Dr. White VanGompel is a family physician by training, an anthropologist at heart, and a health services researcher.  Her work focuses on improving the quality, safety, and human-centeredness of perinatal healthcare. She completed a research fellowship in Quality, Safety, and Comparative Effectiveness Research Training at the University of California Davis, and certification in Dissemination and Implementation Science from the University of California San Francisco.  She joined the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Family and Community Medicine in 2023, where she has continued her work as PI on the AHRQ-funded grant, “Supporting Vaginal Birth in Illinois: the Role of Unit Culture.”  Throughout her research career, Dr. White VanGompel has worked closely with perinatal quality collaboratives throughout the country, implementing the Labor Culture Survey as a tool for hospital quality improvement and research.  She is serving as the Director of Evaluation on the “Improving Safety, Patient Experience and Equity through Shared Decision-making Huddles in Labor (I’M SPEAKING),” study to help hospitals sustain and enhance the changes they’ve made in their Promoting Vaginal Birth and Birth Equity initiatives.