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$2.3M grant will allow for study of inequities in heart health care and pregnancy

Janiya Mitnaul Williams, left, works with a student in N.C. A&T's lactation program. The program will take part in a study aimed at overcoming systemic inequities in heart health care outcomes for pregnant people. Photo courtesy N.C. A&T.

Two North Carolina universities will team up for a study aimed at improving outcomes for people who are more likely to experience difficult pregnancies due to poor heart health. 

The American Heart Association has awarded a $2.3 million grant to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The schools will be tasked with conducting a four-year study to assess inequities in delivering optimum care to pregnant people with poor heart health.

According to a news release, high blood pressure during pregnancy and the postpartum period is the number one killer of Black people during pregnancy. Systemic racism is considered to be a factor in the development of high blood pressure.

Kimberly Harper, an associate professor at N.C. A&T, says she'll take the lead in drawing up the study's curriculum to analyze how structural racism impacts maternal health care. Harper says sharing revised best practices with medical professionals can have a positive impact on how they interact with communities of color.

"The education component is really groundbreaking, and I think that's one of the ways we can make a huge difference in the maternal health culture," says Harper. 

Teams from four hospitals in central North Carolina will also participate in developing and implementing the curriculum.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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