Dr. Russell Kirby is a perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist trained in the social sciences, with a PhD in human geography (Wisconsin, 1981) and MS in preventive medicine-epidemiology (Wisconsin, 1991), Dr. Kirby worked at the state health agencies in Wisconsin and Arkansas, on the faculties of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Milwaukee Clinical Campus, University of Wisconsin Medical School, and the School of Public Health, University of Alabama-Birmingham prior to joining the faculty of the University of South Florida in 2008.' He was elected Fellow in the American College of Epidemiology in 1996, and served as president in 2018-19.' Dr. Kirby previously served as President of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, the Wisconsin Association for Perinatal Care and the Arkansas Perinatal Association, Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, and the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health.Dr. Kirby has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, with more than 500 different co-authors, and actively participates in the editorial process as a peer reviewer or editorial board member for numerous journals.' While his research interests focus on the public health implications of health policies and programs, with special reference to perinatal and maternal/child health; population health informatics; and perinatal/pediatric studies in genetics, birth defects, and developmental disabilities, clinical research, study design and analysis, birth defects surveillance and epidemiology has been a major interest since the early 1980s.'Dr. Sarah Verbiest brings over 25 years of expertise, leadership, and research in maternal, child, and family well-being to the team. She supervises programs that serve clinics across North Carolina, serves on policy teams such as the Child Fatality Task Force, holds a robust research portfolio, and has convened statewide coalitions to address maternal and infant mortality disparities. She has guest edited special editions for three different journals. Verbiest has successfully led complex mixed-methods research studies and leveraged the findings into on-the-ground change. She edited the book titled Making Change Happen: Moving Lifecourse from Theory to Action (APHA Press, 2018)) which focused on MCH practitioners.' Her book – Preconception Health and Care: A Lifecourse Perspective, was released in August 2020. Dr. Verbiest is a Co-Principal Director for the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center - a new national resource center developed to accelerate innovative and evidence-informed interventions that improve maternal health and eliminate maternal health inequities. Dr. Verbiest is also on the steering committee for the HRSA MCHB Lifecourse Intervention Research Network and leads the national NC Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative. She is the Director of the Jordan Institute for Families and a Clinical Professor in the UNC School of Social Work and the Executive Director of the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health in the UNC School of Medicine.
