Monthly Archives: December, 2014

Posted: December 16th, 2014

Jessica Bushar, MPH
Research Director Text4baby
National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition

Jessica Bushar earned a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology at UIC in 2010 and was a recipient of an award from Irving Harris Foundation. Following her graduation from UIC, Jessica was a Principal Research Analyst at NORC at the University of Chicago. In 2012, she began working at the National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) where she now holds the position of Research Director of Text4baby.

Jessica is passionate about her work on Text4baby, which partners with more than 1,200 local, state, and national partners to improve the health of mothers and babies by providing timely, vital health and safety information to mothers by via text message. The Text4baby program has reached over 800,000 pregnant women and new moms and provided them with over 116 million text messages. As the Research Director, Jessica spends much of her time at HMHB working with partners and staff to evaluate Text4baby’s impact and facilitate research informed quality improvement.

Jessica believes her degree in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology from UIC helped improve her qualitative research skills and gain the competencies needed to make her a well-rounded researcher – skills that have made it possible for her to excel at her position as Research Director of Text4baby. Jessica’s research is implemented in real time to make a widespread positive impact on the lives of moms and babies through easy to access, crucial health information.

Written by Cristina Turino, UIC Research Assistant and UIC MCH MPH Candidate

Posted: December 5th, 2014

Madiha Qureshi, MPH
State Director of Program Services
March of Dimes

Madiha Qureshi is the State Director of Program Services at the March of Dimes. As State Director, Madiha oversees the Illinois chapter’s programming and grant making to support state-wide efforts to reduce premature birth, infant mortality, and help mothers have full term pregnancies. She is currently working with maternal and child health leaders, health providers, and stakeholders across Illinois on initiatives to lower early elective deliveries before 39 weeks gestation. The campaign empowers and educates consumers about the importance of letting labor begin on its own and works with hospitals to develop “hard stop policies” and procedures to prevent early elective deliveries. Additionally, under Madiha’s leadership, the Illinois Chapter of March of Dimes is working on increasing bilingual prenatal education programs for expecting mothers and male involvement programming.

Madiha graduated from UIC with a Master of Public Health from the Maternal and Child Health Program (MCHP) in 2009, and she was a recipient of an Irving Harris Foundation Award. Madiha chose to attend the UIC School of Public Health because of her passion for advocating for women and infants, and the strong Maternal and Child Health Program. One of her most formative experiences while at UIC was attending Leadership, Legacy, & Community: A Retreat to Advance MCH Scholarship & Practice Leadership, which was hosted by MCHP through support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The Retreat brought together “amazing leaders from the field” who were truly excited about the work they were doing. This experience solidified Madiha’s commitment to the MCH discipline and helped her form connections with public health leaders in Chicago.

Madiha is making significant contributions to the MCH community through her leadership at the March of Dimes to improve health outcomes for mothers and infants.

Written by Cristina Turino, UIC Research Assistant and UIC MCH MPH Candidate