Annual Summit 2023
The 17th Annual Delaware Healthy Mother & Infant Consortium Summit
- Chase Center on the Riverfront 815 Justison St, Wilmington, DE 19801
The theme of this year’s summit was Renew. Reconnect. Recharge: Join our journey as we strengthen our commitment to healthy women, babies, and communities.
The annual DHMIC Summit focuses multiple sessions on galvanizing the community to end health disparities for Black mothers, infants, and families.
Event Photos
Event Videos
Event Recap
Keynote: Policy to ensure quality, equity, and respectful care for women, birthing people, and infants
Breakout Sessions
Delaware Thrives! Community Voices Breakout Sessions 1:
Respectful, Neutral and Compassionate Care for All Families
Rebecca Vahle, MA, Family to Family Support Network
The Impact of Toxic Stress on Pregnancy
Philinda Mindler, LCSW, Shannon Fisch, LCSW, Kiera McGillivray, LMFT, Brain Science Training Institute at Children & Families First
Operationalizing Resources and Strategies to Empower Women in the 4th Trimester
Bridget Buckaloo, MSN, RN, Director, Women’s and Children’s Services, Beebe Healthcare
Delaware Thrives! Community Voices Breakout Sessions 2:
Maximizing Postpartum Medicaid Coverage: A National and State Perspective: What Every State, Provider, and Mother Should Know
Kay Johnson, Johnson Policy Consulting, LLC and Elizabeth Brown, MD, MSHP, Chief Medical Officer, Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance
The Impact of Toxic Stress on Pregnancy
Philinda Mindler, LCSW, Shannon Fisch, LCSW, Kiera McGillivray, LMFT, Brain Science Training Institute at Children & Families First
Break Barriers and Build Bridges: Achieving Equity for Women and Infants by Partnering in Care
LaToya Brathwaite-Washington, RN, MSN, FNP Women, Infant, Family Nurse Specialist, DHMIC
Tribute to Dr. David Paul and Susan Noyes RN, MSN
Speakers
Rose L. Horton, MSM, RNC-OB, NEA-BC, FAAN, is the founder and CEO of NotOnMyWatch Consulting Partners, an LLC she created three years after coining the hashtag #notonmywatch. She created the hashtag out of frustration at the rising rate of maternal morbidity and mortality. As a nurse, she believed that nurses, as the largest health care employee contingent, have the power to change the trajectory of morbidity and mortality. The hashtag is a call to action for all nurses to use their collective voices to support, listen to, advocate for, and follow evidence-based practices in caring for all birthing people.
Rose is a women and infant health care executive leader working as a specialty director at Emory Decatur Hospital. She is passionate about safe and equitable care for all women. Rose speaks locally, regionally, and nationally on the topics of maternal and infant mortality, resilience, joy, and leadership, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She is leading a DEI Health and Wellness committee at her hospital.
Rose served as the 2012 president of the Association of Women’s Health Obstetrics and Neonatal Nursing (AWHONN). She was part of the Advisory Board of the Obstetrics COVID Innovation Collaborative with Ariadne Labs. Rose now serves on the board of directors at Synova Associates. She joined the Healthy Birth Day board of directors in 2023 and previously served on the medical advisory board for the organization. In 2021, Rose was tapped for the national Black Maternal Mortality Task Force for the Biden Administration. On Oct. 28, 2022, Rose was inducted as Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the profession’s highest honor.
Johnson Group founder and president Kay Johnson has been a leader in health policy for women, children, and families for 35 years. She has been active in Medicaid and children’s health policy at the federal and state levels since 1984, and has served as an adviser to more than 40 state health and/or Medicaid agencies. Kay’s expertise encompasses a wide range of maternal and child health issues. Formerly, she served as the national policy director at March of Dimes and director of health policy at the Children’s Defense Fund. Prior to her policy career, she worked with low-income families in early care and education settings.
Rebecca Vahle is the executive director of the Family to Family Support Network. As an adoptive mother of three, Rebecca saw a need in the hospitals for adoption training and a structured program to best meet the complex needs of this population. In 2005, she created the position of adoption liaison at the BirthPlace at Parker Adventist Hospital and created the first and only hospital-based adoption support program in the nation. In 2015, she left Parker to share this care model and expand the curriculum to empower health care professionals to better serve multiple unique patient populations: adoption, surrogacy arrangements, incarcerated patients, those who struggle with substance use disorder, and the LGBTQ+ community. With a master’s degree in education, she teaches health care professionals to offer neutral, compassionate care and helps to better define best practices and protocols for the added complexities often present in the care of these families.