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Wake Forest University School of Medicine awarded grant to research birth outcome disparities

The Wake Forest University School of Medicine has received a major grant for a project aimed at reducing disparities in birth outcomes. 

The school has been awarded $1.5 million from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. It’s earmarked for a three-year project focusing on disparities in birth and postpartum outcomes for Black and Latinx communities in Forsyth County.

Wake’s School of Medicine will partner with local nonprofit Action4Equity to empower community engagement in the research.

Dr. April Miller, who will co-lead the project, released a statement noting that data in North Carolina shows that “African Americans, Latinos, American Indians, and those living in poverty often suffer the worst health and education outcomes.”

Miller says community-led research will flip the traditional narrative of health systems making decisions, relying more on input from those with “lived experiences” such as local mothers, midwives, and mental health counselors.

Recommendations will be presented by the School of Medicine’s review board, and by the People’s Research Council, a Forsyth County community-led initiative.

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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