NIH Funded Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence

*Currently Paused/Cancelled by The Trump Administration

In partnership with Columbia University, The Bridge Directory is creating a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence in NYC as part of a seven year U-54 grant with the National Institute of Health (NIH). The major goal of the project is to launch a novel community-centered research, training, and engagement program that will identify and address the comorbid biologic and psychologic pathways linking adverse social determinants of health to disparities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality; co-design scalable multi-level strategies grounded in anti-racism and empowerment to reduce severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality (MM) and affect systems and policy change for maternal health equity in NYC and State.

We are overseeing all projects and components of the NY Community-Hospital-Academic Maternal Health Equity Partnerships (NY-CHAMP) grant and also Project Leads in the Career Development and Training Core (CDTC) component, as well as the Community Engagement and Policy Action Core (CEPA) Project.

MPI Leadership is distributed across the three health science schools - Columbia, Cornell, and NY Presbyterian, as well as community organizations Black Women’s Blueprint, Caribbean Women’s Health Association, and Northern Manhattan Perinatal Partnership. The Bridge Directory seeks to break down silos and provide an integrated foundation to support sustainable cultural change in maternal health research. Throughout this seven year initiative, The Bridge will develop curriculum according to our model and standards of care, and host online and in person sessions between patients and providers for input on intervention design.

Together with our community organization partner MPIs and Core Leads, we will co-design an innovative approach to advance maternal health equity and address disparities in SMM/MM in our city and region, noting the connection and intentionality of our Center with respect to federal, state, and local priorities.

NYU’s Just Mothers Program

The Bridge Directory is honored to serve on the Clinic and Community Advisory Board of NYU’s Just Mothers Program—an innovative research initiative focused on addressing the structural drivers of maternal health inequities, particularly for Black and Latinx birthing people in New York City. Led by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, community leaders, and clinicians, the Just Mothers Program examines how institutional racism, housing instability, incarceration, and access to care shape perinatal outcomes.

As a community partner, The Bridge Directory helps ensure the research process remains rooted in lived experience, cultural humility, and the priorities of impacted families. Our role on the advisory board includes shaping research design, advising on ethical considerations, and translating findings into actionable community strategies. By bridging the gap between research and real-world impact, we aim to transform not only how maternal health data is collected and interpreted—but how it’s used to drive systemic change.

Columbia University’s EnCoRe MoMS: Engaging Communities to Reduce Morbidity From Maternal Sepsis

Sepsis is the second leading cause of maternal death in the U.S. For racial and ethnic minority birthing people, especially those who are Black, living in poverty, and from underserved communities, labor and postpartum are particularly vulnerable risk periods. The goal of this multi-center, multidisciplinary observational study is to establish a novel maternal care continuity model to reduce sepsis- related death and disability and increase maternal health equity. 

The Bridge is on the Community Leadership Advisory Board (CoLab). The goal of this advisory board is to incorporate community perspectives and priorities throughout the development of research questions, data collection instruments, and results interpretation and dissemination for the EnCoRe MoMS (Engaging Communities to Reduce Morbidity from Maternal Sepsis) research project for the NIH (National Institute of Health).

Center for The Transitions to Parenthood

The center, established with a gift of $21 million from the Bezos Family Foundation, will develop, test, and put into practice a range of accessible educational tools for new parents to help reduce stress, improve social support, protect sleep, set intentions for parenting that take into account one’s own upbringing, prepare for postpartum isolation, manage couple conflict, and foster an understanding of fetal exposures that increase the risk of neurobehavioral disorders later in life. The center also will be a pioneer in assembling these services and augmenting and accelerating applicable research to support interventions promoting optimal outcomes for parents-to-be and their developing children. The Bridge is collaborating on the Patient Facing Materials Development Group as well as the Advisory Board.

Transforming Medical Education with Fund II Foundation

In partnership with Fund II Foundation’s mission to advance Black Maternal Health Equity, The Bridge Directory’s team: Transforming Medical Education is developing a powerful training tool designed to reshape how clinicians engage with birthing people and their team. This recorded Standardized Patient scenario is rooted in real-world experiences and will be used to educate both current and future doctors through an immersive, culturally responsive case study. Paired with guided pre- and post-conversations, the tool explores medical decision-making, the impacts of systemic biases, and the central role of patient autonomy and informed consent. By bringing different fields of birthworkers and community voices together, this initiative seeks to humanize medical training, build accountability, and ensure BIPOC families are met with dignity, respect, and agency in every clinical encounter.

NYC Hospital Doula-Friendliness Guide

The Bridge Directory was honored to contribute to the review and feedback process of the Hospital Doula-Friendliness Guide, developed by the Maternity Hospital Quality Improvement Network (MHQIN) of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The guide provides resources for any hospital that wants to increase their clients’ access to doulas, particularly among historically marginalized groups of people. The information in the guide comes from the MHQIN component to promote doula-friendly hospital policies and practices and support doula capacity-building by partnering with NYC doulas, maternity care hospitals, and their surrounding communities to help foster positive working relationships.

Roivant Social Ventures

With support from Life Science Cares NY, Roivant Social Ventures partnered with The Bridge Directory to provide over 120 hours of high-impact backend support. Their team contributed expertise across marketing strategy, data analytics, and user journey optimization—helping us strengthen the digital infrastructure that powers our platform. This partnership has been instrumental in increasing the accessibility, visibility, and effectiveness of The Bridge Directory for the families and birthworkers we serve. Together, we’ve enhanced how users find care, how providers engage, and how we translate our mission into measurable, community-driven impact.

Elephant Circle’s Landscape Analysis

The Bridge Directory was proud to serve as an organizational partner with Elephant Circle on their national landscape analysis, a powerful effort to document and address the pervasive harms of obstetric racism and obstetric violence. This collaborative project centers the lived experiences of birthing people who have faced discrimination, mistreatment, and systemic neglect during the perinatal period—particularly Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ families.

This fall, community members and advocates will gather for two People’s Tribunals—one in New York City (10/6) and one in Memphis (12/1)—to bear witness to personal stories, uplift demands for systemic change, and hold institutions accountable for discriminatory practices. Grounded in a long legacy of truth-telling and movement-building, these tribunals aim to shift public consciousness and catalyze policy reform. The Bridge stands in solidarity with this work, as part of our broader mission to affirm the dignity and rights of all birthing people, and to transform maternal health systems through community-led, justice-driven advocacy.

National Minority Quality Forum 2024

• 40 Under 40 Health Award: Emilie Rodriguez
• Speaker at NMQF’s 2024 Annual Leadership Summit

With over 700 attendees from across the nation, the Summit works to educate the nation's top leaders across the healthcare continuum.

UN, PACO, WHO

White House

The Impossible Journey, 2024

The Impossible Journey is an animated short film that highlights the disparities in maternal healthcare for Black women in the United States.

Won two Cannes Lions Silver Awards 2024 in Film Craft Illustration and H&W Digital Craft.

The Ebony Canal, 2025

The Ebony Canal is a documentary film focusing on Black infant and maternal health, specifically highlighting the disparities and challenges faced by Black and Brown women in these areas. Narrated by Viola Davis, the film explores the stories of Black families during pregnancy, showcasing both the hardships and the hope for improved outcomes. It aims to inspire solutions and promote positive change in healthcare practices and policies.