Imani Barnes

From January- August of 2024, Imani worked as a Family Case Manager (FCM) at Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness. Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness is a non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center that services predominately low-income, Black, brown, immigrants, and Medicaid recipients. The FCM program is funded through the Department of Human Services and is intended to address factors contributed to infant mortality, low birth weight, and adverse perinatal outcomes in high risk populations. As a Family Case Manager, Imani provided social resources, such as WIC referrals, for pregnant and parenting mothers and assisted with coordinating care, accessing resources, providing on-going health education, removing/reducing healthcare barriers.

Imani is interested about research and health interventions that address healthcare barriers experienced by the Black maternal and child population. She's especially passionate about the development of public health programs that target the socioeconomic barriers to healthcare experienced by Black women and infants to dismantle health disparities like low birth weight and maternal morbidity/mortality.

Imani's professional goal is to become a reproductive epidemiologist and to focus her research on the structural inequalities experienced by marginalized communities and the effects these inequalities have on the high maternal mortality/morbidity rate in certain population compared to others. An academic goal of hers is to develop professional connections with other maternal and child health professionals and advocates by attending conferences, research opportunities, and community partnership.

Fun Fact: Imani love scary movies, and she has a cat name Junebug.