E4P: Enhanced Perinatal Programs for People in Prison

Brenda Baker, PhD, RNC, FAAN is an assistant professor of nursing at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, 2021-2022, and a recipient of a March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award. Baker is the founder of the Georgia Prison Motherhood Project, a collaboration between Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Georgia Department of Corrections. 

Baker is actively involved in policy and advocacy efforts related to care of incarcerated women and their children and serves on state and national committees representing the unique needs of incarcerated women. Her research has focused on health disparities experienced by incarcerated pregnant women, substance use disorders among women, and the role of social support in the transition to motherhood. Baker has examined and published on the topics of mothers of preterm infants, evidence-based care for pregnant women and newborns, and maternal and neonatal outcomes of incarcerated women.

Amanda Corbett, MPH, is a qualitative researcher and evaluator at the University of Minnesota. She has spent her career analyzing social determinants of maternal and child health, health equity, and disparity reduction in under-resourced communities. Amanda is the Director of E4P and is based out of the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Amanda is a Lamaze certified childbirth educator and lactation educator and counselor in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Ashley Lovell ​is the Program Co-Manager for the Alabama Prison Birth Project in Auburn, AL. She is a Lamaze-Certified Childbirth Educator, a DONA-certified birth doula, and a peer breastfeeding counselor. She received her B.S. and M.S. from Clemson University and Auburn University in wildlife sciences but eventually left her career in natural resources to focus on professional birth work. As a doula for 8 years, she has assisted women in birth in 10 different hospitals in Alabama and Georgia.

Ashley Minihan is the Owner of Empowered Beginnings. Ashley holds Certifications as a  DONA Doula, Childbirth Educator, Lactation Counselor, Passenger Safety Technician, Spinning Babies Parent Educator and Circle of Security Facilitator as well as Parents as Teachers, Touch Points and has earned a Family Development Credential. Her goal is to support prenatal and postnatal families as they navigate parenthood. Ashley prides herself in respecting everyone’s choices in a non-judgmental way by offering emotional support during the journey of parenthood.

Alexus Roane is a PhD candidate in Sociology and a 3rd year MPH student in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan. She obtained her B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current research interests center using a reproductive justice theoretical framework to address reproductive health disparities for Black birthing people at the nexus of their experiences with violence and/or criminalization. As a Ford Predoctoral fellowship scholar, her current qualitative research project examines Black birthing people’s experiences with pregnancy and maternity care decision-making in rural North Carolina maternity care deserts. Alexus is also a pregnancy loss doula studying to become full-spectrum alongside serving as a collective member of Black Women Birthing Justice. 

Rebecca Shlafer, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shlafer completed her bachelors and masters degrees in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and her doctoral degree in Developmental Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shlafer's research sits at the intersection of maternal and child public health and the criminal legal system. She serves as the Research Director for the Minnesota Prison Doula Project and has received extramural funding to support her research on enhanced pregnancy and postpartum programs for people in prison. 

Anne Siegler, DrPH, MPH, is a public health practitioner with expertise in criminal justice and substance use.  She completed her masters in public health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a focus on maternal and reproductive health, and completed her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the City University of New York.  Dr. Siegler works with non-profits and government agencies to build quality programming through data-driven design, implementation, and evaluation.  She has led evaluations of programs in the fields of criminal justice and correctional health, substance use, and harm reduction.  She served as Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for Correctional Health Services, NYC Health + Hospitals, from 2015-2017.

Emily Sluiter is a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School and Director of the Consortium for Gender-Responsive Prisoner Healthcare at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Prior to starting medical school, she co-founded the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative and provided doula services in Michigan’s women’s prison. Her current work centers around medical ethics, patient reported outcomes research, and healthcare for justice-involved and transgender populations. 

Carolyn Sufrin, MD, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in family planning at Johns Hopkins University. She is associate professor in the Department of Gyn/Ob and the associate director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at the School of Medicine and in Health, Behavior and Society at the School of Public Health. She has worked extensively on reproductive health issues affecting incarcerated women, from providing clinical care in jail, to research, policy, and advocacy. Her work is situated at the intersection of reproductive justice, health care, and mass incarceration, which she examines in her book, Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars. Learn more about Dr. Sufrin’s at her website arrwip.org

Born in Guatemala, Evelyn Yaeggy is the founder of Vida Midwifery Collective in Minnesota. She is a home birth midwife, a certified prison doula through Minnesota Prison Doula Project, and a certified one-on-one peer counselor through Intentional Peer Support. She is also a certified Parenting Inside Out facilitator for incarcerated folx. Evelyn is passionate about working with the community, whether it is in her Vida Midwifery Practice providing perinatal care outside of the hospital setting or being a doula for clients at the prison. She enjoys facilitating parenting and mothering classes for families at several locations in Minnesota.

Sara Zia, MA, has an academic background in Philosophy from UCLA and UVA. She is a Certified Professional Midwife and doula and has over a decade of experience teaching yoga in her community. In 2018 Sara began teaching yoga at her local prison and drafted an evidence-based proposal for perinatal support programs. In 2019 Sara collaborated with prison staff to design and implement programs serving Virginia’s pregnant prison population with childbearing year support. She is Founder and Executive Director of the Virginia Prison Birth Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to building on this work.

Dr. Melissa Zielinski is an Assistant Professor and Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She directs the Health and the Legal System (HEALS) Lab, a diverse group of scholars and clinical trainees focused on the intersections among trauma, mental illness, addiction, and the legal system (e.g., prisons, drug treatment courts, jails, crime victims). Much of her work has focused on justice-involved women, many of whom are survivors of sexual and domestic violence and have unique needs like pregnancy care. Her research is helping to identify how to best intervene, how to get treatments that work in to these systems, and how to promote long-term recovery.

Abaki Beck (she/her) is a Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration PhD student. Prior to her doctoral studies, Abaki worked on research and program evaluation in various settings, including for a university-based social policy institute, a higher education in prison program, a member of Congress, and a community-based organization on the Blackfeet Reservation. She has also organized with numerous community-based groups, including co-founding a mutual aid fund for formerly incarcerated people in 2020. She earned a Master’s in Public Health from Washington University in St. Louis in 2020 and a Bachelor’s in American Studies from Macalester College in 2015. 

Ingie Osman, MPH, (she/her) is a Research Project Specialist in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health at the University of Minnesota. She joined the Division in 2021 after completing her Masters of Public Health in Community Health Promotion at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Ingie’s work is broadly focused on the impact that criminal legal system involvement has on community health and wellbeing, and is centered around partnering with communities directly impacted by these systems.

Anne Siegler, DrPH, MPH, is a public health practitioner with expertise in criminal justice and substance use.  She completed her masters in public health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a focus on maternal and reproductive health, and completed her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the City University of New York.  Dr. Siegler works with non-profits and government agencies to build quality programming through data-driven design, implementation, and evaluation.  She has led evaluations of programs in the fields of criminal justice and correctional health, substance use, and harm reduction.  She served as Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for Correctional Health Services, NYC Health + Hospitals, from 2015-2017.

Rebecca Shlafer, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shlafer completed her bachelors and masters degrees in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and her doctoral degree in Developmental Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shlafer's research sits at the intersection of maternal and child public health and the criminal legal system. She serves as the Research Director for the Minnesota Prison Doula Project and has received extramural funding to support her research on enhanced pregnancy and postpartum programs for people in prison. 

Carolyn Sufrin, MD, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in family planning at Johns Hopkins University. She is associate professor in the Department of Gyn/Ob and the associate director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at the School of Medicine and in Health, Behavior and Society at the School of Public Health. She has worked extensively on reproductive health issues affecting incarcerated women, from providing clinical care in jail, to research, policy, and advocacy. Her work is situated at the intersection of reproductive justice, health care, and mass incarceration, which she examines in her book, Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars. Learn more about Dr. Sufrin’s at her website arrwip.org

Bio coming soon!