Area experts will discuss how to improve maternal health outcomes as a community during a panel Saturday, which is also International Women’s Day.
“Regardless of medical advances, behavioral and social factors still prevent many pregnant women from receiving the care they need,” according to a flyer about the panel, hosted by the Lawrence/Douglas County chapter of Women For Kansas.
The panel is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 8 in the auditorium of the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.
The moderator will be Dr. Ashley Bloom, who practices family medicine in East Lawrence. Bloom completed her residency at St. Joseph Family Medicine in Denver. Before moving home to Kansas with her spouse to raise their family, she provided care throughout rural Colorado and Kansas in critical access hospitals and clinics as a locum physician. “Her mission is to leverage social drivers of health to improve health outcomes for our community and her patients,” according to the flyer.
Here are the panelists:
• Sharla Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health and associate director of policy in the Center for African American Health at the KU School of Medicine. She is also the founder and director of the Kansas Birth Equity Network, a community-centered initiative dedicated to creating equitable solutions to improve Black maternal, paternal, and infant health outcomes in Kansas. Her work focuses on Black maternal and infant health, with a strong emphasis on community engagement and policy development, according to the flyer.
• Dr. Betsy Wickstrom, who has been practicing high-risk obstetrics as a maternal fetal medicine physician, caring for patients with complicated pregnancies in the Kansas City area for more than 30 years. She dedicates her time to her work, her family, a maternity center in southern Haiti she co-founded 20 years ago, Kansans for Rights Trouble Nation, and The 802 United educational nonprofit, according to the flyer.
• Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician with a focus on women’s health, obstetric care, maternal mental health care, pediatrics and gender-affirming care. She has practiced in the rural, underserved community of Rooks County in central Kansas since 2011. She is active in advocacy and leadership serving as the vice president for membership and development and on the board of directors for GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, on the Commission for Federal and State Policy for the American Academy of Family Physicians, and on the board of directors and chair of the Education Committee for the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, according to the flyer.
• Lauren Alexander, a mother of three who practices as a licensed professional counselor at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. She previously worked for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as a women/maternal health consultant, providing subject matter expertise for statewide programs including the Kansas Perinatal Psychiatric Access Line, the Kansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and the Maternal Anti-Violence Innovation and Sharing Grant, working to end violent maternal deaths, according to the flyer.
All are welcome at the nonpartisan event. No registration is required.
The panel will not be livestreamed, but it will be recorded and uploaded to the chapter’s YouTube page at youtube.com/@WomenForKansas afterward.
The Willow Domestic Violence Center and Ballard Center will be on hand with information about their resources.
Anyone with questions can contact Kelly Wall at 620-222-1198 or w4klawrence.douglas@gmail.com.
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