Welcome to the March edition of Pulse. Spring is right around the corner, and I’m gearing up to gather with you, our partners, and stakeholders at AMCHP’s annual conference, Partnering with Purpose, in Oakland, California. So far, more than 1,000 MCH leaders and thinkers from across the U.S. and all nine U.S.-affiliated jurisdictions have registered to participate in person or virtually.

Less Than Five Weeks Away!

Oakland was selected as the city for this year’s conference so that attendees could soak in its rich and diverse cultural heritage. We feel a kinship with this city because we know how devoted it is to reinforcing social justice. AMCHP partners throughout the Oakland area work tirelessly on behalf of our communities.

The Conference Schedule

Please visit our platform for the full conference schedule, which includes opportunities for networking, 3 inspiring plenary sessions, 68 workshops, 10 skills-building sessions, and 3 round tables, exhibits and sponsor information, and much more!

You don’t want to miss the opening plenary demonstrating the power of youth voice and partnering with purpose as our youth display their poetry, performance, and creative skills. The second plenary will focus on Black maternal health through the lenses of disability and CYSHCN, family leadership, and community engagement. This session will provide perspectives on an initiative that models transformative family and community-led partnerships. The final plenary shares elder perspectives on partnering with purpose and discusses how partnerships can be restorative, healing, and grounded in social justice.

Click here to register for the annual conference.

Linking the Goals of our Partnership Pillar in the AMCHP Strategic Plan with this Year’s Conference Theme

AMCHP’s Strategic Plan partnership pillar emphasizes the need to (1) develop an internal structure for partnership development and relationship management, (2) increase the number of diverse funder relationships and partnerships, (3) increase the number of high-quality relationships with community-based organizations, people with lived experience, thought leaders, and others who can advance our mission and initiatives, and (4) promote our ability to work as a bridge between partners by institutionalizing opportunities for partner-to-partner engagement.

The “Partnering with a Purpose” conference acknowledges that while we are powerful as individuals and organizations, the MCH community’s true strength is magnified through collaboration and pooled resources. When we partner with intentionality and with those who have a common direction and vision, we create greater opportunities to make a positive change in the lives of the families we serve. This year’s conference speakers will cover the gamut of researchers and experts in the MCH field, program directors, leaders from community-based organizations, people with lived experience, thought leaders, and more. The diversity of speakers promises to yield a range of perspectives and thus a fruitful exchange of ideas. We hope the conference sparks the energy we need to invigorate old and cultivate new partnerships now as well as with the next generation of MCH leaders.

Accomplishments in Year 1 of Implementing Our Strategic Plan

 AMCHP is proud of the following accomplishments that occurred in Year 1 of the strategic plan.

• The AMCHP 2023 annual conference, “Cultivating Diverse Leaders in Maternal and Child Health” in New Orleans set a record in number of people attending: 1,000 participated onsite and more than 300 people joined virtually.
• In May, AMCHP, in partnership with the State Adolescent Health Resource Center leadership and the National Network of State Adolescent Health Coordinators, supported the annual convening of adolescent health coordinators in New Orleans. Forty-five participants from 33 states and four jurisdictions attended. Ninety seven percent reported that they learned valuable content relevant to their professional needs.
• Last August, AMCHP cosponsored with funders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and partner organizations, including the National Birth Defects Prevention Network and the March of Dimes, a 5-day conference for the National Birth Defects Prevention Networks, in Atlanta. More than 300 professionals working in birth defects surveillance, research, and advocacy attended. I spoke at the opening plenary on the conference theme “Connect, Share, Collaborate,” and Immediate Past President Belinda Pettiford was a panelist at the second plenary session, “Addressing the Needs of Individuals Living with Birth Defects: The Integral Role of Birth Defects Programs.”
• AMCHP worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration on a robust Federal-State Title V Partnership Meeting in Washington, DC, in November 2024, attended by nearly 500 MCH leaders from around the country.
• We launched the second cohort of the Graduate Student Epidemiology Program (GSEP) with 20 graduate students or recent graduate interns. Of the 14 (out of 20) host site supervisors who completed the program evaluation, 100 percent were satisfied with key aspects of the program, and 93 percent were open to hosting interns in the future. All interns expressed satisfaction with the GSEP experience; each reported a stronger commitment to embarking on an MCH epidemiology career path as a result of their experience in the program. Several recent interns were offered or have accepted positions with other organizations since they completed the program.

About the March Edition of Pulse

AMCHP’s Epidemiology, Evaluation, and Metrics team took the lead on developing this edition of Pulse, which focuses on the Essentials for Moving Data Equity Forward: partner collaboration; quality data collection and analysis; a comprehensive, inclusive needs assessment process; and effective program evaluations. Advancing data equity also requires that we come up with strategies to reverse MCH epidemiologist workforce shortages. We critically need skilled epidemiologists to gather, interpret, and effectively communicate data and lend their expertise to public health and cross-sector partners to plan and evaluate programs. In this issue, Arizona and Puerto Rico describe how they strengthened their needs assessment process via a tailored, community-centric approach garnering insight from the diverse populations they serve. Title V’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program serves as the case study in the article on how to evaluate a program’s effectiveness and sustainability. Also, I encourage you to read the article on the National Survey of Children’s Health Data; it is an excellent resource on health and health-related services among our nation’s children and is useful for informing your state’s planning.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Pulse!