Jessica McNeil, MSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM, is Perinatal Educator at Clements University Medical Center at UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX. Jessica McNeil’s professional experience has focused on maternal and infant health. She started her nursing career in a 107-bed level III NICU at Parkland Memorial Hospital, where she had the opportunity to care for some of the sickest babies. After her time there, she transferred to another Dallas area hospital where she worked in labor & delivery, antepartum, and continued to care for babies. In 2015 Jessica had the honor of being selected as an AWHONN (Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses) Emerging Leader and in 2016 was the National AWHONN Conference Host Committee Chair. Having previously served in positions ranging from charge nurse to women’s services manager, Jessica currently works as the perinatal educator at UT Southwestern Medical Center, as well as an adjunct clinical faculty member at Baylor University. In addition to her work, she is the current chair of the DFW chapter of AWHONN and the secretary-treasurer of the Texas AWHONN section, as well as an ACOG maternal levels of care surveyor. She also served as a contributing author to the 7th edition of Foundations of Maternal-Newborn AND Women’s Health Nursing. Jessica has a passion for improving maternal and infant morbidity and mortality and she seeks to improve outcomes through social change. Through inter-professional collaboration, evidence-based practice, standardization of care and through the confrontation of our implicit biases, she truly believes we can end maternal mortality. Jessica attended Texas Christian University and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2008 and her master’s in nursing education at Walden University in 2013. She currently holds national certifications in both inpatient obstetrics and electronic fetal monitoring and is in the process of obtaining her DNP from Texas Tech University.

 

Carla Rider, DNP, MBA, RNC-LRN, is the Chief Nursing Officer for Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

As the first perinatal program director for Texas Perinatal Services, a division of Texas EMS Trauma and Acute Care Foundation (TETAF). She was responsible for developing verification survey processes to ensure adherence to the Texas Administrative Code for neonatal and maternal levels of care for Texas hospitals. Dr. Rider has worked with legislators in both Texas and Arkansas to provide nursing input for bills on Critical Congenital Heart Defect screening, 39 week early elective deliveries and Neonatal and Maternal Levels of Care. Carla is currently a neonatal verification surveyor for the American Academy of Pediatrics.She has 30 years of experience in nursing, nurse leadership positions in women’s and children’s nursing and hospital systems. During this time, she has developed and implemented a number of protocols and initiatives that have resulted in improved patient outcomes and enhanced staff development for which she received various awards. Some of these honors include the AWHONN Award of Excellence in Practice, Patriotic Employer Award from the Department of Defense, National Association of Neonatal Nursing Leadership Award, Nurse Week Nurse Excellence Award in Management, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Early Elective Delivery Improvement and Exclusive Breastfeeding Improvement Award. With an overwhelming desire to improve maternal and infant mortality, Carla has participated on many committees and boards focused on improving access and quality in maternal and neonatal healthcare. She has served as AWHONN’s Pensacola Florida Chapter Coordinator, Northwest Arkansas Infant and Death Review Program Team Director and on the Executive Leadership Team for March of Dimes. Carla has participated in Sigma, Honor Society of Nursing’s Maternal Child Health Nurse Leadership Academy since 2012, and from 2016 as Lead Faculty Advisor. Additionally, she was an active member of the Texas Nurses Association Maternal Mortality Task Force. Carla earned her undergraduate degree in nursing from Texas Women’s University in Denton/Dallas. She also holds a master’s in nursing degree from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix in Dallas, Texas. In July 2017, Carla obtained a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of South Alabama.  

 

Peter S. Bernstein, MD, MPH, is the System Director for Obstetrics and Vice Chair for Obstetric Safety and Quality at Mount Sinai Health System in New York.  He is the former Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division Director Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the past Director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program there. He did his training in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale-New Haven Hospital and his clinical fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  He has also completed a Master of Public Health degree at Columbia University.

Dr. Bernstein’s clinical and research interests concern improving systems of care for women, particularly those who are underserved and medical complicated.  His main area of focus has been the development of a comprehensive patient safety program that includes team training, medical simulation, and systems redesign.  Other areas of focus of his include redesigning prenatal care from rethinking preconception care, the implementation and promotion of group prenatal care (Centering Pregnancy) and redesigning postpartum care. As a result of his work locally and nationally, Dr. Bernstein served on the Board of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, chaired both the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Committee and the Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Healthcare, and currently co-chairs the District II ACOG Safe Motherhood Initiative.

Robyn D’Oria, MA, RNC, APN, has over 30 years of experience in maternal child health nursing in a variety of roles including Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and Director of Women’s and Children’s Services, with faculty of pediatric and maternal child health nursing. Currently she is the Executive Director of the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium (CJFHC). Ms. D’Oria is the New Jersey Section Chair for the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, a member of the Expert Panel on Maternal Mortality, and the state lead for the implementation of the AWHONN Postpartum Hemorrhage Project. She currently serves as co-chair of the Statewide Perinatal Safety Collaborative. In addition, Ms. D’Oria is a member of the steering committee through the American College of Obstetrician/Gynecologists for the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) and is the lead facilitator of the remaining AIM Workgroup bundles – Reducing Peripartum Racial Disparities, Postpartum Care Basics for Maternal Safety and Obstetric Management of Women with Opioid Dependence.

 

Zola D. Golub, M.Ed., RN, IBCLC has more than 35 years of experience as a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit staff nurse, perinatal clinical nurse specialist and nurse educator. In these roles she has guided successful efforts to improve perinatal nursing care.She has a BA in philosophy from Barnard College, a BSN from Cornell University, and a M.Ed. in nursing education from Teacher's College, Columbia University.

Combining a life-long interest in caring with an academic background in philosophy, Zola's nursing practice has always included attention to nursing ethics.  She has been a member of the ethics committee in each hospital where she worked, Chairperson Council on Ethical Practice, New York State Nurses Association (1987-1990), Chair, Committee on Ethics, AWHONN (1994-1996), and Co-Chair of AWHONN's Expert Panel on Women's Health and Perinatal Nursing Care Quality Measures. Now retired, she volunteers as a nursing education consultant with special expertise in nursing ethics and lactation consultation.

 

Miranda Klassen is the Executive Director of the Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE) Foundation, a non-profit advocacy and research organization she founded in 2008 after nearly losing her life to an amniotic fluid embolism. She is responsible for defining and implementing the organization’s overall business and marketing strategic plans and is the primary driver in overseeing day-to-day operations. Most notably, Miranda assisted in the development and implementation of the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Registry ™ in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The registry, now the world’s largest database of AFE cases, will allow for future investigations pertaining to the genes and mechanisms associated with AFE.

Previously, Miranda spent 20 years in banking, finance, and business development. Her last position was as San Diego County Credit Union’s Business Development Manager. With a passion for serving the non-profit community, she has served on many boards. Currently, she serves as the patient advocate for board of the national ACOG Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care based in Washington D.C., as well as an Executive Board Member for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC).

Miranda is a frequent speaker, panelist, and lecturer on amniotic fluid embolism and patient advocacy. She is also a contributing author on research articles and most recently the nationally approved safety bundle Patient, Family, and Staff Support after a Severe Maternal Event.  Ms. Klassen has been recognized with several honors and awards for her professional and personal achievements including a feature in the 2016 People Magazine’s Special Edition entitled American Heroes recognizing her dedication and commitment to helping address and combat a leading cause of maternal death and suffering. She earned her BS in Biology from California State University-Sacramento and resides in San Diego, CA with her husband and son.

 

Audra Robertson Meadows, MD, MPH is a Professor and Vice Chair for Culture and Justice in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Meadows is a board-certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and birth optimizer - providing care, championing health equity, and improving health systems for nearly 20 years. Dr. Meadows is nationally recognized for her expertise leading perinatal quality collaborative teams, innovating prenatal care, and developing tools to improve obstetric equity. She is a founding director of the Massachusetts perinatal quality improvement collaborative, PNQIN MA, where she currently leads implementation of the PNQIN Maternal Equity Bundle across hospitals and leads an NIH-funded hybrid effectiveness-implementation study of safety bundles to improve maternal morbidity and inequity. At UCSD, Dr. Meadows is active in clinical practice and research, directs the Equity in Systems Science course for undergraduate medical students, and leads equity and justice initiatives for her department. She enjoys inspiring students and trainees to innovate and optimize health systems having mentored undergraduate and graduate students in public health as well as medical trainees (medical students, residents, fellow) in maternal health equity. Dr. Meadows completed training in OB/GYN at The Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. After residency, she was awarded the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership and received a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health. Recently, she was a 2021 Health Systems Science Scholar of the American Medical Association. 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. Dr. Meadows serves on national boards and professional committees to address maternal health equity and has received national honors and awards for her career accomplishments and community service.

 

Yarden Fraiman (he/him/his) is an attending neonatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He received his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, followed by his medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his Pediatrics training in the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics and Neonatology training in the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Training Program. In addition, he completed his research training in the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship. 

Dr. Fraiman is the Associate Director for Health Equity in the Department of Neonatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and leads clinical health equity improvements as part of the multidisciplinary Health Equity and Justice committee. In addition to his clinical and quality improvement approaches to improving neonatal health equity, Dr. Fraiman is a health services researcher. His research focuses on racial and ethnic inequities in neonatology specifically, the role of modifiable structures and systems in society that continue to uphold neonatal health inequity across the pediatric life-course. His research uses multilevel analytic approaches to understand the many ways racism impacts health. Dr. Fraiman is the Vice Chair of the Neonatal Justice Collaborative and serves as a liaison to the PQI board to further ongoing collaboration to improve neonatal and birthing person equity.