Getting off to a healthystart

National Healthy Start Association Newsletter

Fall 2007

Partner’s Corner

Photo Caption: Michael Fraser

Logo: Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP)

Featured in this issue of Getting off to a Healthy Start is the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). AMCHP represents state public health leaders and others working to improve the health and well-being of women, children, youth and families, including those with special health care needs. In August, Michael Fraser, Ph.D., joined AMCHP as the Chief Executive Officer and he responded to questions for this article.

Q: How did you get involved in maternal and child health (MCH)?

Michael Fraser: My background is in sociology – my dissertation research was on social support networks for people living with HIV/AIDS. I never “formally” studied MCH, and in fact my first public health job was a research synthesis project looking at HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. I came to MCH through one of the many back-doors we often find ourselves using in public health. A friend from college went to UNC and concentrated in MCH. She kept telling me about the great work of MCH leaders, pushing me to think about moms and kids in the public health enterprise and eventually helping me land my second “public health” job at the National Association of County and City Health Officials working on a study of public health infrastructure.

As I got to know more about state and local public health departments, I realized MCH was at the core of public health. MCH issues are some of the most pressing and critical concerns of our day. Furthermore, working in MCH can havea profound impact on improving the health of communities – healthy women, children and families. These are the fundamental pieces of vibrant, healthy communities. It helps that all the people I really like and admire seem to gravitate toward MCH, too – making meetings fun, and providing me with a great group of colleagues with whom I work on a daily basis now that I’m at AMCHP.

Q: What is your vision for the future of MCH?

MF: Five billion dollars for Title V. OK, just kidding, but that would be great. Look, public health means creating the conditions through which all people can be healthy. MCH is core to that vision – healthy children, healthy families, living in healthy communities. My vision is a society that gives everyone a chance to thrive and contribute to making the world a better place. Our MCH activities are essential to making that happen. We are all part of that vision.

Q: How do you see AMCHP and Healthy Start collaborating in the future?

MF: I think that Healthy Start and AMCHP are in a great place to further our mutual goals of improving the health of women, children and families. Peggy Sanchez Mills and I are both new directors of our organizations, and thus open to new ideas and fresh ways of doing business together. It also helps that the National Healthy Start Association’s offices are right down the hall since we are co-located here in Washington!

I see our partnership as a natural extension of AMCHP's strategic goal of furthering an action-oriented MCH agenda – something we'll need collaboration with Healthy Start to truly accomplish. With Healthy Start representing key community assets for reducing health disparities, low birthweight and infant mortality and AMCHP representing state-based programs with the same goals, a partnership with Healthy Start will allow us to influence both state and local policy and programs. Our joint efforts at the federal level will further enhance our respective missions.

Healthy Start to be Featured at Preconception Summit

The interconception care activities of several federally funded Healthy Start projects will be presented at the Second National Summit on Preconception Health and Health Care. The conference, hosted by the Preconception Care Council of California, the March of Dimes California Chapter and others, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control, HRSA, AMCHP and other national groups, will be held October 29-31, 2007, in Oakland, California.

National Healthy Start Association’s CEO, Peggy Sanchez Mills, will present during a segment called “Providers Speak Up,” along with representatives of, among others, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, CityMatCH and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Michael Lu, whose research on the “life course perspective” is featured in this issue of Getting off to a Healthy Start (see Research News), will be a plenary speaker. “The Why’s and How’s of Preventing Unintended Pregnancy” and “Envisioning a Healthier Future: Community Faces and Voices” are among the other plenary sessions. Workshops will be offered on a multitude of topics.

For more information or to register, go to www.marchofdimes.com/california

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