Maternal Health Inequity in the United States:

A Case Study in New Jersey

Dr. Leslie Kantor '89 BC

Chair and Professor, Dept. of Urban-Global Public Health
Rutgers University

Black women in the United States are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related issue than white women, and most maternal deaths are preventable.

Please join Barnard in Washington for a special presentation concerning maternal health inequities with alumna, Dr. Leslie M. Kantor.

Click here to RSVP!!!

After registering for the event, you will receive a registration confirmation email which will include a link to the Zoom presentation for the event.

DrL-1_1_.jpgDr. Leslie Kantor chairs the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health and is a widely recognized public health leader, researcher, educator, and advocate. She is also the Principal Investigator for the State of New Jersey’s Nurture New Jersey initiative, a set of policies and programs that aim to make New Jersey the safest and most equitable location in which to give birth in the country. Dr. Kantor’s current research focuses on maternal health disparities within the State of New Jersey and improving health equity for Black women.

Dr. Kantor has been an advocate on public health issues since her student days at Barnard, when she started the college’s first peer-led health education program which focused on HIV/AIDS . After graduating from Barnard, Dr. Kantor obtained a Master of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a Doctorate in Social Policy and Administration from the Columbia School of Social Work.

Prior to her current position at Rutgers University, Dr. Kantor served as Vice President of Education at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and as an Assistant Professor and Director of Special Projects at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. While at Planned Parenthood, Dr. Kantor played a central role in national, state, and local policy to help ensure evidence-based sex education, and she and her team successfully created an array of digital approaches for Planned Parenthood’s educational content on sexual and reproductive health. As a faculty member at the Mailman School of Public Health, Dr. Kantor worked closely with the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) and Reproductive Health Access Service in Emergencies (RAISE) initiatives to strengthen critical services throughout the world. She also created new courses and helped integrate modern pedagogical approaches.

Dr. Kantor is the recipient of the 2023 Rutgers College Class of 1962 Presidential Public Service Award, the 2020 Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence from the Mailman School of Public Health, the 2019 recipient of the LLoyd M. Felmly award from the NJ Public Health Association for advancing public health through media, the 2018 recipient of the Carl S. Shultz Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sexual and Reproductive Health section of APHA, a 2018 recipient of the Millicent Carey McIntosh Award for Feminism from Barnard, and the recipient of APHA’s Jay S. Drotman award for challenging public health practice in a creative and positive manner.

This event is run by the Barnard in Washington club.

WHEN
January 30, 2025 at 7:00pm - 8pm
WHERE

Webinar

Washington, DC
United States
CONTACT

Miyako Yerick

TICKETS