Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Program Sponsored Assignees

Dr. Hussaini has been Delaware’s assignee since 2016. He will be applying informatics principles to develop a MCH data inventory for the Division of Public Health (DPH) in Delaware and provide scientific and technical assistance on maternal child health, development of surveillance databases, and integration of technologies. This is in addition to his routine analyses of quantitative and qualitative population health data available at DPH to support MCH Block Grant, and other program initiatives and evaluation. Dr. Hussaini will be examining Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and its implications on maternal and neonate health in the first year and is currently compiling a report on women of child-bearing age to describe the state of the state. He will also be working on initiatives specific to social determinants and life-course especially focusing on mental health of women and its impact on child health.

Dr. Phillips-Bell has been Florida’s assignee since 2010. She provides epidemiologic technical assistance and scientific advising on selected MCH topics and emerging issues in Florida including family planning, preconception health, life course metrics, oral health, and neonatal abstinence syndrome. One recent accomplishment is her leadership in completing the 2015 Title V MCH Block Grant Needs Assessment in partnership with programmatic staff from the Division of Community Health Promotion at the Florida Department Health. Also, Dr. Phillips-Bell occasionally collaborates with representatives from other programs within the Department of Health as well as CDC and other federal agencies, national advocacy organizations, and local universities to address salient MCH issues in the state.

Dr. Bennett has been Illinois’ assignee since 2015. Her main focus in Illinois is to improve data infrastructure and strengthen internal epidemiologic capacity.  This involves working with internal and external partners to ensure that the Illinois MCH program has access to timely and relevant data sources, facilitating data linkages, supporting state programs with relevant data, and developing the data analysis skills of other staff members.  Thus far, Dr. Bennett’s main projects have included: analyzing quantitative and qualitative data for the Title V needs assessment, conducting a study on racial disparities in severe maternal morbidity, and supporting a birth certificate data quality improvement initiative in birthing hospitals.  Over the rest of the year, she looks forward to other projects including: conducting a study on psychiatric hospitalizations for women, initiating conversations between IDPH departments about the linkage of vital records to other data systems, and developing measurement strategies for the CoIIN workgroups and Title V performance measures.

Dr. Kane has been Iowa’s assignee since 2005. She is the data lead for Iowa’s Infant Mortality CoIIN projects. She is the state advisor to the CMS sponsored Data Linkage Training series, launched in partnership with CDC, to develop state analytic capacity to link state Vital Records, Medicaid claims and Title V data to collect and report on relevant Medicaid quality measures. Dr. Kane is a team member with Iowa Medicaid Enterprise and IDPH staff in the CMCS Maternal and Infant Health Initiative – Improving Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes in Medicaid and CHIP. Iowa’s project is to improve access and quality of postpartum care. In collaboration with OPA and CMS, she also develops contraceptive related performance measures. In addition, she is the primary mentor to a CSTE/CDC Applied Epidemiology Fellow.

Dr. Kieltyka has been Louisiana’s assignee since 2006. She has worked to implement a new data system for maternal mortality review in Louisiana. She sits on the Perinatal Clinical Guidelines Committee in order to provide data on maternal and neonatal outcomes by hospital level of care. Dr. Kieltyka also serve as a subject matter expert and a senior epidemiologist to seven MCH epidemiologists, a CSTE fellow, GSEP intern, and masters students from Tulane and LSU Schools of Public Health.

Dr. Manning was Massachusetts’ assignee from 2006-2010. She returned to Massachusetts as its assignee in 2012. She is Massachusetts Maternal Infant and Early Childhood (MA MIECHV) Data and Evaluation Team Lead. She is part of Massachusetts Infant Mortality Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) Team; Massachusetts Systems Integration Project for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Management/Executive Team; Massachusetts Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Needs Assessment Leadership Team; and Massachusetts Team for the Immediately Postpartum Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) Learning Community. Dr. Manning serves on Massachusetts Research and Data Access Review Team/Institutional Review Board. She is also the mentor for CDC/CSTE assignee (Sarah L. Stone), CDC Public Health Prevention Specialist (Katie Stetler) and incoming EIS Officer (Nick Somerville).

Dr. Conrey has been Ohio’s assignee since 2005. She surveyed Ohio healthcare providers to learn their knowledge and practices around care for women with gestational diabetes. The findings will be compared to data from 2012 to monitor the progress of Ohio’s gestational diabetes collaborative and to plan future activities of the collaborative. Dr. Conrey also supervised an EIS officer who evaluated the accuracy of the pregnancy check box on Ohio death certificates. In addition, she is working with vital statistics and other staff to make systems changes to improve the surveillance of maternal deaths.

Dr. Zane has been Oregon’s assignee since 2013. She lead Oregon’s first-ever surveillance system for birth defects. In collaboration with the state, she brought together public health with many partners in order to best use this information to help understand about birth defects among the children of Oregon, how they are or are not accessing needed health services as they grow to adulthood, and hopefully to add knowledge that can help us to form prevention strategies for birth defects. Dr. Zane also provides MCH subject matter expertise, particularly in maternal health issues, to the Oregon Public Health Division as a whole, as well as serving as a scientific consultant in the Health Division of Oregon as needed.

Dr. Harvey has been Tennessee’s assignee since 2017. She is helping implement the state’s maternal mortality review committee and data system. She will lead some of the main data analyses for maternal mortality, including investigating deaths due to overdoses. Dr. Harvey will create a standardized report of maternal and child health indicators for the state. In addition, she will establish an applied maternal and child health epidemiology journal club.

Dr. Kasehagen has been working with CDC for nine and a half years. Dr. Kasehagen serves as the CDC assignee/senior MCH epidemiologist to the State of Vermont’s Departments of Health and Mental Health where she conducts public health research and surveillance on child / youth mental health conditions, such as adverse family experiences, suicide, depression, ADHD, and behavioral disorders.

Dr. Rohan has been Wisconsin’s assignee since 2010. She works with state staff and partners to build capacity in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology in Wisconsin, such as increasing MCH epidemiology staff resources, improving access to timely data, and guiding an assessment and planning effort to improve data coordination.  As a Senior MCH Epidemiologist, Dr. Rohan provides data guidance and technical assistance to Wisconsin’s emerging Perinatal Quality Collaborative and Wisconsin’s participating teams in the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) to Reduce Infant Mortality.  Another key current project is focused on validating a method for estimating newborn screening rates for Plain (Amish and Mennonite) births in Wisconsin.