Dr. Dara Méndez (MPI, Black scholar) is a tenured Associate Professor of Epidemiology who is a social, perinatal and reproductive epidemiologist with a PhD and MPH in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology. Her research, practice and instruction include health equity, reproductive justice and anti-oppression praxis as well as applications of Black Feminist Theory and Public Health Critical Race Praxis. She focuses on racial and socioeconomic equity in pregnancy, birth and women’s health. Dr. Méndez has developed novel approaches to measure and understand how structural and social contexts (including structural racism and oppression) intersect to contribute to health, particularly the health of Black populations. In her role at Pitt, she was the former Interim Director for the Center for Health Equity and founder and director of the Health Justice Scholars and Maternal and Child Health Equity Scholars Programs. She also serves as a member of the Maternal and Child Health Strategy Team that developed the Allegheny County BIRTH Plan. She is PI of the R01 NHLBI funded PMOMS Study focused on racial inequities in postpartum weight and cardiometabolic health. Dr. Méndez is also the PI of a new R01 NINR-funded study (Co-PI Jarlenski) focused on the effects of Medicaid policies on racial equity and maternal and infant health.
Dr. Mehret Talabi (MPI, Black early-stage investigator) is a clinical rheumatologist and health services researcher with methodologic experience as a Ph.D.-trained epidemiologist. Her research program is framed by principles of reproductive justice and autonomy and seeks to reduce SMM and maternal mortality by enhancing people’s pre-pregnancy and pregnancy health through person-centered, equitable healthcare. She founded and currently directs the Women’s and Reproductive Health Rheumatology Clinic at MWH, where she cares for people with autoimmune diseases who are pregnant or considering pregnancy. As Co-Director of the Optimizing Reproductive Health Outcomes in Chronic Disease (ORCHID) Center, Dr. Talabi has assembled a team of medicine and pediatric subspecialists to study how to improve reproductive health equity for people with chronic diseases. She received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award for underrepresented investigators in the health sciences, a NIAMS K23, and a NICHD R21 (PI) to develop a measure that captures the extent to which Black and Latinx people with and without chronic diseases are able to exercise their reproductive autonomy in the healthcare context. Dedicated to the training mission, she serves as Assistant Dean and Co-Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at the University of Pittsburgh, and Associate Program Director of the UPMC rheumatology fellowship.
Dr. Hyagriv Simhan (MPI) is a Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Obstetrics at the Pitt School of Medicine, and the Medical Director of Clinical Innovation in Women’s Health at UPMC. Dr. Simhan is an experienced physician and health services researcher with funded programs focused on infection/inflammation, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and downstream offspring phenotypes. Since 2002, he has led a clinical and translational research operation at MWH that has recruited and retained thousands of pregnant subjects, collecting high quality data, processed and assayed biological samples, and successfully conducted detailed follow-up. He is the site PI for the nuMoM2b parent study, as well as the NHLBI co-funded nuMoM2b Sleep Disordered Breathing sub-study and the maternal postpartum follow-up study, nuMoM2b-Heart Health Study. He was co-PI of the MWH Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network (MFMUN) site (2004-2010) and the PI from 2016-present. He is the founding director of Hatch, the Clinical Innovation Center in Women’s Health at UPMC. In this capacity, he is administratively responsible for UPMC’s Women’s Health Service Lines population health strategy and operations.