Register Today: Region 7 Maternal Health ECHO® Summit

Join us for the Region 7 Maternal Health ECHO Summit! 

Bridging Community and Health Systems to Help Mothers Thrive

Maternal health outcomes in Region 7 reveal a critical gap — and a powerful opportunity. This session brings together community members and clinical professionals to explore how Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas can work collaboratively to help mothers thrive. Participants will learn practical strategies for bridging community wisdom with health system expertise, hear real-world insights from those closest to the work and gain a clearer understanding of emerging maternal health needs across our region.

This summit launches a new ECHO series shaped by partner input and grounded in the priorities identified by communities themselves. Join us to listen, learn and collaborate to improve maternal health for all.

🗓️ Date: May 26, 2026
🕘 Time: 1-2:30 p.m. CDT
📍 Location: Zoom

Register for the Summit

Learn More About the Series

Speakers

Keynote: An Overview of the Maternal Health Landscape in the United States

• Sanaa Akbarali, M.P.H., P.M.P., Senior Director, Maternal and Child Health, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
  Sanaa Akbarali is the Senior Director of Maternal and Child Health at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), where she leads a national portfolio focused on advancing maternal and child health policy. With more than a decade of experience, she specializes in shaping state and federal public health strategies, managing complex grant programs and providing technical assistance to health agencies. Akbarali is a skilled leader known for building cross-sector partnerships and guiding multidisciplinary teams to implement evidence-based solutions that improve outcomes for women, infants and families. Her work has strengthened state capacity in areas such as substance use disorder, risk-appropriate care, and contraceptive access, while elevating national dialogue through publications and presentations. She holds a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University and is a certified Project Management Professional.
  

Region 7 Panel Discussion

• Ebonie Bailey, CD (DONA), Founder and Executive Director, The Birthwork Foundation
  Ebonie Bailey is a DONA-certified birth and postpartum doula and Certified Lactation Specialist. She is the owner of Naturally Ebonie Doula Services, established in 2015, after experiencing the transformative support of a doula during the birth of her third child. A mother of five, she has supported countless families through pregnancy, labor and postpartum, guided by her belief that birth work is soul work. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Birthwork Foundation, where she works to expand access to holistic, culturally centered birth care and diversify the doula workforce. Bailey also mentors doulas nationwide and advocates for equitable, compassionate health care for underserved communities.
• Catherine Friends, M.S.N., FNP-C, The SHINE With Joy Foundation
  Catherine Friends is the Director of Maternal Health with the Shine With Joy (SWJ) Foundation, where she promotes community partnerships in maternal care, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), doula care and storytelling to help optimize resources to improve black maternal health equity. SWJ is focused on optimizing maternal resources for mothers/families and local areas while highlighting future maternal health game changers with annual grants/scholarships. Friends is a board-certified nurse practitioner on staff with Saint Luke’s Physician Group specializing in general cardiology and cardio/ob. Friends completed her undergraduate degrees in psychology and nursing at the University of Missouri-Columbia and earned a graduate degree from the University of Maryville- Saint Louis. She has more than 20 years of health care advocacy experience, including in inpatient, clinical, public health and mother/baby nursing. She assisted in maternal health research fundraising for notable local/national foundations. She’s a retired NFL dancer with the Kansas City Chiefs and current alumni ambassador committed to supporting healthy community engagement and training current/future dance athletes.
  
• Megan Kalata, M.D./M.P.H., OBGYN, Creighton University/CHI Health
  Megan Kalata is a general OBGYN practicing in Omaha, Nebraska. She completed medical school at the University of Colorado, with residency at Creighton University. She has a master’s in public health with a concentration in maternal and child health policy from the Colorado School of Public Health. Dr. Kalata has a strong commitment to contributing to the elimination of systemic racism and health disparities by engaging colleagues and community members at various points in their personal journeys to understand and address implicit biases. Dr. Kalata is also passionate about advocacy, specifically how legislative advocacy can influence the social and political determinants of health. She hopes to use her voice to uplift the voices of our community so that all people feel heard, respected and included in the health care system.
• Aviance Webb, B.S., Maternal Child Health Family Support Services Program Manager, City of Kansas City Health Department
  Aviance Webb serves as the Maternal and Child Health Program Manager for Integrated Family Support Services at the Kansas City Health Department. With a decade of experience in public health, she specializes in program transformation, systems and process improvement. Over the past five years, her work has focused on improving maternal and infant health outcomes among underserved populations through strategic program design, diverse partnerships and equitable family support services. Webb is especially passionate about creating sustainable systems that align people, purpose and impact.

Continuing Education Credit  

All participants are required to sign in at registration and verify attendance online through ‘eeds’ along with completing an evaluation online.  

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by University of Kansas Medical Center and Kansas Health Institute. University of Kansas Medical Center is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. 

Physician: AMA PRA Category 1 Credit 

The University of Kansas Medical Center designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

Nursing: ANCC Contact Hours (APRN/RN) 

The University of Kansas Medical Center designates this activity for a maximum of 1.5 ANCC contact hours.  Nurses should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

Social Worker:   

The University of Kansas Medical Center Area Health Education Center East, as an approved provider of continuing education by the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board presents this offering for a maximum of 1.5 hour(s) credit applicable for relicensure of LASWSs, LBSWs, LMSWs, and LSCSWs.  Kansas Provider Number 12-002.  Mary Susan Kircher, MSW, LSCSW, Coordinator. 

Social Work Attendance Requirement: If a participant misses more than 10% of an offering, a certificate of continuing education will not be issued. Partial credit is NOT given. 

All other attendees may receive a certificate of attendance. 

Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy as to Students

The Kansas Health Institute admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs and other school-administered programs and conferences. Please call (785) 233-5443 with any questions.