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Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center

Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center

Accelerating innovative and evidence-informed interventions that improve maternal health and eliminate maternal health inequities

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MHLIC Team

Our team includes maternal health, policy, innovation, engagement and implementation experts from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), Georgia Health Policy Center, R.A.C.E. for Equity, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC School of Social Work and the UNC School of Medicine. This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U7CMC33636 State Maternal Health Innovation Support and Implementation Program Cooperative Agreement.

Tanisa Adimu

Policy Core, Coach
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Tanisa Adimu

Policy Core, Coach

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

Policy Core
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Leigh Alderman

Policy Core

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

Policy Core
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Christie Allen

Policy Core

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.

Alexis Amankwanor

Engagement Core, Innovation Support Core
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Alexis Amankwanor

Engagement Core, Innovation Support Core

Alexis is passionate about maternal health innovation, her background includes quality improvement and global health, most recently in Nigeria and Ghana in the pharmaceutical industry. Her passion includes addressing social determinants of health through technology and innovation. Alexis is also a doula and is passionate about working with families. Alexis holds a Bachelor of Science in health and wellness and a Master of Public Health degree.

Katherine Bryant

Innovation Support Core, Coach
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Katherine Bryant

Innovation Support Core, Coach

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

Engagement Core Co-Lead
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Kimarie Bugg

Engagement Core Co-Lead

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

Engagement Core
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Wesley Bugg

Engagement Core

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 Cannon

Evaluation Manager
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Abby Cannon

Evaluation Manager

Abby C. Cannon, MPH, MSW, 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 serves as a full time evaluator with the MHLIC.

Dorothy Cilenti

PI/Director, Coach
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Dorothy Cilenti

PI/Director, Coach

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

Innovation Support Core
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Andria Cornell

Innovation Support Core

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

Engagement, Innovation Cores; Coach
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Leslie deRosset

Engagement, Innovation Cores; Coach

Leslie deRosset, MSPH, 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 UNC, where she is an Implementation Specialist.

Jimmy Dills

Policy Core, Coach
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Jimmy Dills

Policy Core, Coach

Jimmy 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.

Chelsea Ducille

Graduate Research Assistant
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Chelsea Ducille

Graduate Research Assistant

Chelsea Ducille, MSPH, is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Maternal and Child Health. Her research interests are primarily focused on maternal mortality among women of color, domestically and globally. She holds an MSPH in Population, Family, and Reproductive Health and a Certificate of Maternal and Child Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Deitre Epps

Policy, Engagement, Innovation Support Core
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Deitre Epps

Policy, Engagement, Innovation Support Core

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

Curriculum Development Specialist
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Allison George

Curriculum Development Specialist

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 Grissett

Center Administrator
tamala_grissett@unc.edu
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Tamala Grissett

Center Administrator
tamala_grissett@unc.edu

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

Policy Core
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Amy Haddad

Policy Core

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

Liaison, Innovation Support Co-Lead, Coach
piia@email.unc.edu
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Piia Hanson

Liaison, Innovation Support Co-Lead, Coach
piia@email.unc.edu

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 Harper

Innovations Support Core, Coach
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Kimberly Harper

Innovations Support Core, Coach

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.

Lynell Hodges

Core Manager
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Lynell Hodges

Core Manager

Lynell Hodges, MPH, works closely with the Senior Collaboration Manager and co-leads of the three cores (engagement, policy and innovation support) to coordinate the day-to-day activities of each core, provide research and administrative support as they develop a large national repository of training and technical assistance resources for maternal health.

Olivia Horton

Graduate Research Assistant
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Olivia Horton

Graduate Research Assistant

Olivia Horton, BA, is currently enrolled in the dual MSW/MPH program at UNC. She previously worked at Duke University in the Department of Psychiatry as a research assistant on three domestic HIV and substance use studies.

Ariel Lewis

Graduate Research Assistant
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Ariel Lewis

Graduate Research Assistant

Ariel Lewis, BSN, RN, C-EFM, has worked as a registered nurse at various academic medical centers in high-risk labor & delivery, the emergency department, and vascular interventional radiology. She worked as a birth doula before becoming a nurse. She is enrolled in the MPH program at the Gillings School of PH and assists with a variety of tasks for MHLIC including communications and evaluation.

Erin McClain

Innovation Support Core, Coach
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Erin McClain

Innovation Support Core, Coach

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.

Kate Menard

Innovation Support Core
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Kate Menard

Innovation Support Core

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.

Isabel Morgan

Graduate Research Assistant
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Isabel Morgan

Graduate Research Assistant

Isabel Morgan, MSPH, is a doctoral student at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her research interests include inequities in maternal health, postpartum care and infertility treatment outcomes among Black women. Prior to her doctoral studies, she spent two years in the Division of Reproductive Health at the CDC evaluating evidence for the U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use.

Amy Mullenix

Senior Collaborator Manager, Coach
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Amy Mullenix

Senior Collaborator Manager, Coach

Amy Mullenix, MSPH, MSW, serves as the Senior Collaboration Manager for both the Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center and the National MCH Workforce Development Center. She is responsible for the internal alignment of learning and evaluation activities in both centers.  She also serves as an adjunct instructor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Amy previously worked for local public health departments, a federally qualified health center, a hospital system and a state MCH non-profit agency.

Alyson Northrup

Policy Core Co-Lead
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Alyson Northrup

Policy Core Co-Lead

Alyson Northrup, MS, is the associate director for government affairs at AMCHP. In this role, she leads AMCHP’s policy activities and policy agenda, including advocating for Title V MCH Services Block Grant funding. She brings this expertise to her work with the MHLIC Policy team.

Rachel Peragallo-Urrutia

Innovation Support Core
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Rachel Peragallo-Urrutia

Innovation Support Core

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.

Alice Pollard

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Alice Pollard

Training Coordinator

Garsy Presumey-Leblanc

Engagement Core
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Garsy Presumey-Leblanc

Engagement 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

Policy Core
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Bill Rencher

Policy Core

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

Engagement Core
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Andrea Serano

Engagement Core

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-sheppard-headshot

Kelli Sheppard

Communications Manager
ksheppard@unc.edu
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Kelli Sheppard

Communications Manager
ksheppard@unc.edu
kelli-sheppard-headshot

Kelli joined the team in late September 2020 as our Communications Manager for MHLIC and MTAP. 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 thats 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.

Angela Snyder

Policy Core Co-Lead
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Angela Snyder

Policy Core Co-Lead

Angela Snyder, PhD, MPH, is the director of health policy and financing at the Georgia Health Policy Center where her work focuses on applied research of policy and program evaluation 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.

Venus Standard

Engagement Core
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Venus Standard

Engagement Core

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

Co-PI/Co-Director, Innovation Core
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Alison Stuebe

Co-PI/Co-Director, Innovation Core

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.

Criss Sutton

Policy Core
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Criss Sutton

Policy Core

Criss L. Sutton is a Senior Research Associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center. Her areas of expertise are in project management, community health assessments, and strategic planning. Sutton has provided technical assistance to multiple sites related to public health financing innovations and she has experience leading data collection, synthesis, and planning.

Christine Tucker

Evaluator
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Christine Tucker

Evaluator

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

Innovation Support Core Co-Lead
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Kristin Tully

Innovation Support Core Co-Lead

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

Co-PI/Co-Director, Engagement Core Co-Lead, Coach
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Sarah Verbiest

Co-PI/Co-Director, Engagement Core Co-Lead, Coach

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

Communications Director
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Suzanne Woodward

Communications Director

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.

Chris Zahn

Innovation Support Core
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Chris Zahn

Innovation Support Core

Christopher M. Zahn, MD, is the Vice President, Practice Activities at ACOG. He is a specialist in comprehensive OB/GYN and has been practicing for 29 years. He has been a member of the ACGME Review Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of OB/GYNs.

MTAP Team

Maternal Telehealth Access Project

Folami Cook

Project Adminitrator
UNC
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Folami Cook

Project Adminitrator
UNC

Folami K. Cook, PMP, Project Adminitrator

Joia Crear-Perry

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Joia Crear-Perry

National Birth Equity Collaborative

Sue Hall

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Sue Hall

Sue Hall, National Perinatal Association

Jasmine Johnson

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Jasmine Johnson

Carol McDonald

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Carol McDonald

Carol McDonald Meridian Group

Angélique Roché

Meridian
aroche@meridiansolutionsworldwide.com
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Angélique Roché

Meridian
aroche@meridiansolutionsworldwide.com

Angélique Roché, is an attorney, professional host, moderator, voiceover artist, journalist, and content creator. As a writer and photographer, Angélique has contributed to NBC News, Black Girl Nerds, Syfy Wire, Marvel.com, Nerdist, and Rewire News. Prior to working as a full-time consultant, Angélique created communications infrastructures and crafted narratives for organizations and various issue campaigns. Most recently, she was the VP for External Affairs at the Ms. Foundation for Women. In addition, she has provided strategic storytelling, influencer engagement, branding, and infrastructure consulting local, state and national organizations and campaigns both nationally and in New York, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, California, Virginia, and Benin, Africa. She has a BA in Mass Communications from Southern University and A & M College, as well as a Juris Doctorate from Southern University Law Center and a Legal Letters Masters from The George Washington Law School.

kelli-sheppard-headshot

Kelli Sheppard

Communications Manager
ksheppard@unc.edu
More

Kelli Sheppard

Communications Manager
ksheppard@unc.edu
kelli-sheppard-headshot

Kelli joined the team in late September 2020 as our Communications Manager for MHLIC and MTAP. 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 thats 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.

Aprill O. Turner

Communications Consultant
Meridian Solutions
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Aprill O. Turner

Communications Consultant
Meridian Solutions

Aprill O. Turner, Communications Consultant, Meridian Solutions

Aprill O. Turner is a public relations professional with a wealth of experience working with non-profit and corporate clients in the areas of political and communication strategy, message development, media training, crisis communications, thought leadership, and public affairs.

She has worked on Capitol Hill in several media capacities, including Press Advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Deputy Press Secretary to Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Communications Director to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of New York. She has led media strategy for several local, Congressional and Senatorial campaigns.

She has also taught public relations and communications courses at Morgan State University and Loyola University, Montgomery College and Trinity University.

Aprill also founded Turner Communications, LLC, which focuses on cause-related organizations and campaigns.

Questions? Suggestions? Contact us here.

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This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U7CMC33636 State Maternal Health Innovation Support and Implementation Program Cooperative Agreement. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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