As a licensed master social worker (LMSW) and Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) with 16 years working in and adjacent to the public health sector and decades of experience working directly with children and youth, most of my work has focused on health and well-being from the pre-conception and perinatal periods through adolescence. I have led multiple qualitative research projects in the Northwest Arctic focused on perinatal healthcare and breastfeeding. I have led focus groups with youth and adults in Alaskan villages, hub communities, and cities all over Alaska to create community-informed health materials to address domestic and sexual violence. I’ve led additional statewide mixed-methods quality improvement research projects for maternal, child, and youth health, as well as two research and evaluation projects in Anchorage focused on breast cancer patient needs and health literacy. I have led the analysis, report-writing, and presentation for each of these projects, and am first author on an article about the Northwest Arctic work, which has cleared CDC review and is currently in peer review. I have also developed curriculum on trauma-informed perinatal care, have trained multiple women’s health practices, and have presented at midwifery conferences.

I would be delighted to help your agency to design, recruit for, facilitate, and implement research and quality improvement projects or community outreach, and would love to provide training and technical assistance based on your needs. I believe in community-based participatory research and the idea of research and program planning as community empowerment practices, and I love working with parents and children.