# Equity in Maternal and Birthing Outcomes and Reproductive HeAlth through Community Engagement

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $2,154,648

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Longstanding racial and socioeconomic inequities in the US, underpinned by historical legacies
of systemic racism, oppression and exploitation, have burdened Black people and increased
their risk of adverse maternal and reproductive health outcomes. Through Reproductive Justice,
anti-racist scholarship and social justice praxis, researchers and clinicians are increasingly
advocating for and innovating approaches that center and empower the community's lived
experience. The Equity in Maternal and Birthing outcomes and Reproductive HeAlth through
Community Engagement (EMBRACE) Center is a multidisciplinary community-academic
partnership to advance maternal and reproductive health for Black people in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania and augment training in anti-oppression praxis for care providers, researchers,
and policy advocates. Leveraging existing and developing relationships, as well as our
leadership expertise, the EMBRACE Center consists of three multi-level research projects: 1)
implementation of a community health worker model to support postpartum recovering among
Black birthing people at risk for severe maternal morbidity; 2) integration of enhanced
postpartum (4th trimester) and interconception care centering Black families; and 3) evaluation
of policies governing maternal and reproductive health equity among Black populations. Two
components (Community and Training) will provide support and structure across the center to
ensure community partnership and thought leadership in all phases of the work and training and
capacity building for reproductive justice and equity. In line with the Center's vision, researchers
and community collaborators (many of them Black-led organizations) will employ power-sharing
approaches that value diverse forms of knowledge and dissemination processes in equitable,
accessible ways. We expect the work of EMBRACE to result in sustainable approaches and
interventions that will advance maternal and reproductive health equity justice and improve
health and well-being for Black women, femmes, and gender expansive people.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10747792
- **Project number:** 1U54HD113030-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Dara Daneen Mendez
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $2,154,648
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-26 → 2030-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10747792

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10747792, Equity in Maternal and Birthing Outcomes and Reproductive HeAlth through Community Engagement (1U54HD113030-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10747792. Licensed CC0.

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