Jeannese Castro, a graduate student in maternal and child health, is one of several university representatives who presented research at the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs Annual Conference. The meetings were held February 9-12 in Washington, DC.

Ms. Castro and Candace Oubre, MA, presented “Preconception Peer Educators: Assessing Perspective, Culture, Treatment, and Outreach: A Holistic Approach to Achieving Positive Maternal and Child Health Outcomes.” Castro is president of the Preconception Peer Educators (PPE) Program at the University of South Florida.

(l,r) Candace Oubre and Jeannese Castro

The PPE is an internship offered by USF’s Office of Minority Health and is a national campaign to raise awareness about infant mortality inequalities, with an emphasis on the African-American community.  “PPE is a group of trained individuals who reach out to the community to bring awareness to the issues of health and social justice in an effort to end health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities,” said Christina Sudduth, a graduate student in global health practice and vice-president of PPE.

Ms. Castro earned a Student Honorary Award for Research and Practice (SHARP) from the College of Public Health. This coupled with funding from the Office of Minority Health supported her PPE research and conference presentation.

Other attendees from the USF College of Public Health included:

William Sappenfield, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Department of Community and Family Health, “Developing Life Course Indicators for Title V Programs”

Martha Coulter, DrPH, MSW, professor and director of the James and Jennifer Harrell Center, and Lianne Estefan, PhD, MPH, CFH, research assistant professor, “Innovative University-Community Partnership”

Latrice Holt, PPE intern, Maternal and Child Health Traineeship Scholar and graduate student

(l,r) Dr. William Sappenfield, Latrice Holt, Jeannese Castro, and Candace Oubre