Our Team

Dr. Ahmed is a physician, demographer and epidemiologist. His research includes reproductive epidemiology, particularly maternal mortality estimation and program evaluation for family planning and maternal and child health care. He is a principal investigator for a multi-country study in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria. He also teaches courses on survey sampling methods and on complex survey data analysis. He is a technical advisor to the Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) for the WHO's global estimation of maternal mortality.

Dr. Bower's research and public health nursing practice is focused on the elimination of racial disparities in maternal and child health. Her research examines the role of racism and respectful maternity care in maternal and child health outcomes. She also studies involvement in maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting programs and the impact childhood trauma has on involvement. Dr. Bower applies a community-engaged approach to her research that comes from her 18 years of experience practicing as a public health nurse and involvement with the Baltimore City Health Department, the B'More for Healthy Babies Initiative, and the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR).

Dr. Creanga is the Program Director for MDMOM. Her research focuses on perinatal quality and safety both domestically and internationally. She is the Associate Director of the International Center for Maternal and Newborn Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an Associate Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Dr. Creanga is a member of the Maryland Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She has received numerous professional honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the United States Government, Executive Office of the President.

Priyanka is a Research Assistant with the MDMOM program. She is a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH)'21 candidate, concentrating in International Health Health Systems. Her academic pursuits include an understanding of the public health policies and health systems that will help shape the public health infrastructure of low and middle income countries. She is also a Healthcare Marketing expert with 11 years of experience in business research and strategy, with particular focus on stakeholder management, project management and designing tailored business solutions informed by strategic and innovative research approaches.

Dr. Graham's serves as the Director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1999 and his areas of clinical expertise include high-risk pregnancy conditions and fetal heart rate monitoring. Dr. Graham is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a member of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Society for Gynecologic Investigation. He has served as a reviewer for several medical journals, including the American Journal of Infection Control, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Journal of Perinatology and the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ms. Kramer is a research associate for the MDMOM program and the coordinator of the MDMOM Hospital Initiative. Prior to completing her public health training, Ms. Kramer worked as a midwife hospitalist and labor and delivery nurse. Those clinical experiences established her research priorities and continually inform her work with MDMOM. She is committed to identifying interventions that advance respectful practice within health care institutions and improve the well-being of childbearing people and those who care for them.

Dr. Shari Lawson is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division Director of General Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medical Director of the ambulatory OB/GYN practice at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Her research interests include medical education and working to reduce or eliminate health care disparities.

Dr. Warren is a community-public health nurse whose academic work and research at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing focus on reproductive healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa and caring for women who have been affected by female genital cutting. As a certified nurse-midwife, she has cared for refugee and immigrant women in the U.S. and is committed to improving reproductive healthcare in countries of resettlement for women who have been affected by the practice.

Ms. Wolfson is a 4th year PhD student whose research focuses on maternal health disparities and fertility trends in the United States. Prior to beginning her graduate studies at Johns Hopkins, Ms. Wolfson received her Master’s in Public Administration from New York University. She has experience in program management, performance monitoring, and evaluation through her roles as a research analyst at Mathematica Policy Research and research associate at the Institute for State and Local Governance at the City University of New York.

Dr. Shelly Choo is the Director for the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the Maryland Department of Health. She previously served as the Chief Medical Officer with the Baltimore City Health Department and the Senior Medical Advisor with B’more for Healthy Babies. Her specialty is in Preventive Medicine and Public Health and is passionate about maternal and child health, equity, and the social determinants of health. She is a mother of two children.

Ms. Wilburn is responsible for ensuring Title V's success in meeting federal programmatic and fiscal requirements at the Maryland Department of Health. Her 25-year professional experience includes work in an array of family and children services in both residential and community-based settings. From 2004-2016, Ms. Wilburn served as the Program Manager for two evidence-based home visiting programs for pre and post-natal women in Charles County and Baltimore City.

Ms. DiPietro serves as the lead facilitator of several patient safety collaboratives, including those of the Maryland Perinatal Quality Collaborative. Additionally, she serves as the clinical resource, quality expert and lead on many of the Center's initiatives and projects. Ms. DiPietro has more than 35 years of healthcare experience, holding executive, clinical, educational, and administrative nursing positions throughout the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. She is certified in advanced nursing administration through the American Nurses Association credentialing center and she is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Dr. Callaghan-Koru's work is focused on identifying and evaluating approaches for improving access to evidence-based interventions and reducing health disparities for mothers and children in both high- and low-resource settings. Her research utilizes qualitative and quantitative methods and draws from implementation science, social science, epidemiology, and program evaluation disciplines. She previously received funding from the National Institutes of Health to study factors that determine successful implementation of evidence-based practices in obstetric care.

Clif Flynt has been a computer professional with decades of experience in developing business, engineering, and scientific applications using a wide range of programming languages from Am2900 to web application systems and languages. His publications include a large number of papers, books and magazine articles. He is an acknowledged Tcl expert and, for many years, he ran the annual user conference on Tcl.