MHLIC Team

Kelsey Accordino, MPH, is the Core Manager at the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC) at UNC Chapel Hill. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia and began her career with Syngenta, an agriculture company. During her four years with the company, Kelsey moved through different job assignments as an associate in the Leadership Development Program and served as a Health, Safety, & Environmental Manager. She received her Master of Public Health degree from the Health Behavior department at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2019. Most recently, she served as the Health Promotion & Wellness Supervisor for Granville Vance Public Health (GVPH), where she led community-based wellness programs, systems change initiatives, and COVID-19 response efforts. She has experience in a variety of focus areas within public health including adolescent health, injury and violence prevention, and mental health and substance use.

Tanisa Adimu, MPH, is an assistant project director at the Georgia Health Policy Center and is a co-leader of the Community Health Systems Development team. Adimu has specialized experience in developing, administrating, and evaluating community health interventions designed to improve the quality and access of healthcare services and prevention strategies. At the center, she provides technical assistance to rural networks and consortia.

Leigh Alderman serves as senior advisor to the director of the Georgia Health Policy Center. She focuses on partnering with community stakeholders to address the determinants of health and equity, applying her expertise in strategic planning, health policy, systems thinking, and meeting design and facilitation. Alderman leads the center’s Health in All Policies and Public Health Law Research teams. 

Christie Allen, MSN, RNC-NIC, CPHQ is a senior director of the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health and associated projects at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, focused on leading programming and interventions nationally on patient safety, quality improvement, and improving outcomes for all birthing families. With over 20 year of nursing experience, she has worked as a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, NICU and high-risk obstetrical nurse, and managed a state-wide program for pregnant individuals with active substance use disorder.

Lauren Blachowiak, MEd, is the Government Affairs Manager at the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP). In this role, she executes AMCHP’s policy activities, including advocating for Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant funding, promoting AMCHP’s federal policy agenda, and supporting the AMCHP policy team. Prior to joining AMCHP, Ms. Blachowiak served as the Disability Policy Fellow with the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), where she advocated for federal policies benefiting individuals with disabilities, their families, and the professionals who support them. She holds a Master of Education in Early Childhood Special Education from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Katherine Bryant, MSPH, is a Research Associate and Project Manager for the UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health and a Project Director in the UNC Jordan Institute for Families. Her portfolio includes serving as the project manager for a HRSA MCHB funded program – Improving Women’s Health: Preconception CoIIN. She brings many skills to the team including strategic thinking and program planning/implementation.

Kimarie Bugg, DNP, MPH, IBCLC, is the President & CEO of Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), a National nonprofit corporation to address breastfeeding inequities in the African American community. She completed a Community Health Leadership Program, within the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine that stressed best practices to provide global health equity and eliminating health disparities through action-oriented projects.

Wesley Bugg, JD, is a 2016 graduate of the University of Miami’s School of Law (JD, LLM), and 2013 graduate of Emory University (BA). His current interests include legal compliance and business development, especially for startups and small nonprofits where these tasks are often expensive and difficult. In this spirit, he serves ROSE as the Legal Compliance Officer and financial assistant, aggregated into his role as Financial and Legal Operation Coordinator. He is also the Director of Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere (ROBE).

Abby C. Cannon, MPH, MSW, brings over ten years of experience in monitoring and eAbby C. Cannon, MPH, MSW, is the Evaluation Manager on the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She brings over ten years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, with a focus on merging qualitative and quantitative data to share the full picture of a program with stakeholders, funders, and practitioners. She specializes in developing and implementing evaluation plans, using data for decision making, and translating results into actionable steps. Prior to the MHLIC, Abby focused on advancing gender equality on a global health monitoring, evaluation, and research project at UNC. She received her MPH in maternal and child health and her MSW from UNC.

Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, MSW, MPH, has worked in local and state public health agencies in North Carolina for more than 20 years. She is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Dept of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health where she directs the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center and the National MCH Workforce Development Center, under cooperative agreements with the Health Resources Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Andria Cornell, MPH, is the associate director for women’s and infant health at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). She coordinates a dynamic team and an extensive portfolio of grant-funded efforts centered in racial equity and bridging public health and clinical care in women’s health, improving birth outcomes, care and support for the mother-baby dyad, and transition to early childhood systems.

Leslie deRosset has been working in maternal and child health for more than two decades. She has spent her career working internationally, in North and South Carolina with state government, non-profit organizations and now at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is an Implementation Specialist. Within the MHLIC, Leslie serves as a Coach for the state of Montana and supports the Innovation and Engagement Core. Leslie is passionate about improving the inequities that cause disparities in maternal and child health. Leslie lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, two teenagers (16 and 18) and Stella, her yellow lab.

James Dills, MPH, MUP, is a Health Integration Associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC), where he works to improve public health by advancing Health in All Policies perspectives of decision-making. His areas of expertise are health impact assessment (HIA), systems thinking, and healthy community design. Jimmy also supports the Systems Integration Core of the National MCH Workforce Development Center.

Deitre Epps, founder and CEO for RACE for Equity, has over 25 years of experience in providing education, training, and technical assistance to health, human services, and education leaders to support evidence-informed strategies towards improving individual and community wellbeing. Her work has included capacity building and direct support for leaders to implement data driven decision making with Results Based Accountability™ (RBA). As a global consultant, she works with international agencies to advance culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies that achieve results.

Allison George, MPH, MCHES, UNC-CH, has over 15 years of public health experience. She has created, delivered and evaluated trainings and courses on a wide variety of topics. Allison is committed to elevating the rich contributions that diverse backgrounds, faces, and experiences bring to any learning experience. She splits her time with the MCH Workforce Development Center.

Alison serves as the MHLIC Curriculum Development Specialist.

Tamala M. Grissett is Center Administrator and has worked in higher education for more than 20 years. Tamala has experience in relationship building, strategic planning, and knowledge management. Her previous role was as the business operations manager at Launch Chapel Hill and the Entrepreneurship Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Amy Haddad, BA, is the Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at AMCHP. In this role, she leads AMCHP’s work to advocate for Title V appropriations, promotes policy priorities and represents AMCHP in various coalitions. Amy brings over seven years of Capitol Hill experience, including six years as legislative assistant to former Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA). Amy contributes her experience to MHLIC’s policy team

Piia Hanson, MSPH, MBA, PH Solutions, LLC, truly embodies Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous quote “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”  Through her national work with academic institutions, government agencies and non-profits to improve quality and access to care, her local work purchasing and renovating investment properties to provide safe, affordable housing for families, and her international volunteer work providing medications and program support in rural communities, she is committed to using her knowledge, skills and abilities to ensure that all families have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive.

Kimberly D. Harper, MSN, RN, MHA, is a registered nurse with 17 years of experience in Maternal and Child Health. Her breadth of experience ranges from leadership and nursing roles in labor and delivery units, postpartum care, public health home visiting programs, and hospital administration. She holds several roles at the UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health where she provides training and technical assistance to state and national maternal health initiatives.

Lynda Krisowaty, MHS, is the Senior Program Manager for Evidence-Based Practice at the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) and leads AMCHP’s Evidence & Implementation Team.  In this role, she manages activities which enhance the MCH workforce’s capacity to identify/develop, implement, improve, and sustain evidence-based/-informed practices as well as apply evidence-based decision making tools and processes. Lynda also supports the Evidence-Based Decision Making Core of the National MCH Workforce Development Center.

Erin McClain, MPH, MA, is Assistant Director and Research Associate with the UNC Center for Maternal & Infant Health, where she brings over 15 years of experience facilitating and implementing perinatal systems change and quality improvement initiatives. She focuses broadly on the health of women of reproductive age, engaging in qualitative research with postpartum mothers and serving as a state coach for the HRSA-funded Preconception CoIIN and the MHLIC.

Dr. M. Kathryn Menard, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist on faculty at UNC, serving for fourteen years as Vice Chair of the department, Director of the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Director of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health. She serves as Medical Director of the NC Pregnancy Medical Home program. She is an executive team member for AIM and an expert in the implementation of Levels of Maternal Care.

Amy Mullenix currently serves as the Deputy Director for the National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center and the Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center, two national training and technical assistance centers housed in the MCH Department at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In this role, she coordinates and supports partnerships among the multiple academic and practice partners engaged in each Center to build the capacity of MCH practitioners across the country. For the National MCH Workforce Development Center, Ms. Mullenix also serves as the primary liaison with states and other jurisdictions as they seek technical assistance opportunities, and serves as a team coach for their health transformation work. In the Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center, she also serves as a Maternal Health Innovation state team coach.

Mullenix, a Nebraska native, previously worked as the state coordinator of the North Carolina Preconception Health Campaign at the March of Dimes and as a bilingual social worker for pregnant women and families in public health departments and community health centers in North Carolina and Nebraska.

Rachel Peragallo Urrutia, MD, MSCR, is an obstetrician gynecologist who is also trained in preventive medicine. She is the Medical Consultant for the Women’s Health Branch of the NC Department of Public Health. She has expertise in providing preventive care to women of reproductive age, including postpartum and preconception care. She has experience with qualitative research, systematic reviews, and preventive services guideline development. Her greatest desire is that all her patients would have an equitable chance of achieving their own health and reproductive goals.

Laura Powis, MPH, is the Program Manager for Evidence-Based Policy & Practice on AMCHP’s Evidence and Implementation team. In this role, she manages AMCHP’s Innovation Hub, an online platform that houses the MCH Innovations Database, a searchable repository of “what’s working” in the field of MCH that includes effective policies and practices from the field that are positively impacting MCH populations. She also serves as the Core Manager for the Evidence-Based Decision Making Core at the National MCH Workforce Development Center. Laura received a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Human Development from Cornell University. Laura supports the MHLIC’s Policy Core.

Garsy Presumey-Leblanc, MS is the Respectful Care Project Coordinator for the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health and associated grants at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, focused on the integration of respectful care into bundle development and equity components of other projects. With backgrounds in medical anthropology, public health, and religious studies, she looks forward to aiding in the push for equity in all aspects of maternal health.

Bill Rencher, JD, MPH, is an attorney and senior research associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC). His expertise includes federal and state Medicaid regulations, compliance reviews, legal analysis, and report writing. He has experience with hospital financial assistance programs, federal and state health care laws and regulations and the ACA. He serves on the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health and leads GHPC’s COVID Legislation Learning Group.

Andrea Serano, CLC, IBCLC’s work stems from her passion for addressing maternal and infant health issues, especially among communities of color. She is the ROSE Program Director and a certified IBCLC. She serves as a member of the Center for Social Inclusion National 2016 First Food Racial Equity cohort, where she co-facilitates trainings for communities and organizations. She has a major in Healthcare Policy and a Business Administration minor.

Kelli joined the MHLIC team in late September 2020 as our Communications Manager. She is proud to contribute to the overall improvement of maternal health in some way, shape, or form so that other women and people who give birth do not have go through the same ordeals that other before them had. She has 20 years of marketing and communications experience working with nonprofits and small businesses. She has worked with internationally and nationally-recognized organizations and garnered credits as a photographer, journalist, cinematographer, producer, editor, and director. Kelli earned a BSBA in Marketing and a BS in Communications from Western Carolina University.

Angela Snyder, Ph.D. M.P.H. is a Research Associate Professor at Georgia State University and is the Director of Health Policy and Financing at the Georgia Health Policy Center.  Her work includes research, policy evaluation, and technical assistance in program implementation for state– and community–level health projects.  Her research uses both qualitative and quantitative data (including administrative databases) to study the health outcomes that result from the organization and financing of public health systems.  Much of her previous research has been in child health and wellbeing focusing on evaluating policy options for increasing health insurance coverage for children and the quality of care received by children enrolled in public benefit programs.  She has accomplished this work through a fifteen-year partnership with the Georgia Department of Community Health.  Most recently, through a partnership with the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, she has applied her knowledge of Medicaid to co-lead the policy core of the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center and has also partnered on the Maternal Telehealth Access Project.  Dr. Snyder received her Ph.D. in health policy from Yale University and her M.P.H. in health systems management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.  Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Dr. Snyder worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for nine years.   

Venus Standard, MSN, CNM, is a midwife, that believes in educating women and their families to live a healthy lifestyle by supporting family planning; promoting healthy, natural childbirth and encouraging breastfeeding. She enjoys partnering with her patients to ensure that their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and cultural needs are met.

Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc, is a Professor and Board-Certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine subspecialist at the UNC School of Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Infant and Young Child Feeding at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is the interim MFM Division Director and Medical Director of Lactation Services at UNC Health Care.

Born and raised in Uganda, Lydia has lived in the USA and Denmark. She has a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Makerere University in Uganda where she practiced as a medical doctor before moving to the US. She also received a Master’s in Public Health Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lydia is an energetic family and career-oriented woman who enjoys using the skills she has acquired in evaluation and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to support organizations in cultural development and measuring success of their programs for the communities they serve using the Results-Based Accountability framework. She is experienced in evaluation, intercultural development, and public health.

Christine Tucker, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor and researcher with two decades of quantitative and qualitative research and practice experience in MCH and Latinx health. Currently she conducts research on postpartum care and evaluating MCH evidence-based strategies in North Carolina. She is passionate about sharing data in a way that is actionable and serves as the lead for the evaluation team.

Kristin Tully, PhD, is a medical anthropologist engaged in a program of research that centers around safety in patient transitions through maternity care, patient-provider communication, breastfeeding experiences, parent-infant nighttime interactions, and health care innovation. Broadly, she is interested in engaging new families, clinicians, and other key stakeholders to identify unmet patient needs and co-develop effective, sustainable, and scalable solutions.

Sarah Verbiest, DrPH, MSW, MPH is the Director of the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC School of Social Work and the Executive Director of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health at the School of Medicine. She feels totally honored to also be a Co-PI for this project.

Suzanne Woodward, BS, is the communications director at UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health and specializes in health communications and digital media. She serves as the website/digital manager for numerous program and project websites, including ShowYourLoveToday.com, BeforeandBeyond.org and NewMomHealth.com. Suzanne leads MHLIC’s communication team.