at Washington University School of Medicine and Core Director for the Siteman Cancer Center. He directs the Prevention Research center where he is a leader in the field of evidence-based public health. His research interests include policy effects on physical activity. He is the lead author of Evidence-Based Public Health and Community-Based Prevention: Programs that Work.
Implementation Expert: Dianne Stanton Ward, Ed.D., FTOS, FACSM, is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on prevention of obesity and promotion of healthy diets and physical activity through interventions implemented in child care, schools, communities, and homes. She is co-author of Physical Activity Interventions for Children.   

Postpartum Visit, Mental Health Screening, and Contraception Use

Research Expert: Sarah Verbiest, M.S.W., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., is a co-principal director for the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center, a new national resource center developed to accelerate innovative and evidence-informed interventions that improve maternal health and eliminate maternal health inequities. She is also the director of the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC School of Social Work and the executive director of the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health at UNC School of Medicine.
Implementation Expert: Arden Handler, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health and a Professor in the Community Health Sciences division of the UIC School of Public Health.  Her specific interest is the exploration of factors that increase the risk for disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes and examining ways in which the health care delivery system, particularly how prenatal care, postpartum care, and preconception/ interconception/well-woman care can ameliorate these risks and reduce disparities and inequities.

Preventive Dental Visit

Research Expert: Elizabeth Lowe, B.S.D.H., M.P.H., is Health Education Specialist for the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC). She leads efforts to develop a national set of oral health quality indicators to measure and assess processes and outcomes of oral health systems affecting MCH populations as part of the Center for Oral Health Systems Integration and Improvement.
Implementation Expert: Harry S. Goodman, D.M.D., M.P.H., served as President of Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors and co-chair of the Maryland Dental Action Committee. He also served as Director, Office of Oral Health, at the Maryland Department of Health, and as a Region 3 oral health consultant providing training and TA for Head Start programs.

Risk-Appropriate Perinatal Care (Perinatal Regionalization)

Research Expert: Kate Menard, M.D., M.P.H., is the UpJohn Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vice Chair for Obstetrics and Director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine. In addition to her duties at UNC, she serves as Medical Director of the North Carolina’s Pregnancy Medical Home through Community Care of North Carolina, a statewide program that supports Medicaid beneficiaries and their care providers in access to high quality maternity care. Her current work includes engagement with the HRSA sponsored Maternal Health Learning and Innovations Center based at the UNC School of Public Health.
Implementation Expert: Rachel Hewett-Beah, M.I.L.S., M.A., is an independent researcher, previously with the University of New Mexico and the Catholic University of America. Her background includes access to and preservation of grey literature related to the public health evidence base. She has worked with the MCH Evidence Center to develop multiple Evidence Accelerators. Having spent five years living in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer, she has returned to the village where her husband was born dozens of times over the past twenty years, learning about cultural differences in maternal care and child-birthing practices.

Safe Sleep

Research Expert: Rachel Y. Moon, M.D., studies factors affecting sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related infant deaths, including accidental suffocation, asphyxia, and ill-defined deaths. One of Dr. Moon’s current projects aims to understand the influence of the social network (family, friends, and peers) and social norms (explicit and implicit rules of a social group) on parental decisions about how and where their infants sleep, and how differences in social networks and norms contribute to disparities in SIDS and sleep-related infant deaths.
Implementation Expert: Mary Adkins R.N., M.S.W., is an independent safe sleep consultant. For 15 years, she served as Program Director for Tomorrow’s Child, a statewide organization in Michigan dedicated to preventing infant death. Her work in Michigan formed the basis of the publication Building Integrated Systems to Address Sudden Infant Death.

Tobacco Use

Laurie Adams, TTS, is the is the Founder and Executive Director of the BABY & ME Tobacco Free Program (BMTFP). She has 25 years of experience in tobacco cessation teaching and training. In 2021, she transitioned BMTFP to a telehealth model via online trainings. She worked as a program director for 15 years for the New York State Tobacco Control Program and helped implement policy and system change through Clean Indoor Air laws and Tobacco Free Outdoor policies.    

STANDARDIZED MEASURES (SMs)

Adequate Insurance, Forgone Health Care, and Uninsured

Research Expert: Margaret (Meg) Comeau, M.H.A., is a Senior Project Director for the Center in Innovation in Social Work & Health at the Boston University School of Social Work. She is a nationally recognized expert on the impact of Medicaid and federal health care reform for CYSHCN. Meg has more than 18 years of health care delivery and financing experience to her role as PI for the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) to Advance Care for Children with Medical Complexity (CMC) and as PI of the Catalyst Center, a project focused on improving insurance coverage and financing of care for children and youth with special health care needs. 
Implementation Expert: Allyson Baughman, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the project director for the Center in Innovation in Social Work & Health at the Boston University School of Social Work. She has more than 12 years of experience working in program evaluation and public health research. Her previous experience includes management of a foundation-funded evaluation of an early intervention housing stabilization program for families with children under 5 years of age in Boston, MA.

Drinking During Pregnancy

Caitlin Coker, Ph.D., M.S., is an Assistant Professor in the Georgetown University School of Medicine. She is Co-Director of the Medical Gross Anatomy Course and Co-Director of the Musculoskeletal Module. She is also a member of the Georgetown University Medical Center Teaching Academy for the Health Sciences. She has expertise in embryology, gross anatomy, and histology. She has received multiple Golden Apple teaching awards and in 2022, she was inducted into the Golden Orchard for her teaching efforts.

Early Prenatal Care

Low-Risk Cesarean Delivery

Research Expert: Eugene Declercq, Ph.D., is a professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He combines formal training in political science with almost twenty years of experience as a certified childbirth educator to examine policy and practice related to childbirth in the US and abroad. His recent work includes examining maternal mortality and morbidity in the US has emphasized the importance of systems approaches to improving women’s health, which involves focusing on women’s health in the community and clinical settings throughout the lifecourse.
Implementation Expert: Lynn Ingram McFarland, M.B.A., PMH-C, is the founder and CEO of Ingram Screening, LLC, a perinatal mental health support and training company. She has developed a perinatal mental health screening program that is available online. She is also a member of the Postpartum Support International and serves as a Regional Philanthropy Officer for the American Red Cross.

Smoking

Research Expert: Cathy Melvin, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has more than a decade of experience in research, policy and program development related to treating tobacco use among pregnant women. She previously served as Director of Smoke-Free Families, National Dissemination Office at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Implementation Expert: Laurie Adams is founder and Executive Director for the Baby & Me—Tobacco Free Program and a certified cessation specialist. She was a project director in tobacco control programs for 15 years in New York State and helped implement policy and system change through Clean Indoor Air laws and Tobacco Free Outdoor policies.    

Well-Woman Visit

Research Expert: Sarah Verbiest, M.S.W., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., is a co-principal director for the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center, a new national resource center developed to accelerate innovative and evidence-informed interventions that improve maternal health and eliminate maternal health inequities. She is also the director of the Jordan Institute for Families at UNC School of Social Work and the executive director of the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health at UNC School of Medicine.
Implementation Expert: Arden Handler, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health and a Professor in the Community Health Sciences division of the UIC School of Public Health.  Her specific interest is the exploration of factors that increase the risk for disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes and examining ways in which the health care delivery system, particularly how prenatal care, postpartum care, and preconception/ interconception/well-woman care can ameliorate these risks and reduce disparities and inequities.

Reference

¹ Wolff, T. 2001. A Practitioner’s guide to successful coalitions. American Journal of Community Psychology 29(2):173–191.