This project documents the unique paths of MCH leaders in academe, focused on five key questions. The hope of this project is to preserve these experiences and, the wisdom from the field that each expert brings and also to inspire a new generation of MCH academics.
Dr. Arden Handler is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health and a Professor in the Community Health Sciences division of the UIC School of Public Health. Dr. Handler’s research career reflects her long-standing commitment to improve the health of women, children and families, with specific interests in exploring the factors that increase the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and examining ways in which the health care delivery system, particularly how prenatal care, postpartum care, and preconception/interconception/well-woman care can ameliorate these risks. Other research and teaching interests include maternal and child health advocacy and policy, building the analytic capacity of the MCH workforce (MCH epidemiology), and the structure and functioning of the public health delivery system.
Dr. Handler is a founding Board Member of EverThrive (formerly the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition), co-chair of Illinois’ subcommittee on the Social Determinants of Health as part of the Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (CoIIN), and is a former member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM). She was the 2016 recipient of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s, Vince Hutchins Partnership Award and was a 2021 HRSA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. She is a nationally renowned leader in maternal and child health advocacy, policy, epidemiology, and public health system improvement.
Click below to listen to Dr. Handler's story as she responds to five questions.