Maternal and Child Health News

Aaron Williams, RTI executive, former Peace Corps director, selected as Gillings School’s commencement speaker

January 25, 2017
Aaron Williams will present the Gillings School's commencement address on May 13 at 1 p.m. in the Carmichael Arena. Williams is executive vice president for government relations and corporate communications at RTI International and past director of the U.S. Peace Corps.

Faculty member says high school football is not worth health risk to young players

In an article in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Lewis Margolis argues that high school football programs should be disbanded, given the risks to young players of the sport. Margolis is associate professor of maternal and child health at the Gillings School.

Lack of optimal breastfeeding may cause alarming disparities in infant deaths, study finds

Lack of optimal breastfeeding led to more than twice the number of deaths among African-American infants than white infants in computer models. This finding was published in a recent study co-authored by Dr. Alison Stuebe, Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding in the Department of Maternal and Child Health.

Speizer to examine sustainability of family planning program activities in urban Nigeria

Dr. Ilene Speizer, research professor of maternal and child health at the Gillings School, will lead a two-year, $1.7 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Spiezer will examine the sustainability of family planning program activities in Nigeria.

In AJPH editorial, researchers oppose legislation that would threaten food security

The Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 (H.R. 5003) does not live up to its name, say two researchers from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

New study brings awareness to overlooked immigration issues around higher education

In a recent study, researchers from the Departments of Health Behavior and Maternal and Child Health investigated how youth in North Carolina can be “locked out” of educational opportunities through complicated immigration policy.

Student-developed app to link refugees with reproductive health services

mAdapt is a new app currently being co-developed by an alumna and two students of the Department of Maternal and Child Health. The mobile app uses cell phone technology to provide refugees with fast answers to questions about pressing reproductive health needs.

Linking maternal mortality files to violent death reporting system reveals more pregnancy-associated suicides, homicides

A recent study co-authored by Anna Austin, doctoral student of maternal and child health, and Dr. Catherine Vladutiu, Gillings School alumna and adjunct faculty member in epidemiology, revealed that violent deaths occurring during pregnancy and up to one year postpartum are under-reported. Linking traditional maternal mortality surveillance system records with the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System captured 55.6 percent more pregnancy-associated violent deaths than traditional surveillance alone.

Sullivan appointed director of Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute

Catherine Sullivan, clinical assistant professor of maternal and child health at the Gillings School, has been named director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI). She succeeds the late Dr. Miriam Labbok, CGBI’s founding director. CGBI was established in 2006, through the gift of an anonymous donor, to increase quality of care for women and children and to promote breastfeeding and breastfeeding research.

UNC Gillings students collaborate to promote awareness of gender-based violence

The UNC Gender-Based Violence Research Group will sponsor two events in October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.