Mrs. Dalvery Blackwell has served as a Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African American Breastfeeding Network (AABN). Her career is dedicated to improving maternal-child health outcomes, championing breastfeeding equity by advocating for system/policy changes, and partnering with community-based, family-centered, culturally tailored health education and support services. 
Dr. Lauryn Beecher, PT, DPT, PRPC is dedicated to empowering individuals to reclaim their pelvic health. She specializes in addressing a range of pelvic health concerns such as pain, incontinence, prolapse, constipation, and various pregnancy and postpartum concerns. Her journey began during her doctoral studies, where she developed an interest in holistic practices and treating pelvic floor dysfunction, fueled by witnessing the struggles of mothers postpartum.
Kayla Deanna Lewis (she/her) is a 3rd-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at Marquette University. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Psychology and her M.Ed from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. In the Culture and Well-Being research lab, Kayla examines intimate partner violence, ethnic discrimination, traumatic stress, and perinatal mental health among Latinas. Her research interests include gender euphoria, health and wellbeing among trans women of color, and coping mechanisms for gender minority stress among transgender and gender nonconforming adults.
Christina Drain has been a staple in the birth work community for 9 years. She is a certified full spectrum doula, childbirth educator, lactation counseling educator, and a birth doula trainer. Christina currently serves on the Board of the Moms Mental Health Initiative and the Wisconsin Perinatal Foundation. She’s also a member of the Wisconsin Maternal Mortality Review team and the Milwaukee Infant Mortality Review Team. Her goal is to ensure everyone involved in the perinatal journey are educated and supported. Christina prides herself on being a change agent in spaces where family health is not equitable.
Gabriela Diéguez Hurtado, MSW, LCSW earned her Masters in Social Work at UW-Milwaukee. She has worked as a bilingual therapist for eighteen years at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers (SSCHC) providing services to an inner-city population in Milwaukee. Gabriela is a generalist provider who enjoys being a witness to growth and change when working with children, adults, elderly, and families. Gabriela is the coordinator of students for the Behavioral Health Department at SSCHC. She has also collaborated in two research projects with Latinos, one with UW- Milwaukee on Behavioral Activation and the other with Marquette University on Attention Deficit Disorders. Gabriela spends her free time as a volunteer with Common Ground doing community organizing in the Milwaukee’s Southside, as a board member at her church and enjoying the arts scene in the city.
Ale is a clinical psychology doctoral student (1st year) in the Cultural Perinatal Health Lab. Before joining this lab, she was a research project coordinator for a neuroimaging study exploring neurobiological predictors of PTSD risk and resilience in adolescent trauma injury survivors. Her experience also includes work in military PTSD research and early elementary education. Ale is interested in understanding how stress (e.g., acculturative stress) affects development (infancy, pregnancy, etc.) at both a physiological and emotional level. Ale is native to El Salvador but currently lives in Milwaukee, WI with her husband and cat.
Dr. Heinkel is Co-Director of the Advanced Fellowship in Women’s Health, at Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Milwaukee, WI, and provides clinical care as Staff Psychologist on the PTSD and Women’s Health teams at the VAMC. She is Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, at The Medical College of Wisconsin, and has served as the Site Director of the VAMC Women’s Health Practice-based Research Network, and as well as on the VAMC Health Promotion Disease Prevention Committee. Previously, she served as a research scientist with the Center for Health Enhancement System Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on developing technology to support wellness, and processes to improve healthcare. 
Esmeralda Lezama-Ruiz is a first generation, bilingual, Mexican American woman who is currently a Clinical Psychology PhD student at Marquette University working with Dr. Kimberly D’Anna Hernandez and the Cultural Perinatal Mental Health Lab as the Lab Supervisor; The goal of the lab’s work is to understand the underlying behavioral and biological mechanisms of perinatal mental health disparities in the Latinx population. Esmeralda graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a Minor in Criminology in 2020. She worked for the Medical College of Wisconsin as a Clinical Research Assistant for a R01 funded study before coming to Marquette University for her graduate degree. Her hobbies include baking, reading, and spending time outdoors with her husband and her 3 dogs.
Ann Ledbetter is a certified nurse-midwife at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers in Milwaukee with 17 years of experience providing care to diverse populations during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. She graduated from Marquette University with a master’s in nursing in 2007. Ann speaks Spanish and particularly loves working with new immigrant pregnant women from Mexico, Central America and South America. Her interests include vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), expansion of midwifery/doula care to improve maternal outcomes, and promotion of respectful maternity care. Ann is a member of Wisconsin’s Maternal Mortality Review Team.
Desirée Luerene Israel is an Assistant Professor and Practicum Director at Alverno College's Abolitionist MSW program. She is a licensed clinical social worker in Maryland, DC and Virginia and reproductive psychotherapist where she holds space for the lived experiences of Black women, femmes and non-binary people and their reproductive health journeys. She holds certifications as a breastfeeding specialist, herbalist, and trained birth doula. In 2017, she co-founded the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color, aimed at expanding access to culturally affirming care and education to providers and families of the global majority. Desirée is also a PhD candidate in social work at Widener University, with research interests focusing on reproductive mental health, the Black birthing experience, and the wellbeing of Black birth workers.
As a first-generation Hmong refugee, Sheng has overcome many challenges and worked hard to create a positive impact in her community. Her journey from being resettled in Wisconsin as a young refugee to becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and perinatal mental health therapist.
Some people call her the Fairy Godmother of perinatal mental health, but we just call her Sarah. Sarah Ornst Bloomquist has walked alongside hundreds of struggling moms on the path to feeling better. As Executive Director and Co-Founder, she’s the heart of the organization, which she helped build after struggling to find adequate help for postpartum depression and anxiety following her son’s birth. Sarah transformed her professional experience as a life coach, child advocacy program coordinator and family support specialist for perinatal couples into an organization dedicated to supporting moms navigating perinatal mental health conditions. Sarah is a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) and is perinatal mental health certified (PMH-C). As a leader, advocate and speaker, Sarah brings lived experience to her work breaking down barriers to effective treatment and helping moms find hope in the process. Born and raised in the greater Milwaukee area, Sarah is a cheesehead at heart, but spent many treasured years in Indiana. She's a proud mom to two, enjoys playing soccer, hanging out with friends and neighbors, and taking her rescue dogs for hikes.
Dr. Karen Robinson is the Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and Associate Professor in the College of Nursing. Dr. Robinson's research focuses on racial disparities in breast-feeding rates. In particular, Dr. Robinson is studying how racism and implicit bias leading to discriminatory behaviors towards African American mothers impacts breastfeeding outcomes within this population. She also has studied the positive impacts of peer breastfeeding counselors and group prenatal care on breastfeeding outcomes. While Dr. Robinson’s research has been qualitative she has also conducted a systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and secondary analysis. Dr. Robinson’s goal is to develop and implement culturally appropriate interventions that will increase breastfeeding initiation, continuation, and exclusivity among African American mothers.
Elizandra Sandoval is a doctoral student in the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology at Marquette University. Her clinical and research interests include Latino/a/x/e psychology, sense of belonging at predominantly White Midwest institutions, educational processes central to students’ navigational skills and abilities, and how students manifest their identities across academic spaces and places. In particular, Elizandra has explored how Latino/a/x/e students navigate and negotiate their social identities through person-environment processes. In her research and clinical practice, she seeks to name institutional challenges and center students’ cultural strengths and expertise, and their ancestral and generational capacities.
Dr. Christina Wichman is a Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She completed residency in Adult Psychiatry and fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Mayo Clinic. Clinically, she created and directs a co-located perinatal psychiatric service and is the Co-Director of Women’s Mental Health at the MCW. She is the Medical Director of The Periscope Project, a provider to perinatal psychiatrist teleconsultation service. Dr. Wichman has published and lectured extensively regionally and nationally in the area of women's mental health.Report an accessibility problem
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MU Office of Research and Innovation MU Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Lisa M. Edwards (Counselor Education & Counseling Psychology; Education)
Cultural Perinatal Health Lab
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Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez (Psychology)
Kavitha Venkateswaran (Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology)
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