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 experience and the wisdom from the field that each expert brings and also to inspire a new generation of MCH academics.
Dr. Martha Coulter is professor in the Department of Community and Family Health at the USF College of Public Health, maternal and child health has been at the forefront of her public health passion for decades.
Upon earning her master’s degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977, she’s devoted her public health career to bettering the lives of families and children. Coulter also holds a DrPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in maternal and child health. She served as the state program director of the Developmental Evaluation Centers Program at the North Carolina Division of Health Services and as a lecturer at the UNC School of Public Health.
When she moved to Florida in 1985, she joined the COPH as an assistant professor. In 1986 she also served as the health officer for Prevention and Early Intervention at the Florida Department of Health in Children’s Medical Services where she was tasked with implementing the newly passed Public Law 99-457 which provides early intervention services to infants and young children.
In 1994 she was named Director of the USF COPH’s Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, a center focused on integrating knowledge with best practices to strengthen community responses to family violence. The center conducts and translates research into usable information for practitioners to provide education and training, as well as serves as an advocacy center.
Click below to listen to Martha Coulter's story as she responds to five questions.