INVITED SPEAKERS
Lindsay Kennedy Admon, MD, MSc
Dr. Admon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan and obstetrician-gynecologist whose research focuses on addressing racial and ethnic disparities in maternity care and understanding how insurance coverage influences maternal and child health outcomes. Dr. Admon is an Associate Director of the Health Policy & Economics Pathway of Excellence at the University of Michigan Medical School and serves on the University of Michigan's Faculty Senate.
Diana Barnes, PsyD, LMFT, PMH-C
Diana Barnes is an internationally recognized expert in the field of women’s reproductive mental health. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders that occur around the child bearing years. A frequently interviewed consultant to the media as well as a trainer and presenter on all facets of perinatal depression, Dr. Barnes is the editor of “Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan ” Springer, 2014″ to which she has also contributed the chapter on “The Psychological Gestation of Motherhood”. She is also co-author of “The Journey to Parenthood: Myths, Reality and What Really Matters.” She has written a training manual for clinicians and childbirth educators – Transition to Parenthood- A course for expectant parents. She was a contributing writer to the updated guidelines for the Perinatal Advisory Council of Los Angeles County, in which she wrote a section on “The appropriate guidelines for assessment and treatment of perinatal mood disorders.” Dr. Barnes has also written three home study courses on various facets of perinatal mood disorders for Western Schools in Brockton, Massachusetts. Her work on perinatal illness has been published in a number of academic journals, including the Journal of Systemic Therapies, the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, the Psychotherapy Networker and the California Therapist. In 2005, she wrote the forward for “Eyes without Sparkle” by Elaine Hanzek.
Carrie Bell, MD
Dr. Carrie Bell is an Associate Clinical Professor, a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan. She has clinical interests in postpartum care, hormonal transitions, and surgery. She has been working on improving the postpartum care offered at Michigan Medicine.
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Jacquelyn Campbell is Professor and Anna D. Wolf Chair at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Dr. Campbell’s major area of research is violence against women and associated physical and mental health outcomes. Theser include intimate partner homicide including pregnancy associated death from homicide, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, PTSD, depression and abuse during pregnancy. She developed and tested the Danger Assessment risk of DV lethality instrument and collaborated on evaluating interventions based on it, interventions that can help end health and mortality inequities for marginalized women. Dr. Campbell has conducted more than 12 major research studies in collaboration with DV advocates and other interdisciplinary scholars and has authored more than 300 publications and seven books. She has been on the Board of Directors of 5 DV advocacy organizations, is currently on the Board of Directors of Futures without Violence and has been involved with multiple policy initiatives.
Ebony Carter, MD, MPH
Dr. Ebony Carter is a tenured Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Clinical Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine. She practices Maternal Fetal Medicine and serves as Associate Editor for Equity at Obstetrics & Gynecology (the Green Journal). Her research focuses on group prenatal care, as a tool to promote health equity, and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Carter earned her undergraduate degree in human biology with honors from Stanford University, Master of Public Health in health policy from the University of Michigan, and medical degree from Duke University. She completed residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harvard integrated program at Brigham and Women’s/Massachusetts General Hospitals and fellowship training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine.
Vanessa Dalton, MD, MPH
Dr. Dalton is a Professor, the Associate Chair for Research, and the Co-Director of the Gynecology Division at the University of Michigan’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is also the Director of the Program on Women’s Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PWHER) and the Co-Director of the Family Planning Fellowship Program. Dr. Dalton is a health services researcher focused on increasing value in women’s health and health care through research on health service delivery and value-based insurance design, family planning and contraception, access to care, healthcare utilization, and human rights.
Sharon Dekel, PhD
Dr. Sharon Dekel is Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Psychiatry Department at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Postpartum Traumatic Stress Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her scientific work on characterizing childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD).
C. Neill Epperson, MD, PhD
Dr. C. Neill Epperson is Professor and the Robert Freedman Endowed Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine-Anschutz Medical Campus (CU-AMC) where she is also the Executive Director of the Helen E. and Arthur Johnson Depression Center. Dr. Epperson is internationally known for her unique lifespan approach to women’s reproductive and behavioral health in her clinical, teaching, leadership and scholarly endeavors. She is also a productive mentor and independent investigator with more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts.
Dee Fenner, MD
Dr. Dee Fenner is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Bates Professor of Diseases of Women and Children at the University of Michigan. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Urology. She is an expert in female pelvic floor dysfunction and is nationally recognized as an expert in defecation disorders, surgical education, and reconstructive surgery. She has received research funds from the NIH and published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapter.
Robert F. Flora, MD, MBA, MPH
Dr. Robert Flora is currently the Chief Academic Officer/ VP of Academic Affairs. He serves as ACOG Michigan Section Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Officer. He is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology plus Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery (FPMRS). He completed a patient safety fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Flora also has/had board certification in quality improvement, patient safety, public health, healthcare management, and as a physician executive. Prior to moving to Michigan, he served as ACOG Ohio Chair and PSQI (Patient Safety & Quality Improvement) officer. He helped lead the development of the Ohio Collaborative on Preventing Infant Mortality.
Pamela Geller, PhD
Dr. Pamela Geller is an associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, and research associate professor of obstetrics/gynecology in Drexel’s College of Medicine. Geller has studied women’s health issues for over 25 years. She received her MS and PhD in clinical psychology from Kent State University and completed a NIH postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. Her work focuses on the psychological aspects of events surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, and postpartum depression. Geller is co-founder and co-director of Mother Baby Connections, an intensive outpatient mental health program at Drexel for pregnant and postpartum women experiencing anxiety and depression and their infants. With a visiting professorship in neonatology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she and her colleagues are addressing the experiences of mothers with an infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with ongoing projects relevant to parental distress and adjustment, and nurse education. Geller is an active member of an interdisciplinary National Perinatal Association work group that developed guidelines for psychosocial support services for NICU parents. She chairs the Perinatal Loss Exam Development Committee for the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (formerly National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses).
Melissa Goslawski, MD, MS
Dr. Melissa Goslawski is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL, and current Reproductive Psychiatry Fellow at the Asher Center at Northwestern University. Upon graduation, she will be Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Director of the SANE Program, and Medical Director of Women’s Behavioral Health through the College of Medicine and Hospital Systems at University of Southern Alabama. She has learned and practices Written Exposure Therapy in her current role as a fellow in the Asher Center, and does research in the field of post-traumatic stress disorder and its impact on maternal and fetal outcomes.
Adrienne Griffen, MPP
Adrienne Griffen is an advocate and subject matter expert in maternal mental health. Adrienne has lived experience with postpartum depression, which fuels her commitment to changing the landscape of maternal mental health: she started as a volunteer with Postpartum Support International, then launched and ran Postpartum Support Virginia for 10 years, and now serves as the Executive Director of Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, advocating for national policy around maternal mental health. Adrienne has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated from the United States Naval Academy.
Stephanie Hall, MPH
Stephanie Hall is a graduate student who uses insurance claims and survey data to study perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) diagnosis and treatment rates. Stephanie aims to develop strategies that will help health care systems better support maternal mental health and assuage social determinants of health. Her research interests include perinatal health disparities, data standards in maternal mental health, and health policy. Stephanie received a Masters of Public Health from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelors of Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan.
Margaret Howard, PhD
Margaret Howard is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Medicine, Clinician Educator, at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Howard is Division Director for Women’s Behavioral Health and Executive Director for Women’s Mental Health for Care New England. Dr. Howard and her team established the nation’s first Mother-Baby Perinatal Psychiatric Partial Hospital at Women & Infants Hospital (WIH) in Providence RI. For over 2 decades, she has focused exclusively on the treatment of perinatal women. Dr. Howard has extensive experience in the implementation of psychiatric outpatient and partial hospital specialty programs focusing on women’s mental health and has published, taught, and lectured nationally and internationally on the topic of perinatal psychiatric disorders. She is the recipient of awards recognizing her unique contribution to the field of perinatal mental health. Her clinical and research interests include perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, mother-infant attachment, state-wide teleconsultation access, and novel and integrated treatment approaches for perinatal women.
Alytia Levendosky, PhD
Alytia Levendosky is a clinical psychologist and a full professor in the Clinical Science Area of the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. Over the course of her career, she has been primarily focused on understanding how the particular risk factor of intimate partner violence affects mothers, children, and the mother-child dyad. The body of her work with her collaborators demonstrates that prenatal exposure to intimate partner violence and other stressors has psychological and physiological effects on women, which influence parenting and children’s functioning. More specifically, she has contributed to the field in understanding how prenatal stress of IPV uniquely affects women’s prenatal representations of their children, later associated with both parenting and child attachment, as well as how prenatal stress affects the physiological stress reactivity of infants, presumably through the maternal physiological stress reactivity changes during pregnancy.
Emily Miller, MD
Dr. Miller's professional training is as an obstetrician and maternal-fetal medicine physician. She has an expertise in obstetric and perinatal outcomes related to perinatal mental health disorders and has dedicated her career to optimizing the treatment of perinatal depression. She serves on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist’s (ACOG’s) “Maternal Mental Health Expert Work Group” and developed a consensus statement to guide care provision for perinatal depression and anxiety. She has received the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine’s Health Policy Award to examine gaps in healthcare services related to perinatal mental health. Finally, in recognizing health services gaps in perinatal mental health care, she challenged the paradigm of our current obstetric model of perinatal depression care and received a large philanthropic grant to develop and implement a collaborative care model for perinatal depression support, COMPASS, at Northwestern University. She is the PI for an NIMH-funded R34 to evaluate the use of technology to support perinatal collaborative care. She is also the PI for an NICHD-funded R01 to evaluate a digital mental health intervention designed to support new families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maria Muzik, MD, MS
Dr. Muzik is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology at Michigan Medicine. Her work focuses on the impact of stress, trauma and mental illness in the context of childbearing on caregiving and the developing parent-child relationship, and how to support families in overcoming psychological and environmental adversity. She serves as Principal or Co-Investigator on multiple projects funded by the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services-Administration for Children and Families, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in Michigan. She holds a doctorate in Medicine and master’s degree in Public Health, and serve as the Medical Director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program at Michigan Medicine in charge of perinatal clinical care delivery both within psychiatry as well as integrated within obstetrics, family medicine and pediatrics. Additionally, she is the medical director for MC3 Perinatal, a state-wide perinatal access program to primary care, public health nursing, community mental health and other health providers. She is the co-director of Zero To Thrive, a multidisciplinary initiative at the University of Michigan focused on promoting science, increasing public awareness, and developing and implementing programs and services to buffer risks and enhance resilience in young children under the age of 5. Within the scope of this work she has co-developed the Strong Roots Curricula, a series of interventions for parents and other caregivers to foster caregivers’ reflective capacity and enhance their sensitive caregiving, and ultimately, to benefit the wellness and health of young children. In 2018, she has co-edited the book Motherhood in the Face of Trauma: Pathways Towards Healing and Growth (Springer, 2018). Dr. Muzik is highly published with over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Lauren M. Osborne, MD
Dr. Lauren Osborne is Director of the Center for Women’s Reproductive Mental Health and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she also directs a postdoctoral fellowship program in reproductive psychiatry. She is an expert on the diagnosis and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy, the postpartum, the premenstrual period, and perimenopause. She conducts research on the biological mechanisms of perinatal mental illness, with a focus on neurosteroids and the immune system, and is the chair of a national task force working to create standards for education in reproductive psychiatry. Her work is supported by the Brain and Behavior Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and the NIMH.
Noy Phimphasone-Brady, PhD
Phoutdavone “Noy” Phimphasone-Brady, PhD (preferred name Noy; preferred pronoun she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. She is currently a K12 Scholar with the NIH-funded Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Program through the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research. As a licensed clinical health psychologist, her expertise is in the area of women’s health and mental health in integrated care settings, specifically reproductive health, polycystic ovarian syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and weight management. As an integrated psychologist-researcher, her program of research seeks to understand and address 1) sex and gender differences in the development of mental illness in chronic medical conditions, and 2) individual, system, and cultural level determinants to the implementation, adaptation, and sustainability of mental health interventions for chronic disease management, especially for women of color.
Stephen M. Scott, MD, MPH
Dr. Stephen Scott is an obstetrician and an Associate Professor in the departments of Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He holds the Endowed Chair for Perinatal Mental Health within the Department of Ob/Gyn. He is the director of the Colorado Adolescent Maternity Program providing psychosocial support to pregnant and parenting teens. He is the Associate Director of the PROMISE clinic, a multidisciplinary, integrated perinatal mental health program for antenatal and postpartum women receiving care at the University of Colorado Hospital.
Denise M. Sloan, PhD
Denise Sloan is the Associate Director, Behavioral Science Division, National Center for PTSD and a Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine. She is an expert on psychosocial interventions for traumatic stress disorders and has a specific interest in efficient treatment approaches for PTSD. She has conducted a series of studies that lead to the development of Written Exposure Therapy and has conducted multiple studies examining the effectiveness of this treatment. Dr. Sloan has published over 150 scientific articles and has received funding for her work from several organizations, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute for Mental Health, Department of Defense. Dr. Sloan is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Traumatic Stress and a consulting editor for six scientific journals.
Navy Spiecker, MS
Navy C. Spiecker is a Behavioral Research Coordinator at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago in the Potocsnak Family Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine. She conducts and manages research regarding the effects of pubertal suppression and gender development on neurocognitive, social, and mental health outcomes in transgender and gender diverse youth. Navy received her Master's in Psychology from Drexel University in 2021, and is a recent alum of the Geller Women's Health Psychology laboratory. While in the Geller lab, she studied the experience of sexual and gender minority groups in fertility care. Her research interests center around healthcare outcomes and intervention for LGBTQIA+ populations.
Karen Tabb Dina, PhD
Dr. Tabb Dine is Associate Professor in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Social Work. Her research agenda focuses identifying risk factors for morbidity and mortality among perinatal women and clinical factors to improve minority health. In addition to research activities, she also serves on the State of Illinois Maternal Mortality Review Committee for Violent Deaths.
Leseliey Welch, MPH, MBA
Leseliey Welch is a public health leader with a business mind and a visionary heart, holding love as a guiding value, a way of being, an action and a politic. She is Co-founder of Birth Detroit and Birth Center Equity, a mom and a tireless advocate for work that makes communities stronger, healthier and more free. Leseliey leads a team of birth workers, birth advocates and community leaders planning Detroit’s first freestanding community birth center Birth Detroit and is proud of the launch of Birth Center Equity to grow and sustain birth centers led by Black, Indigenous and people of color across the country. Leseliey has nearly two decades of leadership experience in city, state and national health organizations. She earned her undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies, Master of Public Health with a certificate in Women’s and Reproductive Health, and Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Katherine L. Wisner, MD, MS
Dr. Katherine Wisner obtained her M.S. in Nutrition and an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, followed by a categorical pediatric internship and general and child psychiatry residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, fellowships in Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University and in biomedical ethics at Northwestern University, and the Physician Leadership and Management Program at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Wisner is board-certified in general and child and adolescent psychiatry. Dr. Wisner is a pioneer in perinatal psychiatry. Her research has advanced our understanding of the natural history of mood disorders across childbearing, benefit-harm decision-making for pharmacotherapy during pregnancy and lactation, and the pharmacokinetics of medications across pregnancy and lactation. She is internationally recognized as an expert in the treatment of mood disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Dr. Wisner has received over $22 million from NIH across her career, and has 255 peer-reviewed publications (h-index=63) and 21 book chapters. Her work has been cited by authors in more than 90 countries.
Amanda Yeaton-Massey, MD
Dr. Amanda Yeaton-Massey is an Assistant Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and Medical Director of Perinatal Mental Health. Dr Yeaton-Massey graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a major in History and a minor in Anthropology followed by a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Mills College. She received her MD at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), then went on to complete a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology followed by a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Stanford University.
After her own experience with perinatal depression, Dr. Yeaton-Massey redirected her academic and clinical focus to increasing awareness and improving the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders in the perinatal period. Since joining the faculty at UCSF, she has expanded perinatal mental health services including developing and implementing the Collaborative Care Obstetric Resource Program (CORP), which serves perinatal patients with mild to moderate anxiety and depression within the obstetric clinic. In addition, she is the curriculum development co-lead on the effort to adapt the National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry (NCRP) for Ob-Gyn trainees (NCRPxOB).
Kimbery Yonkers, MD
Dr. Kimberly Yonkers is the Katz Family Chair of Psychiatry at UMass Medical School/UMass Memorial Medical Center. As a physician scientist, she has conducted numerous studies supported by the NIH. These projects focus on exploring optimal ways to identify, engage and treat mood disorders and substance use disorders in women. Dr. Yonkers is an active educator and mentor. She is author of more than 130 peer reviewed publications, 26 chapters and 2 edited books.
Kara Zivin, PhD, MS, MA, MFA
Dr. Zivin is a Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan, Research Career Scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Center for Clinical Management Research (CCMR), and Senior Health Researcher at Mathematica.Dr. Zivin is a health services and policy researcher who uses social science and public health tools to improve health and functional outcomes for vulnerable populations with mental health and substance use disorders (behavioral health conditions), including pregnant and postpartum women, Veterans, and older adults. Dr. Zivin aims to increase public awareness about and influence policy addressing behavioral health conditions by combining research expertise (data) and personal narrative (story).