The Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Section (MCH EPI) is organizationally located within DPH’s Epidemiology Division. MCH EPI performs ongoing surveillance, data collection, and analysis for several Title V funded programs within DPH. Dr. J. Michael Bryan, PhD, MPH, Chief Epidemiologist, oversees MCH EPI and provides scientific oversight and coordination of maternal and child health epidemiology activities in support of programs relevant to Title V. MCH EPI is comprised of three Units: (1) Newborn Surveillance, (2) Perinatal Surveillance, and (3) Health Surveys. These three units cover a variety of health topics, including infant morbidity and mortality, maternal morbidity and mortality, child health, newborn screening, birth defects, congenital exposure to infectious diseases, oral health, and more general maternal and infant health surveillance via the implementation of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). Critical to the work of these three teams is Rochelle Minter (Administrative Assistant II, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) funded (CDC-RFA-CK19-1904)), who serves as the overarching administrative assistant for MCH EPI, with a focus on meeting the needs of the Newborn Surveillance Team (NST) that emerged from Zika surveillance efforts.

During the early stage of its development, the NST focused on longitudinal surveillance of infants with in utero exposure to Zika, infants with Zika-associated birth defects, and women with Zika during their pregnancy. The NST team is led by Jerusha Barton, MPH (Science Officer & Epidemiologist III, funded by Maternal and Child Health Program (MCHP) state funds). Jerusha Barton has been with DPH in an expanding capacity for nearly five years and is the subject matter expert on birth defects surveillance at DPH. A. Elise Barnes, MPH (Epidemiologist II, State Systems Development Initiative funded) also assisted on the Zika response and currently focuses on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and birth defects surveillance. Jerusha Barton and A. Elise Barnes have individually won a best poster award for their work on validating Zika-associated birth defects surveillance at the annual Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) conference. Dr. Ankit Sutaria, MBBS, MPH (Newborn Screening Epidemiologist- Epidemiologist II, funded by MCHP state funds) also has increasing responsibilities as an epidemiologist within NST. Currently, Dr. Sutaria serves as an epidemiologist focused on critical congenital heart disease, sickle cell disease and related hemoglobinopathies, and newborn screening conditions of interest (e.g., genetic and metabolic disorders). Teri’ Willabus, MPH (Congenital Infections Epidemiologist II, CDC ELC funded) initially worked as the Zika Pregnancy Registry (ZPR) epidemiologist, and currently serves as the field coordinator for the Congenital Infections Registry (CIR), a state-specific effort paralleling CDC’s Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies Network (SET-NET), which grew from the United States Zika Pregnancy and Infant Registry. Cyndi Carpentieri, RN, MPH (Public Health Nurse & Medical Record Abstractor, funded through CDC’s Local Health District Initiative) assists Teri’ Willabus with the abstraction of medical records pertinent to the CIR. Victoria Sanon, MPH (Congenital Infections Registry Epidemiologist I, CDC ELC funded) has been with MCH EPI in an increasing responsibility on the CIR and currently ensures timely reporting and receipt of requested medical records and performs initial review of records prior to abstraction. Camille Millar and SaShawn Lawrence (CIR Medical Record Liaison, CDC ELC funded) provide part-time, temporary assistance to assist with the medical record request and administration. Cristina Meza, MPH (CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellow- Birth Defects & Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome) is in the final year of a two-year fellowship leading the COVID-19 Pregnancy Supplement as part of the emergency response. She also assists with NAS medical record abstraction. Marissa Goodson, BSN, RN (Medical Record Abstractor, CSTE NAS Standardized Case Definition (SCD) funded) performs medical record abstraction for infants reported to DPH with NAS pursuant to the objectives of CSTE’s NAS SCD. Similarly, Kristina Lai, MPH (Field Coordinator, CSTE NAS Standardized Case Definition (SCD) funded) develops critical deliverables as part of CSTE’s NAS SCD (e.g., progress reports detailing DPH’s efforts to implement the NAS SCD.

The Perinatal Epidemiology Team (PET) focuses on health before, during, and shortly after the pregnancy period. Tonia Ruddock, MPH (Supervisory Epidemiologist, Title V funded), leads most of the Title V analyses of vital records (e.g., birth certificates, death certificates, fetal death certificates, induced terminations of pregnancy). DPH’s perinatal quality collaborative (Georgia Perinatal Quality Collaborative (GaPQC)) funds an epidemiologist to perform analysis on measures of import. Sabrina Johnston, MPH (Epidemiologist II) fulfills GaPQC’s analytic needs, including the monitoring of facility-specific progress on Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) bundle-specific outcome, structure, and process measures of participating facilities, as demonstrated through the production of quarterly facility-specific reports leveraging quarterly hospital discharge data received and processed within MCH EPI. Sarah Powell, MPH (Epidemiologist I, funded with Maternal Mortality state funds) has taken on more responsibilities over the past two years. As the Maternal Mortality Epidemiologist, Sarah Powell performs a breadth of tasks to ensure the rigor of data stemming from Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC), including the validation of the pregnancy checkbox on Georgia’s death certificates, maintaining the list of cases, monitoring data collection and entry, development of products to disseminate (e.g., fact sheets and reports), and performing all maternal mortality analyses. Georgia’s Family Planning program (FP) supports an epidemiologist- Brianna Walker, MPH (Epidemiologist I, Title X funded). Brianna Walker supports ongoing analyses of FP encounters and overall preconception health and wellness. DPH has also been participating in a rapid ethnographic assessment (REA) to better understand why teenage pregnancy rates are higher in a rural Georgia county. Breana Berry, MPH (full-time contractor, CDC ELC funded) has been liaising with CDC counterparts and local health district staff throughout the implementation of this project. Data collection and interview transcription has completed for the REA, which has now entered the final stage of the initial report write-up to summarize results of the semi-structured interview developed in collaboration between DPH and CDC staff.

MCH EPI’s third team, the Health Surveys Team (HST), is primarily responsible for the implementation, analysis, and dissemination of survey data: PRAMS and Third Grade Basic Screening Survey (BSS). The Team Lead (Epidemiologist III) position and the PRAMS Epidemiologist II position are currently vacant. The HST focuses on the collection of valid data using rigorous protocols. The person with primary responsibility over the daily implementation activities of PRAMS is Jamey Wagnon (Data Manager, Administrative Assistant II, Title V funded). Several positions assist in the ongoing data collection process, mostly consisting of performing interviews to sampled mothers. These are summarized below:

• Petriona Seabrook (Part-time Interviewer, Professional Healthcare Worker, funded using state maternal health funds)
• Delicia Idlett (Part-time Interviewer, Professional Healthcare Worker, PRAMS base award funded)
• Tianni Spence (Contractor, Part-time Interviewer, PRAMS supplement funded)
• Sarah McNulty (Intern PRAMS Logistical Support)

Remaining HST team members include an oral health-focused epidemiologist, Rakhi Trivedi, DrPH, MPH, BDS (Epidemiologist II, CDC’s Oral Health grant funded (CDC-RFA-DP18-1810)) and Ruta Gebreyesus, BS (Part-time Contractor, CDC’s Oral Health grant funded). The Oral Health Epidemiologist role is focuses on disseminating relevant oral health data to internal and external stakeholders, including the development of a comprehensive oral health burden report and survey-specific reports (e.g., Third Grade Basis Screening Survey), and implementing surveys pursuant to grant deliverables- namely, the Third Grade Basic Screening Survey- at least once during the five-year grant cycle.

MCH EPI staff engage in professional development opportunities through a variety of avenues that include the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). During these national conferences, there is targeted skills building training and peer to peer sharing, as well as opportunities to present on analyses done throughout the year through oral or poster presentations. In the past year, the epidemiologists participated in three national conferences: CSTE, American Public Health Association (APHA), and Newborn Screening (NBS). To stay abreast of the latest research in MCH, MCH EPI engaged in monthly virtual book clubs. There are multiple opportunities to enhance other skills, including: data visualization, grant writing, health equity, and Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System (ArcGIS). Moving forward, DPH will put great emphasis on transitioning into an enterprise environment that permits greater use of data on the Esri ArcGIS platform and suite of products.