February 18th 2010
*Mario Drummonds, MS, LCSW, MBA lectured by conference call to over eighty MCH researchers, clinicians and administrators from the state of Florida on the topic, “ The Role of Interconceptional Care in Reinventing MCH in America,” on February 11th 2010.

*Tamara Wrenn, MA, CCE, CIMT, Senior Practice Matters Consultant is presenting at the National Healthy Start Association’s 11th Annual Spring Conference on March 15th 2010. Her workshop topic is, “Blueprint for Action: Using the Life-Course Perspective to Develop an Interconceptional Care Protocol for Case Managers.”

*Janine Lewis, MPH, PhD (cand.), Senior Practice Matters Consultant has been secured as a guest lecturer at Dr. Vijaya Hogan’s public health department class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on March 30th 2010. Ms. Lewis lecture topic is, “Understanding and Addressing Health Inequalities in the US: Operationalizing a Life Course Approach to MCH Practice.”

*Audra Robertson, MPH, MD, Practice Matters Consultant and Tamara Wrenn, MA, CCE, CIMT, Senior Practice Matters Consultant will co-keynote the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health’s 3rd Annual North Texas Health Forum entitled, “Reducing Infant Mortality in Tarrant County: It’s Time for Action,” on April 8th and 9th, 2010. Dr. Robertson’s keynote theme is, “Infant Mortality can be Reduced: Understanding the Life Course Perspective.” Ms. Wrenn’s keynote topic is, “Infant Mortality can be Reduced: Implementing the Life Course Approach.”

*Julius Dasmarinas, MS, MA, MPhil, PhD (cand.), Evaluation Director, Central Harlem Healthy Start and Practice Matters Consultant is presenting at the National Healthy Start Association’s 11th Annual Spring Conference on March 15th 2010. His presentation explores the nexus of program evaluation and program management by interrogating three linked process-oriented methodologies namely, Quality Improvement, Clinical Monitoring, and Administrative Monitoring, which help meet contractual obligations, improve work processes and participant satisfaction, and build organizational accountability from top to bottom. Couched in the philosophy of ‘data-driven management,’ these approaches use evaluation results to make informed decisions, steer the program towards intended goals, and manage unintended programmatic consequences while democratizing the practice of program evaluation within community-based programs.

*Janine Lewis, MPH, PhD (cand.), Senior Practice Matters Consultant will appear at the Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium Summit on April 27th 2010 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington Delaware. She will present at the morning plenary session on, “Operationalizing Life Course Theory,” and then during an afternoon workshop, she will discuss her work in Wisconsin with the ABCs for Healthy Families.

*Mario Drummonds, Chief Practice Officer will appear at the Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc.’s Cradle of Hope Editorial Board briefing and lecture to the MCH industry in the City of Baltimore on May 21, 2010. His press briefing with the local print and electronic media representatives and lecture to the general public are entitled, “Implementing a Life Course Framework in Baltimore.”

*On Monday, February 15th 2010, Practice Matters Consultant, Phine Simms, MBA and Mario Drummonds submitted a proposal to a senior MCH evaluation social scientist in the South to develop a comprehensive business and marketing plan for her consulting practice. The plan will expand her business from its southern base to become recognized nationally and sell her research methods, public speaking capabilities, clinical screening products and MCH group work and advocacy protocols. Practice Matters will also propose a promotional plan to sell her upcoming book on measuring racism’s impact on African American women’s health and methods to reduce racial disparities in birth outcomes.

*On June 29, 2010, Mario Drummonds, MS, LCSW, MBA and Dr. Michael Lu have been secured by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health to co-keynote their citywide MCH conference focused on, “Implementing Life Course Theory & Practice throughout the City of Philadelphia.”

On May 12th 2010, the Wisconsin Women’s Health Policy Summit: Every Women, Every Age, Every Stage will take place in Madison, Wisconsin. Tamara Wrenn, MA, CCE, CIMT, Senior Practice Matters Consultant has been secured as the keynote speaker. The title of her presentation is, “Raising the Bar: A New Agenda for Women’s Health Using the Life Course Model to Develop Individual and Policy Interventions to Improve Women’s Health Across the Lifespan.

*On March 4th 2010, Mario Drummonds will meet with members of a community coalition in Toledo Ohio to share Harlem-based strategies to reduce high low birth weight rates in targeted zip codes throughout their city. This conference call meeting was set up by Ms. Josephine Ansah, Public Health Analyst, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services/HRSA-Chicago Office of Regional Operations. Mr. Drummonds will learn more about the Pathways Model currently being implemented by the Toledo group and present NMPP’s low birth weight reduction ideas in the areas of maternal chronic disease management, zonal strategies, interconceptional care protocols, public health system change strategies and maternal mental health interventions.