Dr. Teresa Wagner selected as consultant and advisory board member for National Maternal/Child Health Workforce Development Center
Dr. Teresa Wagner, associate professor, health administration & policy, at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth School of Public Health, has been selected as a consultant and advisory board member for the National MCH Workforce Development Center MCH Faculty Development Fellowship Program at diverse institutes. Wagner will be co-designing the group’s Faculty Fellowship program.
Founded in 2014, the National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center helps MCH Title V leaders and their partners tackle complex challenges through training, collaborative learning, coaching and consultation. Since its founding, the center has partnered with more than 1,500 Title V professionals, community and family partners, as well as interns, across 44 states and jurisdictions.
Funded by a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the center is housed at the Gilling’s School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The program intends to contribute to building capacity and developing a diverse MCH workforce able to build and sustain academic-practice partnerships and address MCH inequities in communities that are historically underserved.
Wagner’s own academic and successful career journey originated from a minority scholarship through Texas Christian University, where she became a registered dietitian and later embarked on her public health career by earning a DrPH degree from the HSC School of Public Health.
“I attribute my success to programs such as these that helped me achieve dreams and goals I never anticipated growing up,” Wagner said.
Wagner’s health disparities grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities through HSC’s Texas Center for Health Disparities’ STAR Leadership Program examined the health literacy of postpartum education for women following hospital or health system discharge. That work resulted in the “What About Mom?” app that women and their families can use to assess postpartum symptoms that could potentially save their lives.
This research has been widely acclaimed in the media, accepted at multiple conferences and won second place at the 2019 American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Conference poster session. The project also received an Interprofessional Education Collaborative Award in Community Empowerment from the U.S. Public Health Service. As a mentor for two TCOM students on the project who went on to become OB/GYNs, Wagner is excited for the opportunity to mentor future faculty in helping students enter this important field.
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