Maureen P. Corry, MPH
Executive DirectorMaureen Corry has thirty years experience as a researcher, educator, advocate and policy analyst focusing on maternal and child health promotion and maternity care quality improvement. She joined Childbirth Connection (founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association) as executive director in 1995, and has positioned the organization as a powerful and effective advocate for evidence-based maternity care and maternity care quality improvement. In 2006, she guided the organization through a rebranding process to bring its name, logo and website in line with its contemporary focus. Maureen spearheaded recent efforts to launch Childbirth Connection’s Transforming Maternity Care initiative focused on improving maternity care quality and value through broad health system improvement. This work resulted in the release of two direction-setting reports "2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System" and "Blueprint for Action", and the establishment of a public-private multi-stakeholder Partnership and Action Community to implement Blueprint steps to improve maternity care quality and value.
Prior to joining Childbirth Connection, Maureen spent 14 years at the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. Maureen is currently a member of the board of directors of the National Quality Forum (NQF), and serves as vice chair of NQF’s Consumer Council. She also served as co-chair of the Steering Committee for the NQF’s National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Perinatal Care Project. She currently serves as a member of the Consumer Advisory Council of the National Commission on Quality Assurance and the Patient Consumer Advisory Committee of the Center for Medical Technology Policy. She also serves as Co-chair of Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare, and is a member of the Advisory Council for Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need. Maureen received her MPH from Yale School of Public Health in Health Services Administration.
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Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH
Director of ProgramsCarol Sakala has been involved with maternity care issues as an advocate, educator, researcher, author, and policy analyst for more than twenty-five years, with a continuous focus on meeting the needs of childbearing women and their families. She joined Childbirth Connection (then known as Maternity Center Association) as Director of Programs in 2000, after helping to plan the organization’s long-term national program to promote evidence-based maternity care. She has since developed and led a broad range of program activities to advance Childbirth Connection's mission of improving the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Through its programs, Childbirth Connection serves as a trusted and valued resource to health professionals, childbearing women, policy makers, the media, and a broad range of organizations and agencies.
Carol is the lead author of the 2008 Milbank Report, Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve, is co-author of a series of Listening to Mothers survey reports, and is co-author of the widely accessed Cochrane Review "Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth." She is active in groups that are working to improve the quality of health care, both nationally (e.g., National Quality Forum, National Priorities Partnership) and internationally (e.g., Cochrane Collaboration, Guidelines International Network). Carol was a Pew Health Policy fellow at Boston University, where she received her doctorate in Health Policy through the University Professors Program in 1993. She has Master's Degrees from the University of Utah and the University of Chicago.
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Amy Romano, CNM, MSN
Associate Director of ProgramsAmy Romano, CNM, MSN, received a BA with a dual concentration in women’s health and economics from the University of Michigan in 1998 and worked in government and nonprofit public health agencies before returning to school to become a midwife. She completed both her nursing and midwifery training at Yale School of Nursing and went on to practice full-scope midwifery in home, birth center, and hospital settings. Amy has served on both the clinical and teaching faculty at Yale and was a 2007 recipient of the Hazel Corbin Award for Evidence-based Midwifery Practice. She has written extensively about maternity care research for birth professionals and the public, and founded the award-winning research blog, Science & Sensibility. She has also provided writing, research, advocacy, and social media consulting services to organizations including the National Cancer Institute, Lamaze International, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, InJoy Birth & Parenting Videos, Our Bodies Ourselves and the Centering Healthcare Institute. Amy lives on the Connecticut shoreline with her husband and two young children.
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Gregory Diego
Director of Finance and AdministrationGregory Diego has extensive accounting experience gained through more than thirteen years of employment in the government, private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining Childbirth Connection, he worked as an auditor, consultant and manager. As Director of Finance and Administration, Greg is responsible for administrative oversight, budgeting, preparation of financial statements, and implementing strict internal control procedures to ensure the integrity of financial transactions. He is also responsible for sales and marketing of our publications. Greg uses his broad accounting knowledge to apply sound judgment to business transactions, coordinates the year end audit and keeps up-to-date with the most recent accounting standards and practices from the leading governing organizations of the accounting profession. He also works closely with the Finance Committee of Childbirth Connection's Board of Directors. He lives near the beach in Far Rockaway and enjoys jazz.
Kat Song, MPP
Director of Public AffairsKat is a veteran health care communicator who joined Childbirth Connection in 2008 shortly before the release of their influential report, Evidence-Based Medicine: What It Is and What It Can Achieve. With a master's degree in public policy that focused on health from Georgetown University, she has long been committed to health care quality and evidence-based medicine. In the past, she has led communications for the hospital quality nonprofit, The Leapfrog Group, and for various health and technology clients at Fenton Communications and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Kat is an active Washingtonian and serves on the boards of two local nonprofit organizations. One informs people about environmental health issues impacting children in DC; the other reroutes old computers from landfills, refurbishes them by providing computer training to at-risk youth, and provides them for free to low-income children in DC. She lives in the heart of Washington, DC with her two young children, Oliver and Jules, and husband, Chris.
Ariel Herrlich, MA
Executive AssistantAs Executive Assistant, Ariel provides direct, substantive, administrative and project management support to the Executive Director and senior program staff. Ariel came to Childbirth Connection from Washington, D.C., where she earned a combined undergraduate and graduate degree in five years from the George Washington University in 2010, focusing on women’s studies and public policy. For her master’s thesis, she researched medical interventions in childbirth and vital statistics. During her time in Washington, Ariel interned at multiple non-profit women’s and health advocacy organizations, such as the American College for Nurse-Midwives, Emily’s List, and Break the Cycle.
© 2013 Childbirth Connection. All rights reserved.
Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.
Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.
Most recent page update: 2/24/2012