Several of our second-year MCH students attended the 2022 CityMatCH Leadership and MCH Epidemiology Conference in Chicago, IL on September 21-23. More than 600 professionals and students in the Maternal and Child Health field turned out for the 32nd annual CityMatCH conference. What follows is a post from one of the attendees.
By Nomin Bayandalai, BS
This was my first time attending a CityMatCH conference and I was thrilled to be attending in person. This year’s conference theme was Onwards & Upwards: Accountability for the Past and Building Toward the Future of MCH. I was excited for this conference to see what MCH research and work is being done at the local, state, and federal levels, especially in a post COVID period.
I most enjoyed listen to the keynote speaker, Loretta Ross, on the “Calling in the Calling Out Culture”. She emphasized that we as public health professionals need to recognize and support one another instead of calling people out. Rather, we need to be calling people in, using our shared differences to build on the humans rights movement based “on justice and the politics of love” in order to fight against oppression and injustices in our country. I was intrigued to learn the work of public health professionals and see what my interests within public health can look like in my future career.
Among the sessions I attended, I enjoyed the session titled Strengthening the Community-Based Doula Workforce. Disparity gaps continue to be present across all domains of health especially in a fragmented system based on racism. This session emphasized that without addressing, disrupting, and dismantling the structural and institutional determinants, we will not be able to address the social determinants. Another session at attended was the town hall on gun violence and hearing from a panel of people that have live experiences and conducting transformative work to dismantling the perpetuation of gun violence in our country.
Lastly, I enjoyed hearing Dr. Michael Warren’s speech and meeting him. He is the director of the COE training programs at HRSA, that funds the Tulane CEMCH program. We also got the chance to meet other COE scholars and it was nice to connect in person and learning their journey in public health was inspiring.
Nomin Bayandalai, BS, is a second-year MPH student, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She plans to graduate in the May 2023. Her interests include health equity, reproductive health, and maternal mental health. She also loves watching movies, cooking, and traveling.
