Annual Conference Speakers

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  Kay Matthews, LCHW
  Founder of The Shades of Blue Project. Kay Matthews and her team are on a mission to uplift all birthing individuals with the care, respect, and dignity they deserve – no matter their social status or birth outcome. They focus on the birthing experience, to bridge the gaps by acknowledging everyone’s birth story matters. Through education, advocacy, and support, Kay and her team are dedicated to helping birthing individuals of color whose lives are impacted by racial disparities that amplify their birthing struggles. It is from her own personal experience of infant loss and postpartum depression, that she’s recognized a critical diversity gap in mental health resources and emotional support for Black and minority birthing individuals, which is what The Shades of Blue Project is working dismantle through their work and advocacy.
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  Patoula Panagos-Billiris, MD
  Associate Director of Infant Health for the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Clinical neonatologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida, Director of Neonatal Quality at Tampa General’s Muma Children’s Hospital. Dr. Panagos is the Associate Director of Infant Health for the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative and working on improving NICU Discharge readiness across the state. She is passionate about long term neonatal outcomes, trauma informed care, family centered care and preserving humanism at the bedside.
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  Deidre Lyell, MD
  Chair and PI of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) and the Dunlevie Endowed Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) at Stanford Medicine. Deirdre Lyell, MD, is has more than 25 years of clinical experience in MFM and obstetrics. She serves as associate director of the division of MFM and obstetrics at Stanford; director of the Program in Placental Disorders; project lead for the National Institutes of Health-funded Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence, Promoting Improvement in Hemorrhage-Related Severe Maternal Morbidity (PRIHSM), has served on several national committees and as medical director of labor and delivery. Her research has been focused on clinical obstetrics, inequities in obstetrics, anemia, severe maternal morbidity, placenta accreta spectrum and prematurity prevention.
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  Julie S. Bosak, DrPH, CNM, MSN​
  Executive Director of the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network (NNEPQIN) and the newly launched New Hampshire Perinatal Quality Collaborative (NHPQC), both housed at Dartmouth Health, certified nurse-midwife and public health practitioner. Over the last almost 30 years, she has worked in urban, international and rural locations across different health systems and models of care. Her research and implementation background focuses on leading program and system change initiatives through community engagement to co-create patient centered improvements.

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  Stephanie Radke, MD, MPH, FACOG​
  Executive Director and Obstetrical Lead for the Iowa Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (IPQCC), Director of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement for the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Radke helped to found IPQCC in 2020 with the Iowa Department of Public Health and practices clinically as a laborist/hospitalist at the University of Iowa,. She has expertise in quality and safety through her work and formal training through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as an Improvement Advisor.
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  Charity S. Bean, CMA, CFSD, CLC, CHW, SPM
  Founder, President, and CEO of The Doula Lab Pregnancy Resource Center in Belleville, Illinois—the first Black-owned and created center in St. Clair County. As a student midwife at the Midwives College of Utah with over 40 births attended, she is dedicated to advancing birth equity and culturally aligned care. Through The Doula Lab, she has expanded access to education, empowerment, and compassionate support for families across the Metro East. Her mission is to ensure every birth is supported, informed, and sacred.
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  Tamela Milan-Alexander, MPPA
  Strategic Partnerships Liaison of EverThrive Illinois, Board Chair of HealthConnect One, and a long-time ILPQC patient partner and Community Advisory Board member. Tamela Milan-Alexander also serves on executive committees at the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Illinois Task Force on Infant and Maternal Mortality Among African Americans.