Healthy Start is a national program that helps improve the lives of mothers, infants, and families before, during, and beyond pregnancy. Through coordinated care case management, home visits, outreach, and education, Healthy Start seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, increase access to prenatal care, and remove barriers to service. Houston has high rates of infant and maternal mortality, with black mothers being most at risk.

The program aims to address these inequities through its community-based approach and by partnering with organizations and individuals from these communities.

Dr. McClain Sampson's published research focuses on factors that influence maternal mental and physical health. She has published articles on her postpartum depression home visiting intervention, racial/ethnic disparities of postpartum depression, and the use of Motivational Interviewing in health care. She completed her postdoctoral research fellowship with Baylor College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. At that time, she worked on a CDC Funded project to reduce the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy among low-income women in Harris Health integrated healthcare centers. Effective interventions for maternal behavioral health continue to be a priority for Dr. Sampson as she develops her research agenda.

Dr. Sampson is active in several community-engaged research projects. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator for the Department of Health and Human Service/HRSA funded programs: GLOBE and UH Healthy Start. GLOBE aims to increase the number of clinical behavioral health social workers.  The Healthy Start program aims to decrease maternal and infant mortality in Houston’s hardest-hit communities, where African-American mothers and infants die at disproportionately higher rates than others.

LaSondra Noil LaSondra Noil is a qualified professional with over 21 years of experience in the education and social services field. With a specific focus on working with diverse populations within various settings, including child protection, mental health, maternal and child health systems, dental education, and clinical settings. LaSondra’s goals are rooted in motivating and coaching consumers to obtain self-sufficiency in the areas of social development, education attainment, and medical and mental health access.

Wen Xu is a PhD candidate at the University of Houston, focusing her research on maternal and child health, social determinants of health, and the intersection of health and technology. She earned her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and is licensed as a Master of Social Work in Texas. Prior to her PhD program, Wen served as a social work instructor and rural child protection project manager in China. Her dissertation uses a narrative approach to explore the experiences of becoming a mother in contemporary Mainland China. Wen has published several peer-reviewed articles and presented at various national and international conferences. Currently, she works as a data analyst at Healthy Start, where she assists and monitors daily data efforts to inform better program implementation.

Learn more about the Maternal Health Equity Research and Training Center at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work HERE

Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch