Leadership
Lee Anne Roman, PhD, MSN, RN
Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
She/Her
Lee Anne Roman, PhD, MSN, RN is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University and is the Director and Co-Founder of the Maternal Health Equity Lab. Dr. Roman, building on her health professional training, uses the tools of science to develop, implement, and test health care strategies and interventions designed to reduce maternal and infant socio-economic and racial/ethnic health disparities. She partners with providers, communities, and policymakers to create new knowledge that drives innovation to improve health care—and ultimately the health and life chances of vulnerable women and infants.
Cristian Meghea, PhD
Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
He/Him
Cristian Meghea, Ph.D. is an NIH-funded Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University. He is the Director and Co-Founder of the Maternal Health Equity Lab. His expertise is in maternal and child health, global health, health services research, health policy, and women’s health. His research focuses on the prenatal and perinatal period as a window of opportunity to improve the long-term health of mothers and their children. Trained as an Economist, he brings evaluation and data analysis expertise to his field of research.
Team
Jennifer E. Raffo, MA
Research, Evaluation, and Quality Improvement Team Supervisor
She/her
Jennifer is a staff team supervisor for the Maternal Health Equity Lab in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University. Ms. Raffo manages all aspects of project planning, implementation, and data analysis work involved with the lab and lab administration. She has been involved with several research and evaluation initiatives within Michigan communities focused on population health, health system and health services research, and evaluation in maternal and child health within the Medicaid population for over 15 years. She has extensive experience in project planning and development, grant writing, project administration, community implementation, budgeting, communication, and maintaining relationships with community partners including large health systems, local public health, Federally Qualified Health Centers, health plans, and community mental health and national organizations. She specializes in program evaluation, quality improvement, process improvement, and health promotion intervention development through engaged scholarship. She is certified in lean process improvement methods and has primary authored publications. Ms. Raffo received a MA in Health Communication from Michigan State University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, horse riding, and hiking.
Hannah Bolder, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
She/Her
Hannah Bolder is an Assistant Professor in the OBGYN Department at Michigan State University. Trained as an Economist, her expertise lies in understanding sources of geographic variation in healthcare utilization and variation over time. This includes looking at financial incentives, legal institutions, and medical guidelines as determinants of hospital and physician behavior. Hannah’s current data-driven work focuses on developing a claims-based definition of non-severe maternal morbidity and quantifying the prevalence in a Michigan Medicaid population. She received a PhD and MA in economics from the University of Michigan and a BA from Northwestern University in Linguistics; Asian and Middle East Studies.
Ran Meng, MS
Data Resource Analyst
She/Her
Ran Meng is a Data Resource Analyst at the Maternal Health Equity Lab with a lead focus on data extraction, management and outcomes reporting. Previously, she was a program research specialist at the Office of Quality and Patient Safety at the New York Department of Health in Albany, NY where she was responsible for the development of behavioral and substance use health measures, the APC scorecard for reporting on a core set of measures tailored for primary care sites, and programming HEDIS measures to streamline the development of a state-wide Clinical Data Mart. She has expertise in working with Medicaid data, statistical programming and databases. She received a BS from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and an MS in Health Outcomes Research from the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in New York. Outside of work, she enjoys collecting plants, and attending dance classes.
Hannah Nelson, MPH
Project Administrator
She/her
At the Maternal Health Equity Lab, Hannah works as a Project Administrator with a focus on building and maintaining community partnerships. In these partnerships Hannah works with community members to coordinate and implement both quality improvement and evaluation strategies. Prior to joining the Lab, she served as a Program Director at the YWCA West Central Michigan and as a Clinic Assistant Manager with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. With more than seven years of experience in community program development and evaluation, she works to center the voices of community members in all quality improvement projects. She received BS degrees in Human Biology and Anthropology from Michigan State University and an MPH from the Colorado School of Public Health. Outside of work, Hannah enjoys gardening, crocheting, and traveling.
Olivia Ogilvie
Assistant Project Coordinator
She/her
Olivia is the Research Assistant for the Maternal Health Equity Lab in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She facilitates communication between the Lab leadership, the MIRACLE Center, and our community and academic partners. A recent responsibility was utilizing Community Health Worker feedback to update all intervention materials for Strong Beginnings, a local federal Healthy Start program. The intervention materials serve as a framework to assist Community Health Workers in providing the most effective support to birthing persons and their partners during pregnancy and the 18 months following birth. Olivia recently graduated from Denison University, where she completed a B.S. in Biological Sciences and was named Senior Fellow of the Biology Department – the biological science program’s highest award. In addition to her contributions to the Maternal Health Equity Lab, Olivia is a lead Course Coordinator for the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, travel, and ballet.
Xiao Yu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology
She/her
Xiao Yu is an Assistant Professor in the OBGYN Department at Michigan State University. Her training and expertise include social determinants of health, social inequality and stratification, and quantitative methodology with a focus on causal inference in non-experimental studies. Her previously published works utilized various data types, including survey, administrative and device-based digital data, and examined the impacts of the labor market and occupation on individuals’ economic and physical wellbeing. Her current research centers on structural racism and maternal health equity, and she seeks to evaluate and understand how community-engaged interventions can mitigate the impact of structural racism on perinatal health and health disparities. Her projects include neighborhood determinants of severe maternal morbidity, the effectiveness of community health worker home visiting on maternal and infant health, and program engagement among birthing population with complex health and social needs. She received a PhD in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University, an MA from Pennsylvania State University, and a BA from Peking University. Outside of work, she loves jogging, singing, and exploring historic sites with her family.