Maternal and Child Health Alums Honored at 24th Annual Networking and Alumni Reception.
Maternal and Child Health Alums Honored at 24th Annual Networking and Alumni Reception
Julie Motti-Santiago, Christine Silva, and Adriana Black were named as winners of the annual Maternal and Child Health Alumni Awards, bestowed upon select SPH graduates for “their outstanding service and dedication to improve the health of women, mothers, children, and families.”
Each year for nearly a quarter century, the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health (MCH CoE) at the School of Public Health has welcomed distinguished alums back to campus to celebrate their achievements and to introduce them to the next generation of SPH graduates.
This year, Julie Motti-Santiago, Christine Silva, and Adriana Black were named as winners of the annual Maternal and Child Health Alumni Awards, bestowed upon select SPH graduates for “their outstanding service and dedication to improve the health of women, mothers, children, and families.” The long-running event serves an intentional dual purpose of honoring alums while helping them retain connections with recent graduates and current students.
The awards were presented by Lois McCloskey, clinical professor of community health sciences who currently codirects the Maternal and Child Health certificate program and serves as director of the MCH CoE; Eugene DeClercq, professor of community health sciences at SPH and obstetrics & gynecology at BU’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine; and Candice Belanoff, clinical associate professor of community health sciences and director of the Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation and Evaluation (CAPDIE) certificate program.
Motti-Santiago, a certified nurse midwife at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and an assistant professor of obstetrics-gynecology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, said the training and connections she obtained at SPH became an “integral part of my career path.”
From 1991-2006, the School of Public Health administered a five-semester program for registered nurses that combined nurse-midwifery training with an MPH. Upon graduation, alums of the program were eligible to take a national certification exam for nurse-midwives.
“I’ve had the privilege of working as a midwife, as a program developer, as a manager, and as a researcher, and all of those skills and identities I got here,” said Motti-Santiago, who went on to earn her DrPH in 2020.
McCloskey helped the School of Public Health acquire the first federal maternal and child health training grant from the Health Research Services Administration in 1995, which led to the establishment of the Department of Maternal and Child Health a few years later. The School of Public Health’s MCH CoE is one of only 13 such centers nationwide and received its sixth round of funding through 2025 from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources & Services Research Administration.
Silva, who received her MPH in 2013, said she believes that the practice-based training she received at SPH fully prepared her to enter the workforce.
“I had an opportunity to learn in the classroom and then go out and do class projects and practicums and fellowships. I got to try out everything I was learning, so when I entered the workforce, I was confident and ready to get started, which is an amazing feeling,” Silva said.
Silva said she also benefitted from the extensive network of SPH alums and mentors in the ranks of state and regional agencies, some of whom helped her secure her current position with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “I feel like I have a powerhouse network that I can lean on and continue to thrive in public health.”
The MCH CoE provides educational, practice, research, and leadership programs that prepare students to become leaders in the MCH field, with an emphasis on advancing and promoting health equity as well as racial, social, and economic justice for women, children, and families.
Black, a 2017 MPH graduate, said her SPH experience was doubly enriched by her time as both a student and as a staff member.
“All of the mentors who helped me—professors as well as friends and colleagues—have completely impacted my entire career trajectory. What’s cool is that I’m seeing them for the first time in a couple of years, but we talk weekly, sometimes daily,” Black said. “Being able to keep in touch in that way has been one of the most fulfilling parts, not just of my professional career, but of my life. Knowing that I will always have that community of very true, genuine humans is something that I’ll cherish forever.”