UC Berkeley’s Center of Excellence in Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Awarded 5-year HRSA MCHB Grant Renewal

June 10, 2020

a man and a woman hold a child in the air

The UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s Center of Excellence in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (CoE in MCAH) recently received a Notice of Award for the competitive renewal of their $1.75 million 5-year Health Resources Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau grant. 

The CoE in MCAH was first awarded the grant in 1954; in 2020, it celebrates its 66th continuous year of providing superior graduate training, continuing education, technical assistance, research and service in MCAH. The program has over 1,200 alumni working in the field around the world.

The grant will help fund the education of Master in Public Health Students in MCAH at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. It also supports Graduate Student Instructor and Graduate Student Researcher positions and will facilitate summer internships with Title V and MCAH partner organizations. The grant will also support a student-run interdisciplinary group that will provide students interested in MCAH with opportunities to network and learn in the field.   

Other grant activities will include a biannual research symposium, co-produced with UCSF's Leadership and Education in Adolescent Health Program and UC Berkeley’s MCHB-funded Maternal Child Health Nutrition Training program, and the annual UCB MCAH alumni networking event. The Center will also provide virtual technical assistance and support to Title V programs and local and state MCAH departments in the areas of survey design, evaluation activities, and research. 

Dr. Julianna Deardorff will serve as Principal Investigator of the grant. Dr. Deardorff is Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Division of Community Health Sciences and head of the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health program. As PI and Director of the CoE, she will provide leadership and direction for all training, practice, and research related activities.

The renewed funding will allow the Center to carry out its mission of training new leaders to solve the MCAH health challenges of the 21st century at local, national and global levels.