NWA & WIC Opportunities, Information, and Resources

April 19, 2021

Engage with Us! Current Volunteer Opportunities with NWA

All of NWA’s work is member-driven! We invite you to engage, develop your leadership skills and share your expertise with NWA by joining one of our committees or task forces. See open positions, and apply today!

Emerging Nutrition Leaders in MCH Training Institute

Do you know a public health or community nutritionist who is employed with a state or local public health agency or in a community-based program that you feel will be a future leader in the field of maternal and child health (MCH) /public health nutrition? Let them know about the Emerging Nutrition Leaders in MCH Training Institute!

To qualify for the program, the applicant must:

• Work with MCH populations within a state or local public health agency or a community-based organization.
• Be an emerging nutrition leader — someone who has leadership potential or experience and has been employed for no less than three and no more than ten years.
• Be a Registered Dietitian/Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, or a Licensed/Certified Nutritionist/Dietitian.
• Demonstrates leadership at work, within a professional organization, or in the community.

There is specific interest in recruiting individuals from racially/ethnically diverse backgrounds in addition to other underrepresented minoritized backgrounds. There is no fee to participate. Upon completion, participants can receive up to 70 hours of continuing professional education credits. The application packet and more details are available here.

Contact Heidi Church at 773-459-3700 or heidird@gmail.com with any questions. Applications are due May 5, 2021.

Bridging the Chasm between Pregnancy and Health over the Life Course: A National Agenda for Research and Action

Although many pregnant people have extensive contact with health care providers, too few transition into ongoing primary and specialty care after they give birth— and Black, Latina, and Native American women are particularly likely to face barriers to seamless, high-quality care. To address these problems, the Bridging the Chasm (BtC) Collaborative created a National Agenda for Research and Action. The team identified strategic priorities based on equity, innovation, effectiveness, and feasibility. BtC, a diverse group of women with lived experience, researchers, advocates, clinicians, health care innovators, and policy experts, reports its results in a new article.

Bridging the Chasm between Pregnancy and Health over the Life Course: A National Agenda for Research and Action: This article reports on six key strategic areas:

• Recommendations include requiring health care institutions, as part of their accreditation, to make progress toward eliminating institutional and interpersonal racism;
• providing infrastructure support to community-based organizations run by and for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color
• extending holistic team-based care to the postpartum year and beyond, with integration of doulas and community health workers on teams;
• expanding Medicaid coverage across the full postpartum year and supporting the development of Medicaid pay-for-performance policies that support linkage to primary care;
• preserving maternal narratives and data across providers; and
• aligning research with women’s lived experiences.

It’s Time to Eliminate Racism and Fragmentation in Women’s Health Care: This commentary highlights three overlapping public health crises: deeply rooted systemic racism; the COVID-19 pandemic, which is particularly devastating to Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations; and the fact that Black and Native women face a risk of death from pregnancy-related conditions three times that of white women.