The Maternal Health Equity Research Center at Meharry Medical College

Addressing maternal health equity issues faced in Tennessee will be challenging without proper development of a diverse public health research and practice pipeline comprised of underrepresented individuals committed to provoking significant change.

Goals and objectives:

In order to do so we will establish the Maternal Health Equity Research Center at Meharry Medical College (MHERC @MMC) to increase the capacity of faculty students and community to decrease public health inequities and health disparities associated with maternal child health through research outreach public health education and practice and outreach. A special focus of our center will be mothers of color because black women in Tennessee are twice as likely to die during childbirth. The MHERC will enhance maternal health equity research interest and capacity among Meharry faculty and students. MHERC will increase the MCH workforce with master level and certificate level practitioners committed to maternal health equity. We will provide a quality master level public health education that equips diverse students with the competence to join the MPH workforce and address the public health needs of all populations especially the underserved. MHERC will build capacity of community stakeholders to educate and advocate for maternal health equity. HRSA funds will be used to support the center. The Department of Public Health Practice focus our efforts to promote maternal health equity further maternal health equity research interest and expertise inform policy and related community engagement. Methods: MHERC @ MMC will focus on 3 strategic initiatives: research capacity building advocacy and community engagement and MCH workforce development. As such we will support several populations including Meharry faculty and students mothers of color and their families community stakeholders and individuals with an interest in graduate-level education. Objectives: Enhance existing and implement new strategies to increase research capacity among faculty and students in maternal health equity (MHE). Enhance and implement community engagement and advocacy approaches to increase community participation in genomics research and recruitment and retention of study participants in genomics research studies. Develop a maternal and child health MPH track and graduate certificate to enhance the MHE workforce pipeline.

Products:

The MHERC anticipate numerous products that will address the root causes and inequalities in maternal health outcomes including robust community partnerships and community engagement strategies peer-reviewed and lay manuscripts disseminated based on the needs of the audience and a pipeline of maternal health equity researchers and public health practitioners.

Evaluation:

MHERC success will be documented with robust evaluation including student and faculty scholarly activities as well as community engagement indicators (registration and attendance at MHE educational and outreach events website and social medial engagement and joint community-academic manuscripts etc).