Dr. Rachel Caskey is a board-certified internist and pediatrician and has expertise caring for patients of all ages, with a focused clinical interest in women’s health. She is a health services researcher with experience in clinical trial design and implementation, as well as public health program implementation and analysis. Dr. Caskey has successfully conducted multiple clinical trials, and designed clinical programs, targeting postpartum women. She combined her clinical interest in women’s reproductive health with her public health interest in population health to develop a research platform focused on reproductive health care delivery through scalable system-level interventions. She has studied mechanisms to positively impact receipt of care and family planning behaviors among postpartum women through large health system change, including large randomized trials offering women contraception in conjunction with their infant’s pediatric visit. Dr. Caskey has experience overseeing large implementation projects. She was the Director of Data and Outcomes for the UIC Coordinated Healthcare for Complex Kids (CHECK) program. CHECK was an innovative care coordination and health care delivery program for nearly 6000 families of low-income high-risk youth and young adults. CHECK enrolled more than 17,000 children and young adults, more than 90% were racial/ethnic minorities. She serves on multiple committees at the Chicago Department of Public Health focused on city-wide women’s and children’s health initiatives and serves as an advisor at the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on health promotion efforts.

Dr. Stacie Geller has been a local, national, and international leader in addressing maternal health for over 25 years. She has extensive experience working in maternal health focused on factors associated with maternal morbidity and mortality. She was the Principal Investigator of a CDC/Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPH) cooperative agreement “Investigation of factors associated with maternal mortality” where she developed an innovative model for early identification of high-risk pregnant women. Using this model, Dr. Geller has done extensive work in IL to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Her work has been adopted by the CDC and ACOG and recommended as a best practice for in-depth hospital review across the U.S. Dr. Geller has worked with IDPH to develop the MM and SMM review processes and committees. She is a founding member of both of the state’s MMRCs and co-chairs the SMM review committee. Dr. Geller is involved in a number of policy and program initiatives to improve maternal health care. She oversees a statewide severe maternal morbidity project and a perinatal depression initiative and works closely with the 10 APCs across the state.

Dr. Arden Handler has over 30 years of experience implementing a variety of research and evaluation projects to improve women’s health and reduce racial/ethnic disparities across the reproductive and perinatal continuum. She has conducted a number of studies on women’s access, satisfaction, and utilization of preconception, prenatal, postpartum, and well-woman care and recently completed implementation of the Kellogg funded Well-Woman Project. With Dr. Caskey she has worked over the last six years on a variety of research projects related to postpartum care including testing the feasibility of addressing women’s health issues at the Well-Baby Visit. She is the lead evaluator for the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program and is PI of the evaluation of Family Connects Chicago. She is a former member of the US Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM) and is actively involved in MCH public health practice projects locally and nationally. Through her role as Director of the UIC Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, she has a long standing relationship with the IL Title V/MCH Program as well as state and local MCH programs across the US.

Dr. Anne Elizabeth (Liz) Glassgow is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Department of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Glassgow serves as the Executive Director of Innovations to ImPROve Maternal OuTcomEs in Illinois (I PROMOTE-IL), a Maternal Health Innovation grant funded by the Health Resources & Services Administration. I PROMOTE-IL is a multi-faceted initiative to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in Illinois. Dr. Glassgow is responsible for the operational leadership, oversight, and management of I PROMOTE-IL. Dr. Glassgow also is the Medical Director of the UI Health Two-Generation Clinic, an innovative and comprehensive primary care clinic model for postpartum women and their infants. Prior to her current position, Dr. Glassgow was the Executive Director of Coordinated Healthcare for Complex Kids (CHECK) in the Department of Pediatrics. CHECK was the largest national pediatric payment and comprehensive delivery system model funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center. Dr. Glassgow also was the Project Director of the National Institutes of Health, P60 Center or Excellence in Eliminating Health Cancer Disparities at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at UIC. Dr. Glassgow has more than 25 years of clinical experience, is a Principal- and Co-Investigator on several research projects, and has served in a variety of health care administration and high-level management positions.

Katie Garland, MPH, is the I PROMOTE-IL project coordinator. In this role, she coordinates the project’s multiple activities, communicates with external partners, and assists with the preparation and dissemination of project deliverables. Katie received a Master of Public Health degree in Community Health Sciences with a concentration in Maternal Child Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology. Her research interest is perinatal health, with an emphasis on severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality. Katie is also a Senior Research Specialist at the UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender.

Bianca Harris, BS, is a Health Coach and Doula in the UI Health Two-Generation Clinic. Ms. Harris received her Bachelors in Science with a minor in Community Health from Chicago State University. Ms. Harris is working on her lactation certification and has been instrumental in developing the framework for postnatal care for mothers and infants in the Two-Generation Clinic. Ms. Harris devoted over 10 years of her career to working with vulnerable populations. Recently, Ms. Harris served as a Visiting Research Specialist/ Health Coach on the Mhealth Diabetes Research Project where she worked with patients with diabetes and other comorbidities. Ms. Harris worked with a team to provide diabetes education and did aggressive glucose monitoring in order to promote diabetes self-management while supporting patients with other chronic diseases. Ms. Harris served as a member of Chicago Volunteer Doulas. She is a trained doula and practiced gender appropriation with a focus on supporting minorities during birth. Ms. Harris started a small business called Doula TLC, LLC in order to provide support to pregnant women in the south Chicago land area.

Ms. Holicky serves as the Data Manager for the project and assists with data collection and evaluation to ensure we are meeting our goals. She received her MPH (Master of Public Health) degree in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology from the UIC School of Public Health and has diverse experience in epidemiology, program planning, evaluation and administration in the field of maternal and child health. She has worked at the state-level in Iowa and Florida and most recently at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Abby is a native of Chicago and enjoys cooking, yoga and participating in book club.

Aida Rodriguez is a bilingual Social Worker in the Two Generation clinic assisting patients and families with their social, psychosocial, and environmental needs. Aida received her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree in Mental Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Aida has over ten years of experience working with diverse populations in the Chicago area. Her experience includes working as the Lead Health Coach in the mHealth for Diabetes Adherence Support, a study that uses a team-based model of care to help patients make lifestyle changes in order to reach their health goals and manage their diabetes. Prior to working in this study, Aida worked as the Lead Community Health Promoter in the Health Promoters and Pharmacist in Diabetes Team Management study, the Home INR study, and the Bringing Care to Patients: A Patient-Centered Medical Home for Kidney Disease study. As Community Health Promoter, Aida helped patients improve their quality of life by providing health education, assisting patients in goal setting, identifying barriers to healthcare, and providing resources to overcome those barriers.

Shirley Scott, MS RN-BC, C-EFM, APN, is the Nurse Care Manager for the Innovations to ImPROve Maternal OuTcomEs in Illinois. Shirley has over thirty years of perinatal nursing experience. She currently participates in many city and state committees geared to decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality. Upon completion of her doctorate, she will work as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner in the Two-Generation clinic at UI Health.

Crystal Stevenson is a Health Coach in the UI Health Two-Generation Clinic and participates in several I PROMOTE-IL projects. Ms. Stevenson is a skilled Health Coach who has conducted health and wellness education with targeted populations in community-based and clinical environments. Prior to joining the I-PROMOTE IL team, Ms. Stevenson worked as a Health Coach on the Mhealth Diabetes Adherence Support project, providing diabetes education, support, and assisting adult patients with meeting their goals related to managing diabetes. While at the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM), Ms. Stevenson gained experience working with 6-11 year old asthma patients and their families through her work on the CHICAGO Trial. In this position, she provided education and tools to improve asthma outcomes. While at UCM, she also worked with adult patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure, conducting home visits, and sharing information and tools to improve overall health and to reduce the number of emergency room visits. Before joining the clinical and research realm, Ms. Stevenson provided support to teens who were involved with UCAN TPSN. Ms. Stevenson served as their doula and supported them through the various stages of parenting from prenatal care to three months postpartum.