Crisis in the Crib: Infant Mortality in the African American Community

SPECIAL DATE AND TIME: WED. DEC. 2ND AT 7PM EST.

SPECIAL GUEST: Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, PhD RN FAAN, Assistant Dean Diversity and Cultural Affairs at the Univerty of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is a founding member and former President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. She served as a member of the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM), during the Clinton and Bush administrations, initially appointed by Secretary Shalala and later by Secretary Thompson. As a funded infant researcher focused on the growth and development of minority infants, and expert member of SACIM, she consulted on the development of the national campaign to close the gap on infant mortality, a health disparity that especially affects the African American community. SPECIAL GUEST: Stephanie Chu is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Stephanie has been working on the A Healthy Baby Begins With You Campaign of the Office of Minority Health since the summer of 2008, when she traveled to Howard University to be trained as a preconception peer educator (PPE). She then returned to her campus and trained her peers to become preconception peer educators as well. You can email Stephanie Chu to learn more about becoming a Peer Educator at chusteph@nursing.upenn.edu. Check out http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov to learn more about the A Healthy Baby Begins With You Campaign.