SPH Launches New Center for Convergent Work on Maternal and Child Health

Maternal and child health (MCH) encompasses far more than its traditional definition suggests. The MCH field today spans research and practice across multiple disciplines, sectors, and populations, addressing the health of infants, children, adolescents, emerging adults, people who give birth, and families throughout their lives. The interconnected nature of MCH makes it an ideal landscape for convergence—collaborative and cross-departmental approaches to problem solving.

At the School of Public Health, where MCH expertise has flourished for more than three decades, that potential is now being harnessed formally with the launch of the BUSPH Center for Maternal and Child Health. The new school-wide center will ensure the support and leadership necessary to both strengthen and expand what the School has already built in education, practice, and research.

As of November 1, the Center stands as a symbol of the School’s sustained commitment to upholding its reputation as a national hub for MCH innovation and training. Its predecessor, the MCH Center of Excellence (MCH CoE) at SPH—which operated from 2008 to 2025 under the directorship of Lois McCloskey, clinical professor of community health sciences—established SPH as home to the one of the largest, and arguably, well-respected MCH education programs in the United States.

Since 1995, when SPH received its first MCH training grant from the Health Services Resource Administration (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the school has graduated more than 1,300 MCH trainees. Over the past six years alone, over 350 students have completed the program. Today, the MCH certificate is one of the school’s largest concentrations. Additionally, over 45 faculty members across the school are conducting MCH-related research, spanning the life course from reproductive health and fertility through postpartum care, childhood, and adolescence. The school’s externally funded MCH research portfolio is estimated to exceed $7 million annually, and reflects longstanding collaborations within SPH and with Boston Medical Center, the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and community partners around the world.

“The Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence has been a great source of pride for SPH, and the School is enormously grateful to Lois for her many years of growing and leading the Center,” says Adnan Hyder, dean and Robert A. Knox Professor. “The launch of the new BUSPH Center for Maternal and Child Health marks the continuation of a significant investment by the School in the maternal and child health field, as well as an acknowledgment of Trish Elliott and Martha Werler’s promising leadership.”

The new center has two complementary arms: Education and Practice, led by Trish Akins Elliott, clinical associate professor of community health sciences, and Research and Research Training, led by Martha Werler, professor of epidemiology.

Elliott brings extensive expertise in health behavior, workforce development, and practice-based learning. The former associate director of MCH CoE, she has directed a practice fellowship program for years, connecting master’s students with year-long placements in public health organizations. She also directs the School Health Institute for Education and Leadership Development (SHIELD), which provides professional development training for school nurses across Massachusetts—a model the center may leverage for future grant opportunities in workforce development.

Werler is a perinatal epidemiologist whose research focuses on the effects of pregnancy exposures on birth outcomes, including congenital malformations, fetal growth, and neurodevelopment. She directs the Boston University Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology (BURPPE) training program, which supports doctoral students as they hone research skills in digital health, community-engaged research, and reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric epidemiology. Alongside Lauren Wise, professor of epidemiology, and Samantha Parker Kelleher, associate professor of epidemiology, Werler recently received a five-year, $1.4M grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to carry out a third iteration of the program.

“The creation of this Center builds upon the longstanding investment in MCH by BUSPH, HRSA, and our vast community partnerships,” says Elliott. “BUSPH is a much-respected hub for MCH educational innovation, meaningful practice, and important research. We look forward to having this center to support the changing needs of the field into the future.”

Werler adds, “The Center will bring together the breadth and depth of MCH-adjacent research and expertise across BUSPH faculty to catalyze convergent research and secure new streams of funding.”

The Center’s vision is bold: To sustain and grow SPH’s reputation as a leader in preparing the next generation of MCH practitioners and scientists to tackle challenges facing women, birthing people, children, adolescents, and families, so that they and their communities thrive and reach the promise of health equity. It aims to bring new avenues of funding to SPH’s thriving MCH education program, strengthen school-wide connections in reproductive epidemiology and global health, and galvanize collaborations among researchers and trainees—all while maintaining the deep community partnerships and practice-based teaching that have defined MCH at SPH for three decades.