Author Archives: Oluoma Obi, Sharla Smith, Joi Wickliffe

About Oluoma Obi, Sharla Smith, Joi Wickliffe

Dr. Sharla Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Kansas City. Dr. Sharla Smith has a PhD in Health Systems and Services Research with a concentration in Health Economics. Dr. Smith earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and a PhD in Health Services and Systems Research at UAMS. She is a health services researcher that has been working in public health since 2006. Her current research focuses on maternal and infant health disparities.

Words Matter in Creating Birth Equity – Birth Equity Series Part 2

While some health outcomes improve in the United States, racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy-related outcomes persist. In the United States, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related complication than white women. In Kansas, Black women are more than three times as likely to die of pregnancy-related complications compared to… Read More »

Defining Birth Equity in Kansas – Birth Equity Series Part 1

The pace of progress is never fast enough for those who stand to suffer the biggest losses. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the glaring health inequities impacting Black mothers and babies in Kansas. Among the multitude of injustices Black Kansans face today, the disproportionate rates of death and devastating health complications for Black… Read More »

The Uncertainty of Black Pregnant Women and COVID-19 Vaccines

In March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed COVID-19 as a pandemic. More than 18 months later, the nation has yet to return to ‘normal’. Hope for normalcy increased with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the months that followed. Reluctance and resistance to vaccination, however, have made it difficult to… Read More »