{"id":1558,"date":"2026-04-01T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mchleads.com\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2026-04-09T16:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T16:15:13","slug":"how-interconnectedness-and-honoring-lived-experiences-inspired-our-mch-work-7-creating-responsive-and-effective-mch-systems-10-interdisciplinary-interprofessional-team-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mchleads.com\/?p=1558","title":{"rendered":"How Interconnectedness and Honoring Lived Experiences Inspired Our MCH Work [7: Creating Responsive and Effective MCH Systems & 10: Interdisciplinary\/Interprofessional Team Building]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Janaye
Janaye Matthews and Jalia Coleman<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Janaye Matthews (left)<\/strong> is a second year MPH student, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology through University of Illinois Chicago Center of Excellence<\/a>. Janaye earned a dual BS in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering in 2021, then transitioned into public health as a field assignee through the CDC Public Health Associates Program (PHAP)<\/a>, stationed at the Rhode Island Department of Health. Janaye currently holds a position as a Graduate Research Assistant in the lab of Dr. Ashley Hill, where she contributes to several projects that are rooted in equity and lived experiences. Janaye\u2019s interests lie at the intersection of climate change and maternal health, contextualized by systemic and social injustices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila Coleman<\/strong> (right) <\/strong>is a first-year MPH student with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)<\/a>. She received her bachelor\u2019s in psychology and worked as a clinical research coordinator prior to pursuing her graduate degree. Her career interests include assisted reproductive technology (ART) access and advocacy for Black LGBTQ+ individuals, perinatal care access, and maternal mortality for Black birthing persons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How Interconnectedness and Honoring Lived Experiences Inspired Our MCH Work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About You<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your Maternal and Child Health (MCH) focus area?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye<\/strong>: My main interest is at the intersection of MCH and environmental justice, particularly using data for storytelling and developing community-level solutions. I\u2019m also interested in leveraging epidemiologic methodology at the community level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila:<\/strong> My focus in MCH is Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), access for Black LGBTQ+ individuals. I am also interested in evaluating the impact of perinatal care and access on maternal mortality and morbidity for BIPOC birthing persons.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you want other MCH students to know about this particular issue within our field?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye<\/strong>: Within the research on and response to the climate crisis, there are gaps in understanding how pregnant people and young children are affected. Digging deeper into those gaps, it is evident that the current approaches to the climate crisis are more reactionary (i.e., responding after disasters strike) and fail to consider the intergenerational impacts, especially among vulnerable populations and marginalized communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila: <\/strong>Black same-sex couples are underrepresented within the MCH and public health space. As a result, they face challenges surrounding access, racism, and discrimination. I am interested in patient advocacy and literacy for navigating these spaces, reducing the divide between patient-provider interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sparked your interest in MCH? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye:<\/strong> I did a couple of projects in my undergraduate studies on the history of medical\/scientific exploitation and racism. I learned how much harm has been done across Black, Indigenous, and Latin\u00e9 communities \u2013 especially to women \u2013 and how often this context is left out of the discourse of the health disparities we see in BIPOC communities today, how deeply rooted the systemic impact is, and how important it is to refocus the narrative from behavioral factors to larger, structural sociopolitical drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila: <\/strong>My interest in MCH was sparked due to personal experiences I had as a patient. As a Black woman, I have had troubling experiences navigating the healthcare space and feeling like an active participant in the care I received. I am predisposed for certain health conditions solely based on my gender and race, and I was interested in understanding why that is, as well as advocating for women and people that have had disheartening experiences and outcomes navigating healthcare, health programs, and systems that do not always represent or benefit people of color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is it important for you to explore MCH (versus other disciplines or areas of public health)? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>Improving health outcomes must be approached from a multi-generational lens, and MCH provides the space to consider how we can intervene and protect both parent and child from conception (or even pre-conception). Because I\u2019m also in epidemiology, I also want to stress the need to break down our silos and work across fields, in public health and beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila:<\/strong> It is important for me to pursue MCH because I want to work with vulnerable populations that are forgotten, and work towards reducing the gaps in health disparities to reach health equity and reproductive justice. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe yourself? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>I describe myself as an ecological builder and context-driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila<\/strong>: I describe myself as empathetic and ambitious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project or Practicum Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describe a specific project, practicum or internship you participated in. What was your role and what did you work on? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>In my current position as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Ashley Hill\u2019s<\/a> lab, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work on several projects, but one that has been particularly meaningful is an ongoing project on the effects of climate disasters on pregnancy and birth outcomes. The project is still in the exploratory phase of analysis; we are planning to conduct a robust quantitative analysis of displacement and environmental hazards exposure due to post-hurricane flooding on pregnancy and outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila<\/strong>: One of the studies that I worked on focused on the importance of testing and early detection of STIs. As part of this study, I worked alongside another RA to recruit patients at a local clinic, depending on patients general interest in participating and approaching patients to inform them about the study; however, we quickly learned that this was not a simple task. Through the relationships we built with clinic staff, we were able to get their assistance with recruiting patients and garnering interest in participating. Recruitment for this study was a learning experience about the importance of culturally competent materials and approaches to working with communities, and the importance of building relationships with important figures in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which MCH Leadership Competency (or competencies) most connects to this work? What were key outcomes or impacts from your project\u2014on the community, organization\/agency or yourself?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>This work connects to Competency 10: Interdisciplinary\/Interprofessional Team Building <\/strong>and Competency 7: Creating Responsive & Effective MCH systems.<\/strong> We are using data from PeriBank, a biological repository of prenatal, birth, postpartum, and infant outcomes from participants in Houston, TX. The geographic component alone calls for collaboration across institutions (our team is Chicago-based), and with the focus on environmental hazards, we also have contributions from environmental health experts to guide the research. This work is also related to Competency 7, in that we envision this research informing disaster preparedness and emergency response infrastructure, which typically fail to consider the special circumstances of pregnant persons and infants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, this project has enabled me to build my skills in quantitative analysis and to learn more about how to merge environmental health and MCH research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila:<\/strong> I believe that Competency 10: Interdisciplinary\/Interprofessional Team Building<\/strong>, Competency 7: Creating Responsive & Effective MCH systems<\/strong>, Competency 8: Honoring Lived Experiences<\/strong>, and Competency 4: Critical Thinking<\/strong> are most aligned with our work. During recruitment for the STI study, we relied on the relationships that the clinic staff built with their patients to recruit due to the nature of the study, which often deterred patients from participating. Building relationships with the staff helped us connect with patients and ease discomfort in participating in the study. This experience also reflected the importance of Competency 8 because we understood why the patients were potentially uncomfortable with the study, as past relationships between research\/researchers and minority populations have displayed inequitable treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please share a story about how you helped inform, contribute to or analyze a Title V initiative or program.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>Last summer, as a Title V Intern, I worked on a team with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies<\/a> (MMBB). Our project focused on addressing disparities in Pasteurized Human Donor Milk (PDHM) access among Black and Somali communities across the state. The work was grounded in cultural humility, as part of a larger effort to support the greater Muslim community in Minnesota as they navigated religious rules (fatwa) around human milk sharing and kinship. Using a mixed-methods approach, our team developed a survey and an accompanying interview guide to gather feedback from providers regarding their knowledge and attitudes on PDHM and the fatwa. I\u2019m continuing this work with MDH to conduct a multivariate logistic regression analysis of different factors affecting PDHM use, including examining if usage changed among racial groups before and after the fatwa was issued. This work has been vital in my understanding of cross-sector collaborations, including MDH, MMBB, and religious leaders, to build impactful interventions. It inherently calls in multiple systems across different socioeconomic levels (interpersonal and institutional). I\u2019ve gained valuable skills in conducting mixed methods analysis, and I appreciate being able to see firsthand what it looks like to uplift community needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection and Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore the role of self-reflection in your growth as an MCH professional. How has reflecting on your learnings or experiences helped you align your career goals with the MCH competency\/competencies you previously mentioned? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>I want to take this a little further than self-reflection and consider self-reflexivity \u2013 grounding that reflection in my positionality and power. In MCH, and public health overall, everything we do is so rooted in our humanity. I feel like everyday, as I\u2019m learning these systems and considering how to navigate them, I\u2019m asking myself: how do I honor the lived experiences and redistribute my positional power to those who we should be centering in our efforts? How can I use my knowledge, my identities, and my experiences to inform my work? What do I need to unlearn\/relearn to do the most good and minimize harm? For me, practicing reflexivity is a necessary, dynamic process to map out the MCH ecosystem and situate myself and my work within it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila:<\/strong> Through my experiences working as a graduate research assistant, and as a graduate student, I have learned the importance of team collaboration. Bringing together different thought processes and life experiences makes for effective problem solving and an array of approaches for a public health problem. These experiences have also helped guide my thinking in that I am centering the community and their lived experiences in any evaluations I make about a potential problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did mentorship, collaboration or interdisciplinary teamwork contribute to your learning? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>I have to give flowers to Dr. Ashley Hill, who has been my mentor and advisor for the two years that I\u2019ve been at UIC and has poured into my growth and skills. I deeply value having a mentor that I can observe, learn from, and work directly with, especially as she moves with intentionality and embodies the praxis of equity, just as I aim to do in my career. I also believe that mentorship is about reciprocity, so I am always looking for ways to connect with and support my peers in MCH and in other fields. There is always something we can learn from others, and there\u2019s always something we can teach them, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila<\/strong>: Interdisciplinary teamwork contributed significantly to my learning and my interest in maternal and child health. Working with faculty and other MCH students opened my eyes to other maternal health topics that I may not have considered previously and has acted as a space for inspiration and drive to continue working in Maternal and Child Health. I feel that I am always learning about new topics and ways that others are working towards reproductive health and justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please reflect on your experience as an MCH student. How do your academics influence your field\/practice-based experiences (and vice versa)? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaye: <\/strong>Truthfully, I\u2019ve placed a lot of value in practice-based learning because of how much change and uncertainty we\u2019ve endured in the last year. While the classroom material is important, the most grounded lessons have come from witnessing the transformation, pivoting, and survival that\u2019s happening in real time. Public health is in flux right now, and what I\u2019m taking from the classroom is largely how to critically assess the strengths and limitations of a system and to be creative in leveraging all the assets possible to stay in motion \u2013 it\u2019s not only as an act of collective survival, but it\u2019s also a lesson in the practice of flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaila:<\/strong> My experiences as an MCH student have made me more intentional with how I approach public health work and experiences. I came into grad school knowing that I wanted to work in women\u2019s health and had interest in several topics. However, as I went through different courses, research experiences, and collaborative spaces, I was able to narrow down my interests and be intentional about the organizations I volunteer with and topics I choose for projects, in order to help me understand an issue that I would like to work on once I finish my graduate degree. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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