The Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health’s success is built on the expertise and dedication of its team. We are pleased to introduce them here and hope you will reach out to them for more information and assistance.
Collaborative Leadership
William Goodnight, MD
Dr. Goodnight received his B.S. in Biology with Honors in 1990 and his M.D. in 1994 at UNC Chapel Hill. He finished his Residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Virginia in 1998 and his Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in 2008 at the Medical University of South Carolina. During his fellowship, he completed his M.S. in clinical research. Dr. Goodnight has been board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology since 2000.
Dr. Goodnight is an Associate Professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. His current clinical activities include prenatal diagnosis and management of medical complications of pregnancy. He is the Medical Director for the UNC Rex MFM Consultative practice in which he directs MFM physicians, sonographers, and genetic counselors providing consultative services to community obstetricians. In addition to his clinical activities, Dr Goodnight is active in medical student education as the Assistant OB-GYN Clerkship Director. He has received research funding centering on maternal health and nutrition and has mentored MFM Fellows in research resulting in multiple presentations. His current research interests include multiple gestations, prenatal diagnosis and ultrasound, maternal weight gain in pregnancy, and maternal nutrition in pregnancy including vitamin D and Omega-3 metabolism.
Kate Menard, MD, MPH
Dr. M. Kathryn Menard, MD, MPH is a Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine where she served for fourteen years as Director of the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Director of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health. In addition to her duties at UNC, she serves as Medical Director of the North Carolina’s Pregnancy Medical Home through Community Care of North Carolina, a statewide program that supports Medicaid beneficiaries and their care providers in access to high quality maternity care. She also serves on NC’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee and the Maternal Health Task Force.
Throughout her career in academic medicine Dr. Menard has worked to highlight the shared goals of clinical medicine and public health, thus bringing diverse perspectives together, promoting collaboration and realizing synergy. She worked to elevate attention to maternal health needs by advancing two important initiatives: 1) Strengthening regional systems by defining Levels of Maternal Care, and 2) Providing foundational leadership for the broad dissemination and implementation of maternal safety bundles through the HRSA funded Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM). Current work includes engagement with the HRSA sponsored Maternal Health Learning and Innovations Center based at the UNC School of Public Health.
Dr. Menard completed residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her Maternal Fetal Medicine fellowship training was at the University of North Carolina as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Katie Paul, MD
Katie Paul, MD
Kathryn (Katie) Paul is a Neonatologist with an interest in the mom-baby dyad, antenatal consults for complex fetal diagnoses, and healthcare equity. She graduated from UNC School of Medicine in 2017, completed Pediatrics residency at NYP-Columbia in Manhattan, and NICU fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia before returning to UNC as an attending.
Wayne Price, MD
Dr. Price is a Professor and Associate Division Chief in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine within the Department of Pediatrics. Since 2010, he has served as Co-Director of the UNC Collaborative for Maternal & Infant Health. Dr. Price provides clinical care for infants in the Newborn Critical Care Center (UNC’s NICU) and works as part of a multidisciplinary team managing pregnancies complicated by fetal medical conditions.
His professional interests focus on improving support for mothers of NICU patients. He is Co-PI on a CDC-funded initiative aimed at developing Best Practices for Postpartum NICU Care to enhance outcomes for families.
Dr. Price earned his B.S. in Mathematics from Furman University and his M.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He completed his Pediatrics residency at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, followed by a Neonatology fellowship at UNC. He has been a dedicated faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics since 1988.
Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc
Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc
Interim Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Medical Director, Lactation Services
Co-Director UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health
Distinguished Scholar in Infant and Young Child Feeding, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Dr. Stuebe completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She completed fellowship training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s, and she earned a Masters in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has published more than 110 peer-reviewed articles. She is currently a professor and board-certified maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist at the UNC School of Medicine and Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
In the clinical arena, she is Medical Director of Lactation Services at UNC Health Care, and she works with an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff to enable women to achieve their infant feeding goals. Her current research focuses on the role of oxytocin in women’s health and postpartum depression and on developing models for holistic care of families during the 4th Trimester.
She is a member of the Steering Committee for Moms Rising North Carolina, the Breastfeeding Expert Work Group for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and a board member of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Sarah Verbiest, DrPH, MSW, MPH
Dr. Sarah Verbiest brings over 25 years of expertise, leadership, and research in maternal, child, and family well-being to the team. She supervises programs that serve clinics across North Carolina, serves on policy teams such as the Child Fatality Task Force, holds a robust research portfolio, and has convened statewide coalitions to address maternal and infant mortality disparities. Verbiest has successfully led complex mixed-methods research studies and leveraged the findings into on-the-ground change. She edited the book titled Making Change Happen: Moving Lifecourse from Theory to Action (APHA Press, 2018)) which focused on MCH practitioners. Her book – Preconception Health and Care: A Lifecourse Perspective, was released in August 2020. Dr. Verbiest is currently co-editing the 4th Edition of the Maternal and Child Health textbook due out in print in 2021. Dr. Verbiest is a Co-Principal Director for the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center – a new national resource center developed to accelerate innovative and evidence-informed interventions that improve maternal health and eliminate maternal health inequities. Dr. Verbiest is also on the steering committee for the HRSA MCHB Lifecourse Intervention Research Network and leads the national NC Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative. She is the Director of the Jordan Institute for Families in the UNC School of Social Work and the Executive Director of the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health in the UNC School of Medicine.
Program Leadership
Katherine Bryant, MA, MSPH
Katherine has been a program manager with the CMIH since 2014. She serves as the project coordinator to our CoIIN and Care4Moms projects. Katherine also provides support for the Bowes Cefalo Young Researcher Award as well as several other programs at the CMIH. She received her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Duke University in 2007 and her Master of Science in Public Health from Gillings School of Global Public Health in Healthy Policy and Management at UNC in 2010. Her phone number is 919-962-7924.
Megan Canady, MSW, MSPH
Megan is a key staff member for the NC Infant Safe Sleep Campaign. She also provides training and technical assistance to clinics across the state in integrating tobacco screening and cessation into their practice with the You Quit, Two Quit Program. She earned her Master in Social Work and Master of Science in Public Health (Maternal and Child Health) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her phone number is 919-843-7865.
Kimberly Harper, MSN, RN, MHA
Kimberly Harper, MSN, RN, MHA
Ms. Harper is a registered nurse with over 16 years of experience in Maternal and Child Health. She currently serves as a coordinator for the Perinatal Neonatal Outreach Project for UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health. Her breadth of experience ranges from leadership and nursing roles in labor and delivery units, postpartum care, public health home visiting programs, and hospital administration. Ms. Harper developed processes and workflows to open a women’s hospital in 2015. The combination of her experiences enables her to integrate evidenced based practice into standards of care. A mom of two, Ms. Harper has a wealth of knowledge about mom-centered postpartum healing and recovery.
Jaimie Lea, MPH, IBCLC
Jaimie provides training and technical assistance to clinics across the state in integrating tobacco screening and cessation into their practice with the You Quit, Two Quit Program. She received her Master of Public Health from Gillings School of Global Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at UNC in 2015. She also completed the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative at UNC to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2015. Her phone number is 919-843-7865.
Erin McClain, MA, MPH
Erin McClain is Assistant Director and Research Associate with CMIH, where she directs a variety of statewide perinatal training and technical assistance initiatives. She brings over 15 years of experience leading health systems change and quality improvement initiatives in areas including preterm birth prevention and implementation of evidence-based tobacco use screening and counseling for providers serving women of reproductive age, with a specialized focus on low-income and marginalized women. Ms. McClain also focuses broadly on the health of women of reproductive age, engaging in qualitative research with postpartum mothers and serving as a state coach for the HRSA-funded Preconception CoIIN and the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center. She has her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from UNC-Chapel Hill. Ms. McClain previously worked with displaced women and families, both in the US and abroad, and she earned a Master of Arts in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC. She can be reached at 919-808-0989.
Cindy McMillan, CBD, CBE, DT, CBPC
Cindy McMillan is a devoted single mother of four and a passionate advocate for safe, positive birthing experiences. As a community-based doula, doula trainer, and childbirth educator, she draws on her lived experiences to foster connection, share evidence-based knowledge, and address systemic disparities in maternal health.
In 2016, she co-founded Sistas Caring 4 Sistas, Inc., a community-driven organization dedicated to advancing maternal health equity. A fearless leader, Cindy educates families, healthcare providers, and communities about the maternal and infant mortality crisis, while championing inclusive, supportive birthing environments for both families and doula professionals.
Cindy specializes in supporting families navigating substance use disorders and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders throughout the pregnancy journey. Her work remains rooted in a deep commitment to equitable, transformative maternal healthcare that uplifts and improves birthing experiences for all.
Liz Soto, BSN, RN
I serve as the Perinatal Nurse Champion for NC Region IV, bringing 16 years of experience in maternal and child health. As a bilingual Spanish speaker, my career has included providing direct patient care and supporting a wide range of communities. In my current role, I focus on offering resources for families and providing education and support to healthcare providers and community workers. I am honored to work alongside an exceptional team to expand access to high-quality care throughout our region.
Kristin Tully, PhD
Kristin Tully, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health, UNC-Chapel Hill
Dr. Tully is a medical anthropologist who seeks to enable health by improving health care services over the “1,000 days” continuum of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She is interested in understanding human needs around the perinatal period of the life course, from the perspectives of birthing parents, infants, and those supporting them. Her program of research addresses mechanisms underlying health outcomes, with topics spanning contributors to birth mode, breastfeeding outcomes, mother-infant safety, sleep practices, maternal health, and transitions through health care, to establish more patient- and family-centered care. The objective is advance equity by identifying metrics for accountability and continual improvement in health systems. Human-centered design offers a process for partnering with diverse stakeholders, for the defining problems, developing ways to transform care, and evaluation and dissemination. Together, we shift the culture of health by identifying unmet health needs and codeveloping real, sustainable solutions.
Megan Williams, MSPH, MSW
Megan Scull Williams, MSW, MSPH (she/her), has over 20 years of experience in public health, where she has provided program and research management, evaluation, training, technical assistance, and direct service across diverse settings. The central theme of her career is a commitment to families and a drive to translate academic research into practical solutions for families and those who serve them. As the only Asheville-based member of the Collaborative for Maternal & Infant Health (CMIH) team, she focuses particularly on the Western region of North Carolina.
She is a trainer for the You Quit, Two Quit perinatal tobacco quality improvement initiative, working with North Carolina providers to integrate evidence-based tobacco screening and counseling into reproductive healthcare settings.
She is a member of the implementation research team for ACURE4Moms, a large-scale research study evaluating the impact of community-based doula support on outcomes for Black-identified moms and babies.
She is also part of the UNC Horizons EMPOWER team, providing case management and re-entry assistance for pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorder leaving North Carolina prisons.
She is a key staff member on the Incarcerated Women’s Health project, which aims to improve health outcomes for incarcerated pregnant people, including the implementation of North Carolina’s Dignity for Women Who are Incarcerated Act.
She completed her undergraduate studies in Sociology at The University of Notre Dame and holds both a Master of Public Health and a Master of Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill, where she was a Public Health Leadership Fellow.
Care Coordination
Sacha Bryan, RN-BSN, RNC-OB
Sacha Bryan, RN-BSN, RNC-OB, received her undergraduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill. Following her graduation, Sacha worked as a medical-surgical nurse at UNC for 2 years before moving to UNC Labor and Delivery. There, she cared for families for 9 years as an OB certified nurse and also served in a leadership role as a CNIII. She started her new role as Fetal Therapy Nurse Coordinator in May of 2020. Sacha works with patients who are referred to the Fetal Care Clinic to ensure they receive person and family centered care following a fetal diagnosis during pregnancy. Sacha believes that every patient deserves access to medical interventions to improve the health of their pregnancies. With this goal in mind, Sacha works to educate nurses, contribute to research, develop patient and referring physician education materials and provide nursing care in the operating room and clinic to FCC patients. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking in the woods, cooking and listening to music.
Lori Carter, RN, BSN
Lori is a registered nurse with 18 years of experience working in the UNC Newborn Critical Care Center. She has been providing out-patient care coordination for complex infants for many years. As a perinatal care specialist, Lori works with families and their providers, both at UNC and in the community. She is available to listen to patient concerns, coordinate medical appointments and connect families with services they need. Her phone number is 984-974-2447.
Maya Lindley, LCSW
Maya is social worker who speaks English and Spanish. She has experience working with children, pregnant women, babies and in communities. As a perinatal care specialist, Maya works with families and their providers, both at UNC and in the community. She is available to listen to patient concerns, coordinate medical appointments and connect families with services they need.
Lisa Welborn, LCSW
Lisa is a licensed clinical social worker who is fluent in English and Spanish. She has 30 years of experience working with both low risk and high risk pregnant women, babies and in communities. As a perinatal care specialist, Lisa works with families and their providers, both at UNC and in the community. She is available to listen to patient concerns, coordinate medical appointments, and connect families with services they need.
