Email: scblake@emory.edu
Phone: 404-712-9713

Center of Excellence: http://mch.emory.edu/

JIWC-specific areas of expertise: COVID and MCH; Medicaid policy; family planning; substance abuse and maternal and child health

Student opportunities available? Yes

Funding details: No funding available.

What makes you passionate about this work?

“Much of my work focuses on the social determinants of health as they relate to women and children’s health. Women’s experiences with the criminal justice system greatly influence their health and health outcomes in particular. I am passionate about making sure we address these issues as they relate particularly to women at risk for maternal morbidity and mortality.”

What community-engaged JIWC work are you currently doing?

“I serve on the Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which reviews violence related causes of death as well as women’s lifetime experience with the criminal justice system. I also conduct analyses for the CDC on women’s maternal mortality and the related influences of substance abuse and incarceration. Through the Ounce of Prevention, an Illinois organization that focuses on early childhood development, I am advising a group that is offering doula services to JIWC women in a number of Chicago communities.”

What research-practice collaborations are you the most excited to work on?

“I would love to work with MCH and justice organizations in GA and nationally to work on justice-centered, community-based participatory strategies for addressing women’s risks for maternal morbidity and mortality. I am excited to work on improving the health and services that incarcerated pregnant and parenting women receive, while working at the same time to reduce the numbers of women that are incarcerated in prisons, jails and home monitoring. There are numerous specific areas, such as substance use, mental health, prenatal care, maternal mortality and near miss mortality, health injustices that intersect with this.”