2024 West Virginia Perinatal Summit

Presentation: From Community Insights to Action: Bridging Gaps in Maternal Health Through Coordinated Care and Addressing Key Determinants in Rural West Virginia

Jacquelyn E. Alvarado, DNP, APRN, CNM, C-EFM, is the Maternal Fetal Focus Program Manager at the Texas A&M Rural and Community Health Institute. She leads the RCHI Maternal Health Initiative and is responsible for developing programs to address rural maternal care challenges. Dr. Alvarado oversees the research and implementation of various rural maternal health programs, such as obstetrical simulation training, telehealth prenatal care, and prenatal education.

Dr. Alvarado earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Baylor University and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas at Arlington. As a Board-Certified Nurse Midwife with over 15 years of experience, she has welcomed over 1,000 babies into the world and provided midwifery services to women in underserved areas. Her experiences as a leader, clinician, and educator are invaluable to her role at ARCHI. Together with her team, she collaborates with rural communities to conduct outreach, cultivate relationships with community partners, and create then execute program strategies.
Dr. Alvarado earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Baylor University and her Bachelor
of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas at Arlington. As a Board-Certified Nurse
Midwife with over 15 years of experience, she has welcomed over 1,000 babies into the
world and provided midwifery services to women in underserved areas. Her experiences as
a leader, clinician, and educator are invaluable to her role at ARCHI. Together with her team,
she collaborates with rural communities to conduct outreach, cultivate relationships with
community partners, and create then execute program strategies.

Presentation: Integrating Lived Experience in Quality Improvement

Bekah Bischoff, BS, is a maternal health advocate and Training Program Manager at MoMMA’s Voices, Preeclampsia Foundation, where she collaborates with patient family partners and healthcare providers to integrate lived experiences into quality improvement. She supports mothers in healing from traumatic births, turning their pain into purpose. Inspired by her own near-death experience with severe preeclampsia, HELLP Syndrome, and postpartum anxiety, Ms. Bischoff raises awareness by sharing her story. In 2018, she partnered with AWHONN, advocating for maternal health legislation with policymakers, ensuring mothers’ voices are heard. Her work emphasizes the importance of patients’ voices and involvement in health system enhancements and policymaking.

Presentation: Stigma and Bias in Depiction of Appalachia and the SUD Population in the Media

Tijah Bumgarner, MA, is a filmmaker and professor. She is the co-director and co-producer for Picture Proof. She teaches film production at Marshall University. Bumgarner holds a BFA in film/video from the California Institute of the Arts and a MA in Media Studies from West Virginia State University. As a doctoral candidate at Ohio University, her dissertation “Examining the Ground: Shifting Narratives in Post-Coal Appalachia,” explores how extraction is narrativized. Ms. Bumgarner’s experience growing up in West Virginia has inspired much of her work. In 2017, she completed her first feature film, Meadow Bridge, a coming-of-age narrative set in rural West Virginia. She is now completing a feature-length film that examines the intergenerational impact of substance use disorder by chronicling the love, labor, loss, and uncertainty of one Appalachian family in collaboration with artist Jena Seiler. Her most recent fiction project, Her Hope Haven, is currently screening at film festivals. In both scholarship and practice, Ms. Bumgarner seeks to disrupt stereotypes that conform to a single defining narrative of Appalachia.

Presentation: Trauma-Informed Care in the Perinatal Setting

Denise Burgess, RN, LPC, is a Senior Educator with the Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) Institute for Academic Medicine. She is a Registered Nurse, and a Marriage and Family Therapist by training. Ms. Burgess holds a Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Marshall University Graduate School, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from WVU, a Bachelor of Arts from WV State University, and an Associate of Arts in Nursing from Morris Harvey College. She is a Certified Marriage and Family Therapist, a National Board-Certified Counselor, a Certified Nurse Executive and a Certified Mediator. In 2011, she received the West Virginia Nurse Excellence Award for Nursing Leadership.

While with CAMC, Ms. Burgess led the Drug Addicted Mother and Baby Task Force (DAMB) and the CAMC Domestic Violence Task Force and worked with the West Virginia Domestic Violence Initiatives. She has been a liaison with the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership, serving in consultative and educative roles related to addiction issues in Women’s Health including speaking to members of the West Virginia and Tennessee legislatures. She is a member of the CAMC University’s faculty and has presented as guest faculty for the WVU School of Medicine and the WVSOM.

Presentation: EMS: Challenges in the Field for Transporting Pregnant and Laboring Persons

Clinton Burley, MS, a West Virginia native, has been involved in the nation’s emergency medical services system since 1982. Starting his career as an emergency medical technician, Mr. Burley has served as a paramedic, flight paramedic, educator, communicator, and systems manager for both volunteer and professional EMS organizations. Teaching for over two decades, he has presented numerous courses at both Mountwest Community and Technical College and Marshall University. As a consultant, he has served numerous hospital-based critical care transport programs and EMS systems across the country.

In his present professional role, Mr. Burley serves as President and Chief Executive Officer for HealthNet Aeromedical Services, one of our nation’s largest not-for-profit critical care transport programs. In 2023, HealthNet served over 30,000 patients across its vast air and ground transport system. The organization is cooperatively owned by West Virginia’s three academic medical centers; Charleston Area Medical Center/Vandalia Health, Cabell Huntington Hospital/Marshall Health Network, and WVU Medicine.

Presentation: Catalyzing Change: The CHAMPS National Initiative in West Virginia

Cathy Carothers, BLA, IBCLC, FILCA, is Co-Director of EVERY MOTHER, INC., a nonprofit organization providing counseling and lactation training for health professionals across the United States. She is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant since 1996; past president and Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association; and past chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee. She currently serves as the North American representative to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Steering Committee. She has provided nearly a thousand training events in the field of lactation in every U.S. state and territory and many countries. She was honored in 2014 with the National Leadership Award in the “Friend of WIC” category from the National WIC Association.

Ms. Carothers serves as the national project director for numerous USDA Women, Infants, and Children curriculum development projects, including project director for the brand-new WIC Breastfeeding Curriculum, a comprehensive breastfeeding staff training curriculum for all levels of WIC staff. She also developed the national WIC peer counseling program training curricula and management materials. She worked with the HHS Office on Women’s Health (OWH) and Maternal Child Health Bureau (MCHB) to develop national resources for supporting breastfeeding employees and their employers, including the MCHB Business Case for Breastfeeding, and the OWH Supporting Nursing Moms at Work national initiative. The former State WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator for the Mississippi State Department of Health, she serves as a consultant, hospital coach, and trainer for the CDC-funded CHAMPS National initiative (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices). She is also a coach and lead trainer for the Mississippi CHAMPS initiative, which increased the number of Baby-Friendly hospitals from 0 to 30 of the state’s 39 delivering hospitals since 2015.

Presentation: Obstetric Hemorrhage

Brian Casey, MD, ABOG-MFM, is the chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at WVU Medicine and WVU Medicine Children’s. Dr. Casey joined WVU medicine from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he held numerous leadership roles, including the vice chair of Obstetrics, division director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM), assistant program director of the MFM Fellowship, alternate principal investigator for the Eunice Kennedy-Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network, and the interim director of the Obstetric Medical Complications Clinic. Prior to his time in Birmingham, he served as MFM division director, MFM fellowship director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, principal investigator for the Dallas MFMU Network site, and as chief of Obstetrics for Parkland Health and Hospital System in Texas. He also serves as an editor of Williams Obstetrics. Dr. Casey completed his fellowship in MFM at UT Southwestern/Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, Texas, and his residency at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey. He received his medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Presentation: Emerging Designer Drugs: Detection of a Growing Threat to Public Health

Savannah R. Clary, Pharm.D., BCPS, is a clinical pharmacist with Aegis Sciences Corporation in Nashville, Tennessee. She completed her pre-professional curriculum at the University of Kentucky and received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy where she received the Eli Lilly Achievement Award for excellence in primary care and chronic disease state management. She also completed a PGY1 Community Pharmacy Practice residency at Marcrom’s Pharmacy in Manchester, Tennessee. Dr. Clary went on to complete a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Health Care Informatics at Lipscomb University. Before joining Aegis, Dr. Clary worked as a clinical pharmacist specializing in nephrology and the pharmaceutical care of dialysis patients. She has been with Aegis since 2018 as a member of the clinical team and provided educational presentations on toxicology testing and emerging drug trends for clinicians across the United States.

Presentation: Benefits of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy For Perinatal Patients

Marnie Clemens, PT, DPT, WCS, OCS, FAAOMPT, has been a physical therapist since 1992. She specializes in pelvic floor rehabilitation, manual therapy, and pain. She received a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from West Virginia University and her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Marshall University. She is a Board-Certified Specialist in women’s health and in orthopedics, a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists, and a member of the American Physical Therapy Association. She holds certificates in corrective exercise in pregnancy, nutrition, and sleep, stress management, and sleep recovery. Ms. Clemens is a Clinical Assistant Professor for West Virginia University. She teaches a course, “Women’s Health and Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation,” to physical therapy students at Marshall University. She is also a clinical instructor and has developed and taught courses for other physical therapists and assistants. She is the state representative for the Section on Women’s Health of the APTA and belongs to many organizations related to women’s health and pelvic floor issues.

Presentation: WV Academic Mentoring Partnership: An Approach toward Treatment of Hepatitis C for OB Patients

Kimberly M. Farry, MD, FACOG, has been an obstetrician/gynecologist in Buckhannon, WV, since 1996, and has worked as both a hospital-employed physician at St. Joseph’s Hospital as well as in private practice. After graduating from Davis & Elkins College with a Bachelor of Science in 1985, Dr. Farry attended Temple University School of Medicine, receiving her Master of Science in 1987 and her Doctor of Medicine in 1991. Dr Farry serves as Quality and Medical Director of WVU OB/GYN Outpatient Clinical Services at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Her professional affiliations include staff physician at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Braxton County Memorial Hospital, Assistant Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine, Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as a member of the West Virginia State Medical Association. Dr Farry has been engaged in the work of the Partnership for many years involved in the Access to Care Committee, Executive Council of the Partnership’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) project and the Central Advisory Committee. Dr. Farry currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the WV Perinatal Partnership.

Presentations: Severe Maternal Morbidity: Using Data for Improvement

Health Equity: What is It and How Do We Achieve It?

Veronica Gillispie-Bell, MD, MAS, FACOG, is a Board-Certified Obstetrician & Gynecologist and Associate Professor for Ochsner Health in New Orleans, Louisiana. She serves as the Senior Site Lead and Section Head of Women’s Services at Ochsner Kenner. Additionally, she serves as the Director of Quality for Women’s Services for the Ochsner Health System and is the Medical Director of the Minimally Invasive Center for the Treatment of Uterine Fibroids. She earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College and completed her residency training at Ochsner Health System. She has a Master of Applied Science in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Additionally, she has received certification in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. Clinically, in addition to providing obstetric care, Dr. Gillispie-Bell performs advanced laparoscopic and robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedures and is known nationally for her expertise in management of heavy menstrual bleeding associated with fibroids.

Dr. Gillispie-Bell is also the Medical Director of the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative and Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review for the Louisiana Department of Health. In this role, she leads initiatives in the state of Louisiana to improve birth outcomes for all birthing persons in Louisiana and eliminate the Black-white disparity gap. Dr. Gillispie-Bell has testified before Congress and led Congressional briefings to inform on the drivers of maternal mortality and legislative policy to improve maternal outcomes. She was an invited speaker at The White House Maternal Health Day of Action.

Presentation: Perinatal Immunizations: A Crucial Time for Health Promotion for Mom, Baby, and Beyond

Andrea Lauffer, MD, FAAP, FACP, is board certified in internal medicine, pediatrics, and pediatric hospital medicine. She works as a Med-Peds hospitalist at WVU-Thomas Hospital in Charleston. She is the president of the West Virginia Chapter of Society of Hospital Medicine. She also is the co-chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics section of hospital medicine Med-Peds subcommittee and serves as the secretary-treasurer for the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Presentation: Congenital Syphilis: History and Clinical Manifestations

Stefan R. Maxwell, MD, FAAP, is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is certified in Neonatal – Perinatal Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has served West Virginia mothers and babies at Charleston Area Medical Center, Women and Children’s Hospital for almost 25 years. He has been the Medical Director of the NICU since 1990, with PEDIATRIX Medical Group, and Chief of Pediatrics for the past 15 years.

Dr. Maxwell has served on the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership Central Advisory Council since 2006, providing leadership as Chair of the Central Advisory Council since 2013 and Chair of the Committee on Substance Use During Pregnancy for over eight years. He has been a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Abuse since its inception in 2010. He has provided expert testimony to the West Virginia Legislature in support of the Uniform Maternal Risk Screening legislation and the Infant Mortality Review legislation and has raised awareness within the State legislature regarding alcohol, tobacco and drug use during pregnancy. His commitment and leadership have been important to the Partnership’s successes in policy improvement for the care of mothers and babies.

Presentation: Abusive Head Trauma in WV Infants and Toddlers <24 months: Epidemiology and Prevention Efforts

James McJunkin, MD, is a retired pediatric critical care physician and former chair of WVU Department of Pediatrics at Women and Children’s Hospital. He did his fellowship training in critical care at UPMC Pittsburgh and did a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He continues to mentor residents at CAMC, mainly in research methodology, and is involved in advocacy, mainly in firearm injury prevention, and continues to collaborate with the AIM team (see below). His prior work as Principal Investigator of the Statewide Abusive Head Trauma Incidence Monitoring Team (aka AIM Team) led to publication in Child Abuse Neglect in 2019 of “Epidemiology of Abusive Head Trauma in WV Children <24 months: 2000-2010”. He continues to collaborate with Dr. Joan Phillips, now the Principal Investigator of the AIM Team, and with Dr. Chuck Mullett of WVU and Dr. Ed Pino of Marshall, Dr. Allison Holstein of CAMC and Dr. Taylor Cunningham of WVU, among others.

Presentation: Trauma-Informed Care in the Perinatal Setting

Ashley Murphy, LICSW, MAC, AADC, is the Director of Addiction Services at Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, West Virginia. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds certifications as Master Addiction Counselor and Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She has worked specifically in the field of substance use disorder (SUD) for the past ten years, with five years focused primarily on working with pregnant and postpartum women struggling with Opioid Use Disorder and five years as the Director of Addiction Services in a hospital-based program. Ashley oversees a team of Peer Recovery Coaches and works to develop hospital policies that will enhance the care and experience of patients who struggle with SUD. Prior to focusing her work on SUD, she spent many years working in child welfare while living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Presentation: Abusive Head Trauma in WV Infants and Toddlers <24 months: Epidemiology and Prevention Efforts

Joan Phillips, MD, FAAP, is a Board-Certified Child Abuse Pediatrician. Between 2010 – 2022 she was consulted on numerous cases of Abusive Head Trauma in children. She was instrumental in initiating AHT and is currently the principal investigator along with Dr. Jim McJunkin on a follow-up study. Dr Phillips is currently the medical director of the Child Advocacy Center at CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital. She graduated from WVU School of Medicine in 1980 and completed a Pediatric residency at CAMC in 1983. From 1983 until 2005 she practiced in general pediatrics in Teays Valley. Her days are busy being a Nonna to 9 grandchildren.

Presentation: The Impact of Early Relational Health on Maternal and Child Health Outcomes: What Happens Between Babies and Caregivers Matters for Everyone

Dorothy Richardson, PhD, IECMH-E, is a Clinical and Developmental Psychologist, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School where she serves as Executive Director of the Early Relational Health Program in the Lifeline for Families Center. She is Co-Founder, Director and Core Faculty of the Fellowship in Early Relational Health at UMass Chan, the Founding Clinical Director of the Rice Center for Young Children and Families, a trauma-informed relationship-based infant-parent mental health clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, and Past-President of the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH). Dr. Richardson provides reflective and clinical consultation to multidisciplinary professionals in perinatal, infant, and early childhood mental health programs internationally.

Presentation: EMS: Challenges in the Field for Transporting Pregnant and Laboring Persons

Paul Seamann, MCCP, RN, MSM-HCA, is the Director of Operations for Jan-Care Ambulance and has worked within the hospital environment for 30+ years. Jan-Care operates 65+ ambulances across 13 West Virginia counties as well as being a primary 911 emergency response provider in five southern West Virginia counties. During Mr. Seamann’s in-field EMS career, he was lead paramedic on five SIDS infants, delivered a 13-ounce newborn, and instructed NALS, NRP, PALS, PEPP, etc. With Jan-Care Ambulance responding to over 100,000 calls a year, he hopes to impart some knowledge gained from a variety of perinatal transports.

Presentation: Reducing Very Low Birth Weight Infant Deliveries in Non-Tertiary Care Hospitals

M. Cody Smith, MD, FAAP, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at West Virginia University School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from West Virginia University and completed his Pediatrics Residency and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship there as well. Dr. Smith is board-certified in both General Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. He serves as an attending neonatologist at multiple hospitals, including WU Medicine Children’s Hospital, Berkeley Medical Center, and Wheeling Hospital. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Smith has been involved in various research projects, particularly focusing on neonatal abstinence syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and many quality improvement initiatives.
He has also held leadership roles in national and state committees, contributing to the advancement of neonatal-perinatal medicine and the care of substance-exposed newborns.

Presentation: Pitfalls of Drug Testing

Danyel Tacker, PhD, D(ABCC), FADLM, is a clinical professor of pathology at WU. She serves in multiple roles at WU Hospital, Fairmont Medical Center, and in the WVU Medicine system. A trained clinical chemist, Ms. Tacker directs chemistry, toxicology, point-of-care, and specialized testing sections at the local and enterprise level.