Our Team

Dr. Gibson is an assistant professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science. Her research focuses on the intersections among information seeking and access, technology, community, and identity (dis/ability, race, gender) for traditionally marginalized groups of people. She has extensive experience examining the information needs and information seeking behavior of parents of individuals with disabilities using qualitative (interview, content analysis, focus groups, qualitative and public participation mapping) and quantitative methods. She collects/curates and analyzes small and large data (survey, Facebook, and twitter data) sets to learn how young people who have experienced marginalization engage with computers and each other. Her recent work has focused on peer-to-peer learning/information exchange using technology, in distributed and place-based communities. Her early career work focuses on modeling information access and information poverty within local communities. Dr. Gibson has expertise in working with parents to explore information needs. She brings her expertise to the team as we work to connect new mothers with each other and provide them tailored information that meets their needs. She is also a mother of three and has a passion for improving the health and well-being of families.

Ms. Harper is a registered nurse with over 16 years of experience in Maternal and Child Health. She currently serves as a coordinator for the Perinatal Neonatal Outreach Project for UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health. Her breadth of experience ranges from leadership and nursing roles in labor and delivery units, postpartum care, public health home visiting programs, and hospital administration. Ms. Harper developed processes and workflows to open a women’s hospital in 2015. The combination of her experiences enables her to integrate evidenced based practice into standards of care. A mom of two, Ms. Harper has a wealth of knowledge about mom-centered postpartum healing and recovery.

Venus Standard is a Certified Nurse Midwife and Assistant Professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine. She cares for women, pregnant women, and delivers comprehensive primary care for families. Ms. Standard believes in educating women and their families to live a healthy lifestyle by supporting family planning, promoting healthy natural childbirth and encouraging breastfeeding. In her clinical practice, she partners with patients to ensure that their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and cultural needs are met. Venus’s motto is “Textbooks taught me the science of obstetrics but I learned the art of birth from babies and their mothers” (Vincent, 2002). Ms. Standard is focused on enabling health within underserved communities, which she actively addresses by providing compassionate education and care to the women and families of Greensboro, North Carolina her organization 4Moms2Be. She is a leader within and beyond her community and brings her clinical expertise and her beautiful capacity for building new mom communities to the team.

Dr. Stuebe is a Professor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Distinguished Professor of Infant and Young Child Feeding at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Stuebe is a Board-Certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine Physician who practices the full scope of high risk obstetrics, including outpatient consultative care, prenatal diagnosis and ultrasound, and intrapartum care and inpatient management of high risk pregnant and postpartum women. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health and HRSA, and she has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers. She is nationally-known expert on postpartum health: She chaired the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Task Force on Reinventing Postpartum Care, and she was lead author of the Safe Healthcare for Every Woman bundle, Postpartum Care Basics for Maternal Safety from Birth to the Comprehensive Postpartum Visit for the Alliance on Innovation in Maternal Health. She is co-leading a second bundle on the transition to well woman care– Dr. Verbiest is a member of that committee. At UNC, she is Medical Director of Lactation Services for UNC HealthCare, providing direct insights into safe support of optimal early infant feeding. Dr. Stuebe’s leadership roles in the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine brings a wealth of clinical knowledge and connections to the team. A mom of three, she also brings her passion for advocacy and system change to the team.

Dr. Tully is a research assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UNC and a member of the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health. She is trained in medical anthropology and developmental science. Her research focuses on the needs of birthing people and infants in the postpartum period and the ways in which health care services can be more family-centered and effective. At UNC, she is Co-Principal Investigator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded Postnatal Patient Safety Learning Laboratory with Dr. Stuebe and Dr. Tully leads the Couplet Care BassinetTM project, a National Institutes of Health-supported collaboration to design, develop, and test a new patented infant bassinet to promote safety, breastfeeding, and wellness during postpartum hospitalization. Dr. Tully coordinated the PCORI 4th Trimester Patient Engagement Award, recruiting and retaining a diverse team of patient partners to identify unmet needs in the months following birth (PCORI EAIN-2603) and currently directs 4th Trimester Project media (www.facebook.com/4thTrimesterProject). She is an investigator on ongoing research studies with Dr. Stuebe and colleagues to appropriately screen and support social determinants of health through maternity care. Drs. Tully, Verbiest, and Stuebe have worked together on multiple highly productive projects. Dr. Tully’s successful prototyping experience provides critical insight into co-development of the online information hub as does her qualitative research expertise. A mom of two, she helps the team tell the story of many different kinds of transitions through the 4th Trimester and beyond and brings a sense of reflection and deep partnership development to the team.

Dr. Verbiest is Director of the Jordan Institute for Families, UNC School of Social Work and Executive Director, UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health. She is nationally known for her work on postpartum care and health equity. Her dissertation focused on the missed opportunities within postpartum care and she later co-led a national Think Tank meeting on postpartum services and co-edited a special journal issue focusing on the postpartum period. She was the Principal Investigator for the PCORI 4th Trimester Patient Engagement Award (EAIN-2603) and she is a Co-Investigator on the Care4MOMS HRSA MCHB R40 study along with Dr. Stuebe. She draws on more than 25 years of experience in maternal and infant health to support this work. She recently published a book – Moving Life Course Theory into Action – which included a focus on sensitive periods of human development and equity, including the postpartum period. Dr. Verbiest has given key note addresses at highly visible and important gatherings such as the HRSA Global Summit on Maternal Mortality and the US Women’s Health Alliance. She has given voice to postpartum health issues, particularly for moms of color via multiple media outlets, include NPR’s Studio 1A and the Wall Street Journal. A mom of two, she brings her significant reach and influence in the field of maternal and child health to support wide-spread dissemination of 4th Trimester work to professionals and women who are becoming mothers. She also provides leadership to the larger movement and supports the development of strategic partnership to advance 4th Trimester work.

Nkechi received her B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in political science and a minor in Spanish from UNC-Chapel Hill and La Universidad de Sevilla. She later pursued an M.A. in Global Policy Studies, specializing in international development at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (LBJ) in 2013.  Nkechi’s current research pursuits are at the intersection of MCH and behavioral health, addressing health disparities through evidence-based interventions. She seeks to examine strategies addressing MCH challenges among underserved populations locally and abroad, identify gaps in implementation, and design and evaluate MCH interventions. Nkechi is particularly interested in the ecological complexities that influence maternal health behavior and outcomes.

Outside of school, Nkechi enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter. She is a foodie, a lover of books and music, and passionate about people and cultures.

Nikki Greenaway, aka Nurse Nikki, is a wife, mother of three, Nurse practitioner, lactation consultant that specializes in postpartum health. Nurse Nikki is the founder and owner of Bloom Maternal Health. Bloom provides virtual prenatal support and postpartum care to families in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia and Florida. Learn more about Nikki’s work at https://www.bloommaternalhealth.org./

Nikki serves as an educational and clinical content development consultant for new mom and clinic team materials, including a series of video reels. View here.