MCH Center of Excellence Confronts Challenges to the Field at 30th Anniversary.
MCH Center of Excellence Confronts Challenges to the Field at 30th Anniversary
BU President Melissa Gilliam addressed members of the SPH community at an April 1 Public Health Conversation that explored racial and social equity in maternal health. The event was held in conjunction with the BUSPH Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education, Science, and Practice to celebrate the center’s achievements over the last three decades.
Too often, young people are told what not to do. But what they truly need, said BU President Melissa Gilliam, is guidance on what they can do. In her opening remarks at the April 1 Public Health Conversation “Birthing and Raising the Next Generation: Holistic Approaches to Advance Racial and Social Equity” held at the School of Public Health, Gilliam emphasized the importance of empowering youth through opportunity.
“I became a doctor to help people and in turn, I learned that the solutions lay outside of the clinic and outside of the hospital and in the lives and experience and wisdom of patients themselves,” said Gilliam. “I like to say that piano lessons prevent teen pregnancy. Afterschool programs prevent teen pregnancy. Being an athlete prevents teen pregnant. Education prevents teen pregnancy.”
The hybrid event, hosted both online and in person at Hiebert Lounge, was organized in partnership with the BUSPH Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education, Science, and Practice (MCH CoE) to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Several hundred members of the SPH community and guests gathered to hear Gilliam’s keynote address, engaged with a panel of experts working in maternal and child health (MCH) research and practice, and later celebrated the outstanding work of three MCH alums at a post-panel reception. The panel, which included several SPH alumni, discussed recent progress, persistent challenges, and emerging opportunities for advancing equity in childbirth, parenting, and family health across the United States.
Gilliam urged attendees to “listen deeply” and “think broadly,” acknowledging that in turbulent times, the field must be willing to reimagine long-standing paradigms. She closed with a message of hope, encouraging participants to leave with “renewed optimism and determination” to confront the enduring health disparities affecting women and communities of color.
One of only 13 such centers nationwide, SPH’s MCH CoE was founded in 1995 to provide educational, practice, research, and leadership programs that prepare students to become leaders in the MCH field. The Center envisions a future where a diverse MCH workforce is equipped with the public health skills and passion to advance just systems of care that would assure the health of families across the globe. To this end, one of the Center’s flagship initiatives, the Diversity Scholars Leadership Program, has supported the training of a cohort of four MCH students from under-represented minority communities each year for the past 14 years.
Lois McCloskey, clinical professor of community health sciences, has directed the Center since 2008. She reflected on the significance of the event and the ways the Center has enriched her own career and life.
“Witnessing students grow into leaders of the ‘birth justice’ and ‘economic justice’ movements [and] of MCH programs in Massachusetts and beyond, feeling the energy in the room that could only be described as ‘electric,’ [I was] full of the love and respect that comes from shared passions and commitments,” she said.
Nashira Baril (SPH‘06), one of the six panelists at the event, aims to bring ‘birth justice’ to Boston as the executive director and founder of Boston’s Neighborhood Birth Center. Baril and her team are working to build the city’s first freestanding, independent birth center offering comprehensive midwifery care across the full range of prenatal, pregnancy, and birth care options. While she conceded that their efforts have met numerous setbacks, such as antiquated zoning laws making property the group purchased potentially unusable, they are determined to strategize a path forward.
“It feels really good to be in a room at BU where I cut my teeth in public health 20 years ago with beloved leaders in the MCH ecosystem and people who I feel have their hands at my back as the midwives of this work,” said Baril. “How we birth matters for our public health, for our economy, for our climate, and for our collective wellbeing.”
The panelists frequently referenced how the United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation, a particularly alarming statistic given research out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Black women are 3.3 times more likely of pregnancy-related complications than White women. However, the panelists also highlighted the advance of protective MCH policies, such as the passage of H.4999 An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, affectionately termed “Momnibus,” in Massachusetts, as evidence that states can solve this crisis in spite of the lack of federal support.
McCloskey acknowledged that SPH’s MCH CoE may face a rough road ahead as she and her colleagues await news of future funding, but, she added, “It is heartening in this moment to know that the person leading out university gets it in her bones what it is for women, children, mothers, and families to flourish […] without the constraints of racial and social inequities.”
At the post-panel reception honoring this year’s three alumni awardees, McCloskey introduced Sharon Callender, a public health nurse, educator, mentor, and community leader and activist who was a member of the first graduating class in the former Department of Maternal and Child Health in 1997.
McCloskey praised Callender for her more than two decades as “the heart and soul of Family and Community Services for Mattapan Community Health Center,” and for her years directing the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, and other key roles in health education leadership extending back to 1984.
“It is so fitting that we are celebrating your long career of unstoppable commitment to women, children, youth, and families in Boston’s communities, even as we look back to our own history,” McCloskey said. “You have taken a deep dive into service, helping kids grow, helping families be healthy, helping organizations be strong—all in Boston’s lower income, richly diverse communities.
Candice Belanoff, clinical associate professor of community health sciences, introduced Lola Akintobi, who currently serves as assistant director of the Massachusetts Sexual and Reproductive Health Training Center. Belanoff described Akintobi as “an absolute standout of a student, with a laser-sharp intellect and an already well-formed analysis around structural marginalization and public health.”
Belanoff told the crowd that Akintobi’s work in public health began long before she received her MPH, and that her skills were honed via her service with AmeriCorps, at the Lowell Community Health Center, and in foundational service with Action for Boston Community Development. Belanoff said she hopes Akintobi’s future plans include doctoral work and teaching, as she would be “a truly extraordinary professor if she chose to do so…but no matter what she decides, I have no doubt that she will continue to be an influential voice and leader, advancing a public health rooted in liberation and equity for young people and their communities.”
Eugene Declercq, a professor of community health sciences, gave a rousing introduction to his former doctoral student Ann Peralta. Peralta is the founder of Partner to Decide, an organization that works to improve decision-making in maternity and perinatal care that was built as an extension of her dissertation work at SPH. Partner to Decide features “a birthing equity tool” to help pregnant people make informed decisions about when and under which circumstances to consider induction of labor.
Said Declercq, “Ann’s career serves as a role model for public health students, not only in her work as an exemplary student and public health leader, but in having the courage to follow her dream in developing and implementing a new tool to ensure shared decision making and improving the birth experience for mothers everywhere.”
