PNQIN Spring 2024 Summit

Allison Bryant Mantha, MD is the Associate Chief Health Equity Officer for the Mass General Brigham integrated health system, developing and enacting MGB’s United Against Racism campaign and its Health Equity Roadmap. She received degrees in biology, public health and medicine from Harvard University, where she also completed training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowships in Maternal Fetal Medicine and Minority Health Policy. Dr. Bryant serves as a member of several regional and national women’s health efforts; among them, the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which she chairs, ACOG’s Clinical Consensus – OB Committee, for which she is Vice Chair, and the Program Committee for the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine’s Annual Pregnancy Meeting.

Ginny Combs, MSN, RN, NE-BC is the Nurse Director at Boston Medical Center, overseeing the Postpartum Unit, Lactation Services, and The Baby Cafe at Codman Square Health Center since 2013. With over a decade of leadership in maternal and child health, she has significantly enhanced postpartum care and support for new mothers. Previously, she was a Maternal Newborn Nurse at UMass Memorial Medical Center, where she led initiatives to improve mother-infant care and established emergency response systems for postpartum hemorrhage. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Worcester State University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northeastern University. Her dedication to maternal and child health continues to impact and improve patient care and clinical practices.

Erika (Gaby) Cordova Ramos, MD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and a clinical neonatologist at Boston Medical Center. She uses implementation science methods to design and test implementation strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of low-income families with high-risk infants. Specifically, she investigates the impact of social care interventions on caregiving practices such as breastfeeding, safe sleep, and skin-to-skin contact, as well as family engagement in the NICU.

Stephanie Crawford is a Boston Public School Kindergarten teacher with a masters from Lesley University in Moderate Disabilities and is currently in the Early Childhood doctoral program at UMASS Boston. She owns Belle Joie Doula & Family services and is an active community organizer, trainer, advocate and consultant. Stephanie founded the non-profit Propa City Community Outreach in 2011 to assist mothers impacted by pregnancy loss along with their families and friends. She founded the organization after her son Simeon Jelani was stillborn on February 7, 2011. She named the Grief Support program Team Simeon in honor of her son and gave it the tagline “Because He STILL was BORN”. The success of this initiative led to its expansion to include people of all ages being trained to advocate for positive healing in themselves and in their communities.

Elaine Fitzgerald Lewis, DrPH, MIA, joined the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as the Bureau Director for Family Health and Nutrition in 2021. She brings a broad base of experience including expertise in maternal and child health. She has a committed focus on developing and implementing initiatives to improve the health and well-being of children and families through sustainable and innovative solutions that are grounded in authentic engagement of families with lived experiences. She has extensive experience strategically building consensus and managing partnerships with international and domestic government entities and NGOs, non-profit organizations, and community collaboratives. She has an accomplished management career that reflects over 25 years of experience in operational leadership and team building, optimizing financial and human resources, program design and implementation, grant management, quality improvement, organizational development, and building capacity domestically and internationally. She holds a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) with a focus on maternal and child health from Boston University School of Public Health, where she also serves as an adjunct clinical professor. She earned her Master’s in International Affairs with a concentration in Children’s Rights and Economic Development from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Science in Government from the United States Coast Guard Academy. She is also a U.S. Veteran, having served as an officer in the US Coast Guard. Her and her husband, Keith, live in Sherborn with their daughter Lily.

Molly Fraust-Wylie joined the PNQIN team in January 2024. She brings extensive experience as a NICU Family Advocate & NICU Parent to her role, demonstrating a deep commitment to health equity, family integrated care, maternal health and wellness, reproductive/fertility challenges, loss, and grief. Her approach revolves around healing through shared experiences, storytelling, and amplifying marginalized voices. Molly’s professional background also includes marketing and communication experience. In her PNQIN role, Molly will recruit, hire, and lead five community members with lived expertise for a PNQIN Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC).

Latisha Goullaud is a mother of 3 children in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder. She is also a Parenting and Trauma Trainer with the statewide Moms Do Care Training and Technical Assistance team at the Institute for Health and Recovery funded by SAMHSA, the MA Department of Public Health and BSAS. She has years of experience helping mothers and families find recovery on a path that is most suitable for them. She is an enthusiastic harm reduction advocate that believes in strategies of loving folks and reducing harm and death for people who use drugs. A skillful program developer and strategic planner, Latisha has managed projects such as the Lynn Community Health Center Recovery Council. She is an accomplished public speaker who has spoken on national and local events such as the National Council for Wellbeing and the Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Improvement Network of Massachusetts summits.

Bonnie Glass, MN, RN is a perinatal nurse with forty years of experience including direct patient care, leadership in hospital and ambulatory settings, professional practice development, maternal-newborn program innovations and growth, resolution of serious adverse events and support for perinatal practice through professional organizations, quality initiatives, community initiatives, teaching and research. Ms. Glass was Vice-Chair and then Chair of the Massachusetts Perinatal Quality Collaborative (MPQC) in its founding years, 2011-2015. Since the formation of PNQIN in 2016, she continued perinatal quality improvement work as nurse leader for the MA AIM (Alliance for Improvement in Maternal Health) initiatives on hemorrhage, hypertension, substance use and equity with support from the MA Dept. of Public Health.

Munish Gupta, MD, MMSc, is a staff neonatologist and the Director of Quality Improvement for the Department of Neonatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His academic work focuses on quality improvement and patient safety, including the development of state-based perinatal quality collaboratives and the rigorous use of data for quality improvement. He helped lead PNQIN’s Perinatal Opioid Project from 2017-2022 and continues to support PNQIN as an advisor and member of the Awards Committee.

Emily Herzberg, MD is a Neonatologist in the Division of Newborn Medicine at Mass General for Children and Salem Hospital. She completed her B.S. in human science and medical degree from Georgetown University (GO HOYAS!) and did her Pediatric Residency training at Mass General for Children and her Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at Harvard/Boston Children's Hospital, where she also served as Chief Fellow. She serves as the Neonatal Director for the Fetal-Care Program and the Chief of Neonatology at Salem Hospital, and her primary area of research interest is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Ronald Iverson, MD, MPH, is a general OBGYN at the Boston Medical Center and a PNQIN Obstetric Co-Chair. He is the Vice Chair of Obstetrics and director of quality and safety for the department of OBGYN. He is an Associate Professor in the BU School of Medicine. He has been involved in hospital level QI in his department, implementing obstetric care bundles and participating in hospital wide projects and trainings. He has experience in the use of simulations to build and reinforce quality efforts. He also participated in the development of the AIM “Obstetric Care for Women with Opioid Use Disorder” care bundle measurement process.

Linda Jablonski, APRN worked for 35 years as an OB nurse at the Birthplace at Baystate Franklin Medical Center. In her nursing leadership roles, she led the OB clinical nurse practice team which won state and national recognition for their Listening to Newborns program and comprehensive screening and referral program for perinatal emotional complications. Linda has Co-chaired the Franklin County Perinatal Support Coalition in Franklin County for 14 years whose mission is to provide a safety net to promote optimal perinatal emotional health. The Coalition has been recognized for its work to create EMPOWER, a comprehensive screening and referral program for women/people affected by substance use and is currently the Program Director for Moms Do Care EMPOWER.

Ruth Jacobson-Hardy, MA is the Director of Women and Family Services at the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She was the Western Regional Manager for over 20 years prior to this role. She specializes in promoting collaboration among providers, state agencies, and local resources. She has specialties in the areas of families, women, pregnancy and addiction; treatment of co-occurring disorders, work force development, and building community collaborations for best practices in treatment and recovery. Prior to working for BSAS, she worked for 20 years as an outpatient addictions clinician, clinical supervisor and program manager in Springfield, MA. She ran one of the first day treatment programs in the state for women, specializing in working with pregnant and post-partum women.

Rohan Khazanchi, MD, MPH is a health services researcher, health justice advocate, and internist-pediatrician-in-training. He is a Med-Peds resident in the Harvard combined program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Boston Medical Center. He is also a research affiliate at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, where he studies the health impacts of structural adversity in childhood and adolescence, racial/spatial inequities in access to care, and intersections of structural racism and carceral systems with clinical care, public health, and health policy. Along with Dr. Heather Hsu, he is leading a multidisciplinary team in using quasi-experimental methods to evaluate the short and long-term impacts of a 2021 Boston Medical Center clinical practice guideline on prenatal/postpartum care and Child Protective Services reporting for substance-exposed newborns and their birthing parents.

Divya Kumar, LICSW, ScM, PMH-C is a South Asian-American psychotherapist with a public health background who specializes in perinatal mental health, trauma, and the life transitions related to pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Before becoming a therapist, Divya's work focused on connecting clinical services with public health by addressing unmet needs in direct perinatal mental healthcare and the structure and delivery of perinatal support services. Divya is a Co-Founder of the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color, a Board Member of the Massachusetts Chapter of PSI, and a Commissioner on the Ellen Story Commission for Postpartum Depression.

Elysia Larson, ScD, MPH, is a researcher in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on interventions and policies at the intersection of the health system and the community. Her work aims to improve equity in experiences and outcomes during pregnancy and the postpartum periods. Dr. Larson founded and co-leads the Supportive Birth Collaborative at BIDMC. The collaborative consists of doulas, nurses, social workers, obstetricians, anesthesiologists, researchers, and patients who work together to identify, implement, and evaluate interventions to improve patient experiences and health outcomes. Dr. Larson also leads several implementation science studies that focus on equity and/or perinatal mental health.

Jennifer Lee, MD, MS is a Neonatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Beverly Hospital. She is the Associate Director of the Special Care Nursery at Beverly Hospital and an Instructor of Pediatrics, part time, at Harvard Medical School. She attended medical school at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed both her Pediatric Residency and Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship training at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research at the Tufts University Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. Her areas of interest include quality improvement in the community setting, and she has led improvement initiatives in improving the care of babies and families with substance use disorder, encouraging family engagement with a Books for Babies program, and screening for social determinants of health in the special care nursery.

Kristie Leeman, MD is an accomplished neonatologist with over fifteen years of experience providing neonatal care and is PNQIN’s Neonatal Co-Chair. Currently serving as the Associate Medical Director of the Boston Children’s Hospital NICU and Director of Quality for the Division of Newborn Medicine at BCH, Kristie’s commitment to quality improvement and safety has been evident throughout her career. She leads a team focused on improving the safety and quality of care provided to critically ill newborns as the Director of Quality for Newborn Medicine. Kristie is also dedicated to trainee education and serve as the Program Director of the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program and Co-Director of the Harvard Newborn Medicine Summer Student Research Program.

Kiame Mahaniah, MD, MPH is Undersecretary for Health in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Before joining the Healey-Driscoll administration, Dr. Kiame Mahaniah served as CEO of the Lynn Community Health Center, where he led the transition into value-based care. He is a practicing physician in the field of addiction and primary care and has a passion for social justice. An avid teacher and committed mentor, he is an Assistant Professor in the Family Medicine department of the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Kiame Mahaniah is dedicated pescatarian, and is particularly interested in the intersection of food, wellness and the immune system.

Melissa Maitland, LCSW is Mass General Hospital's HOPE Clinic Perinatal and Family Mental Health Specialist. She received her BSW and MSW at Salem State University. She started her career in Early Intervention. It was during this time that Melissa grew passion for supporting and advocating mothers with substance use disorder. A seasoned social worker with extensive knowledge and experience in supporting women with substance use disorder. She has committed her career to helping individuals, families, and communities understand mental health and substance use disorder. As well as the potential impacts to their children. 

Audra R. Meadows, MD, MPH is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD). Dr. Meadows completed training in OB/GYN at The Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Meadows is a board-certified, academic specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology, a birth optimizer, and health systems innovator. Dr. Meadows is a founding director of the Massachusetts perinatal quality collaborative, PNQIN MA, where she continues to lead implementation of the Massachusetts AIM Initiative and the PNQIN Maternal Equity Bundle. Dr. Meadows is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to investigate strategies to address maternal quality and birth experiences.

Kassie Merrill Olver, MSW, LICSW, PMH-C is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who is certified in Perinatal Mental Health. She is currently the Social Work Program Manager for the Maternal Fetal Care Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. In addition to her Master of Social Work she completed her fellowship in Infant-Parent Mental Health at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is trained in both Child Parent Psychotherapy and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Over the past fifteen years her work has been focused on supporting families during the perinatal and early childhood period. Her passion is the meaningful integration of infant and perinatal mental health support within medical systems.

Caroline Miklovich, RN is a registered nurse. She strives to integrate values such as autonomy, humanity, justice, and equity into direct care work. Her perspective of birthing and parenting as a transformative period have been informed by her own experiences as a teen mother and through witnessing the wisdom and resiliency of birthing people. She currently works as a staff nurse at the Birthplace at BFMC and the nurse navigator for MDC/EMPOWER, she is a supporter of the labor movement and serves as a union rep for her nursing colleagues.

Leena Mittal, MD, FACLP is the Associate Vice Chair for Diversity Equity and Inclusion and the Chief of the Division of Women's Mental Health at in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mittal also serves as the Medical Director for Equity, SUD and Community Partnerships for the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms (MCPAP for Moms), an innovative statewide consultation service for providers seeing pregnant and postpartum women with mental health and substance use conditions.

Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd is the Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Professor of Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Population & Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School/UMass Memorial Health. She is the founding Obstetric Engagement Liaison of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) for Moms and the obstetric director of Lifeline for Moms. She partners with and advises professional, advocacy, and governmental organizations to advance the equitable care of all pregnant and postpartum individuals. She will be leading PNQIN’s implementation of the AIM Perinatal Mental Health Conditions bundle.

Tierney Morrison, MD is an Instructor in Pediatrics in the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. Her research focus has included the study of management strategies for infants affected by neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) and the mechanisms by which neurobehavioral dysregulation may occur in neonates with prenatal opioid exposure. She has also published several works related to NOWS including a prospective biomarker association study to quantify the chronic stress biomarker hair cortisol in mother-infant dyads with and without prenatal opioid exposure. She is passionate about better understanding the unique mental health needs of NICU parents and transforming the delivery of parental mental health services in the NICU.

Aviel Peaceman, MPH is PNQIN’s Senior Project Manager for Neonatal Initiatives and is an advocate for maternal and child health, driving positive change with PNQIN since 2019. With an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health, specializing in Maternal and Child Health, Aviel brings nearly a decade of experience to her role. Her expertise in project management and quality improvement methodologies is a result of her involvement in numerous maternal and infant QI collaboratives throughout her career. Aviel’s role at PNQIN includes managing operations for the neonatal projects and the Perinatal Opioid Project, as well as contributing to the development and execution of the PNQIN strategic plan.

Mimi Pomerleau, DNP, RNC-OB brings over 30 years of clinical, educational, and leadership experience as a highly skilled and focused nurse and is PNQIN’s Obstetric Co-Chair. She excels in managing and facilitating successful projects, demonstrating a keen focus on the macro level and outcome measurements. Mimi has served AWHONN on their Board of Directors and as President in 2013, and continues her involvement in state-level activities. Mimi has also completed a fellowship in Quality and Safety with the VA and continues to advocate for improvement in maternal and newborn health. Mimi is currently a postpartum staff nurse and lactation consultant at Mass General and is leading the Baby Friendly re-designation at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her three grandchildren.

Christin Price, MD is PNQIN’s Administrative Director and joined PNQIN in March 2022. She is an administrative physician leader with over 9 years of experience driving strategy and implementation of care management and community and public health programs focused on improvement healthcare quality, decreasing costs, and achieving health equity. She has extensive experience with accountable care organizations, substance use disorders, population health management, and community health initiatives. Christin earned her medical degree from Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She completed her internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as an Infectious Disease fellowship.

Leela Sarathy, MD is a board-certified pediatric and newborn hospitalist and Medical Director of Newborn Nursery Services at Mass General for Children. Her academic interests include high-value care, health care equity, and improving the care of dyads affected by substance use disorders. She is a member of the Perinatal Substance Use Research and Advocacy (PRISM) group at MGH and the AAP’s Learning and Implementing Guidelines for Hyperbilirubinemia Management (LIGHT) expert working group.

Josefa Scherer, MPH seeks to find inroads for critical public health approaches in her life and work. She engages with this radical and expansive praxis as a member of her local and regional boards of public health, as a full-spectrum doula, and as part of a working family farm in central Massachusetts. Josefa comes to us today as the Program Manager for the Moms Do Care-EMPOWER program at the Baystate Franklin Medical Center. In this position she provides oversight, supervision and support for program staff and daily operations, working closely with the peer mentor doulas. As program manager, she also engages in regular outreach and training with community partners and works on research and policy projects within BFMC and across MDC sites. 

Davida M. Schiff, MD, MSc is a general academic pediatrician, addiction medicine physician, and health services researcher focused on improving care for families impacted by substance use disorder (SUD). She is the Director of Perinatal and Family-based SUDs Care at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she founded the HOPE Clinic, a multidisciplinary program caring for pregnant and parenting people with substance use disorder and their families from the time of conception through the first two years postpartum.

Michele Schultz, MSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM, CLNC has been in Nursing since 1998, with over 22 years in perinatal health. She has held roles ranging from bedside Nurse, Clinical Nurse Educator, to Nursing Director. She is the OB Nursing Expert for the community outreach education program COMET, holds two NCC certifications in Inpatient Obstetrics and Electronic Fetal Monitoring, and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and AWHONN. Michele works with her team to focus on meeting all patient’s where they are in their healthcare journey to optimize best outcomes for the birthing person, mother, newborn, and family, keeping equitable care delivery as a primary focus. Michele is currently the Director of Nursing for Labor and Delivery, Triage, Antenatal, and the Perinatal Float Pool at Boston Medical Center.

Kim Shapiro is the Director of the Substance Use Unit at the Department of Children and Families of Massachusetts, DCF. She began her social work career 29 years ago as a DCF front line social worker. Once obtaining her MSW, Ms. Shapiro went on to provide in home intensive clinical services to families involved with child welfare, impacted by trauma, domestic violence, and substance misuse. Prior to returning to the Department in 2014, she spent several years in multiple levels of care providing direct clinical services to adolescents, adults and families impacted by substance use disorders, including Inpatient detoxification, acute residential and intensive outpatient services.

Cheryl Slater, MSN-ED, RN, NPD-BC, RNC-NIC is a PNQIN Neonatal Co-chair, and brings a wealth of experience as a neonatal nurse with a strong commitment to neonatal education nationally and globally. With 22 years of experience as a nurse educator in NICUs at Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital, Cheryl has been involved in numerous neonatal quality improvement projects. As a passionate advocate for the care of opioid-exposed newborns, Cheryl’s involvement in projects like Eat, Sleep, and Console at Boston Medical Center reflects her commitment to addressing the unique challenges faced by this vulnerable population. Currently pursuing a DNP PMHNP at Boston College, Cheryl’s academic pursuits align with her desire to contribute to equitable care for opioid-exposed neonates and pregnant individuals.

Amanda Small, RN has been a nurse at MGB for 13 years, and 7 of those have been in the many areas of OB including Antepartum, Postpartum, NICU, and Special Care. She is also a certified lactation consultant (CLC) and very clearly passionate about the many experiences in the world of OB. She has two girls- 2 and 6, and experienced postpartum depression and anxiety with them both. Bringing awareness to families and mothers who have previously, or currently experienced perinatal mental health disorders became more than a passion to her. It became an obligation. An obligation that she is honored to be able to bring light to as part of the Parental Mental Health & Stress in the NICU Panel at today’s summit.

Kara Stires is a Neonatal and Pediatric Dietitian at Boston Medical Center, and has been working in the NICU for the last 12 years. On a personal note, she married her husband Bart in February 2020 and they welcomed their first child, JJ, in May 2021. They welcomed their second child, Annie, in January 2023. Annie was 4 weeks early, delivered due to maternal preeclampsia. Annie experienced respiratory distress after delivery and was taken to the NICU. She then spent 8 days there until they were able to take her home to meet her big brother. She dealt with postpartum anxiety after both kids, however did not realize this until Annie was about 9 months old. She now regularly meets with a therapist who specializes in the postpartum period.

Elise Vanetzian, RN has been a staff nurse for 32 years. She started her career at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston and then moved to MGH where she has been for the past 22 years, on the postpartum unit and the Special Care Nursery. She shares the role of Substance Use Disorder Nurse Champion with Nicole Gerniglia. The role was developed by Dr. Davida Schiff and supported by Nurse Director, Janet Bell, and her staff of nurses on our units. This role was created to address the issues between the inpatient & outpatient care of perinatal and postpartum moms with SUD.

Julyvette Vazquez received her BSW from Bridgewater State and her MSW from Simmons University. Currently, she is working as the lead therapist for an adolescent IOP and providing consulting services for various community organizations. In addition to her social work background, Julyvette is a Reiki practitioner and holistic-focused, always integrating her work as a shame buster and narrative disrupter. With her diverse experience and background, Julyvette brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the panel. Her passion for holistic-focused social work and facilitating clinical groups make her an excellent resource in the field of mental health and substance use.

Kali Vitek, MPH, CCBE joined PNQIN in May 2020. She earned her degree from the Boston University School of Public Health with certificates in Maternal & Child Health and Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation & Evaluation. Kali has participated in several research opportunities related to pregnancy and childbirth and became a Certified Childbirth Educator in December 2023. In her PNQIN role, Kali is primarily responsible for managing the Massachusetts Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) Initiative, which implements statewide patient safety bundles to reduce severe maternal morbidity and mortality. She is passionate about using education, public health frameworks, and quality improvement to help people grow their families safely, joyfully, and equitably.

Amy Walker, CNM is a Certified Nurse Midwife at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She is also the Program Director for New Beginnings, a group and individual prenatal and postpartum program supporting pregnant and postpartum patients in recovery from substance use disorder at Cooley Dickinson. Amy is currently the Obstetric Co-Lead for the Perinatal Opioid Project at PNQIN.