SPH Reads: Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta

Debra Bingham DrPH, RN, FAAN is the Chief Executive Officer for the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement (PQI), perinatal consultant, and a retired Associate Professor of Healthcare Quality and Safety from the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON). Bingham is working to expand the utilization of implementation science and improvement science theories, frameworks, methods and tools in an effort to eliminate preventable perinatal morbidity and mortality and eliminate perinatal racial disparities. Prior to founding PQI and working at UMSON Bingham was the first executive director of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) where she helped create and launch programs that contributed to a 50% reduction in maternal mortality in the state of CA including the first Obstetric Hemorrhage and Elimination of Elective Deliveries Prior to 39 Weeks toolkits.  She then went on to become a Vice President at the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) where she co-developed and led the Post-Partum Hemorrhage Project, the Postbirth Warning Signs Program, and the Maternal Fetal Index. In 2015 she was awarded AWHONN’s Caring Award. At UMSON she was the principal investigator of the Advancing Implementation Science (AdvISE) grant funded by the Maryland Commission of Higher Education. The AdvISE grant expanded the utilization of improvement science theories frameworks, models, and QI methods and tools within UMSON’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) curriculum. While she worked at UMSON over 500 DNP students benefited from her expertise. In addition, the education she provided to over 100 faculty who taught in DNP courses at UMSON and other university sustains and expands Bingham’s impact and legacy. At PQI Bingham developed, co-authored, and launched the SPEAK UP Against Racism Action Pathway that includes Implicit and Explicit Racial Bias Education (live virtual education and on-demand modules). Over 1200 individuals have completed the SPEAK UP Champion education. She also created and taught PQI’s Implementing Perinatal Quality Improvement course, and co-authored and launched the innovative Intermittent Auscultation Simulation-Based on-line education. Bingham also provides consultation to various types of organizations. For example, she has consulted for organizations such as state departments of health, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, schools of nursing, and the March of Dimes. She has been quoted in newspapers such as The New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, and the Associated Press. She has been interviewed on NPR by Renee Montagne, on Studio 1A, and on Katie Couric’s podcast Next Question. She also lends her expertise by serving as a member of national expert panels. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and toolkits. She and her husband are the proud parents of four children, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Dr. Cozier is an investigator on the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS) and the BWHS Sarcoidosis Study at the Slone Epidemiology Center. Her research interests include social and genetic determinants of health in African-American women — specifically, the influence of psychosocial stressors (e.g., racism, neighborhood socioeconomic status), and genetics in the development of cancer, cardiometabolic, and immune-mediated diseases (sarcoidosis, lupus). Additional research interests include oral health, and the role that religiosity/spirituality and the faith community, particularly the black church, plays in health promotion/disease prevention in the Black community.

Sarah Gordon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health where she co-directs the BU Medicaid Policy Lab. She is a health services researcher with expertise in health insurance, access to care, and Medicaid policy. She applies econometric and causal inference-based methods to assess the impacts of state-level health care policies on low-income populations. She has experience merging and analyzing multiple state all payer claims databases and national Medicaid claims to conduct cross-state policy comparisons. She is Principal Investigator of a K01 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health studying the effects of postpartum Medicaid policies on maternal mental health care. She is a faculty advisor of the Medicaid Data Learning Network, a national consortium of Medicaid data users. From 2021-2024, she served as a senior advisor on health policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award from AcademyHealth and her work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and PBS. She received her doctorate in Health Services Research (health economics track) from the Brown University School of Public Health and an MS in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Nicole Huberfeld is Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at BU School of Law and School of Public Health, where she is Chair of BU Health Law Program and Co-Director of BU Program on Reproductive Justice. Her research studies the intersection of health law and constitutional law, often focusing on federalism while studying the needs of vulnerable populations in health reform, Medicaid, and reproductive rights. She is co-author of two leading health law casebooks: The Law of American Health Care, with Elizabeth Weeks (University of Georgia School of Law), Kevin Outterson (Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Law, Executive Director of CARB-X), and Matt Lawrence (Associate Professor of Law at Emory School of Law) (3d edition 2023). She also is coauthor of Public Health Law, 3d Ed. (with Mariner, Annas & Ulrich, 2019) (4th edition forthcoming 2025). She has authored many book chapters, national and international law journal articles, peer-reviewed articles, and commentaries, appearing in publications such as Stanford Law Review, Harvard Law & Policy Review, Boston College Law Review, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics, University of Chicago Law Review, Boston University Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, U.C. Davis Law Review, Health Affairs, JAMA, and New England Journal of Medicine. Her work has been cited in judicial opinions by the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal courts, state courts, and federal and state executive agencies. Nicole also serves as Research Director for the Uniform Law Commission’s Joint Editorial Board on Health Law.

She has been interviewed by media such as The Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, Bloomberg News, Congressional Quarterly, Huffington Post, National Law Journal, Mother Jones, Law 360, Politico, Vice News, Newsweek, Time, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and Univision.

In 2019, Huberfeld won the Excellence in Teaching Award for teaching in the Core at BU School of Public Health. In 2021, she was nominated for the Melton Teaching Award at BU Law, and in 2022, 2023, & 2024 she was nominated for the Petit Teaching Award at BU Law.

Prior to joining the BU faculty, Huberfeld taught courses on constitutional law, health care organizations and finance, bioethical issues in the law, and health law and policy at the University of Kentucky College of Law and College of Medicine. Huberfeld won the College of Law Duncan Teaching Award in 2008. Previously, she taught at Seton Hall University School of Law as well as created and directed the health care compliance certification program at SHU Law. She also practiced health law in New York and New Jersey before entering academia.