Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, MSW, MPH, considers herself a “pracademic.” She is committed to taking what she learns in the academic environment and using that knowledge to impact outcomes in the practice community. Cilenti, a clinical professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, is a faculty fellow at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG).

For Cilenti, maternal and child health is the best place for her to invest her time, energy, and skills because the field is all about prevention. “You're trying to ensure that babies are born with the best opportunity for a healthy life,” said Cilenti. “If you backtrack, you want to make sure that the moms are healthy before they get pregnant. And if you backtrack before then, you want to make sure that throughout each mom’s life course, she can achieve optimal health and well-being through her environment.”

Noting the many places where interventions can take place and prevent illness in maternal and child health, Cilenti said that the field impacts a population important to community and worldwide well-being. Her work is focused on building the capacity of public health systems at the local and state levels, having spent 17 years in local and state public health agencies before joining the University in 2007. By collaborating across systems, disseminating and translating evidence, and strengthening adaptive leadership, Cilenti works to facilitate healthy outcomes.

Her current research portfolio consists of several cooperative agreements with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration including the National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center. The center, directed by Cilenti and housed at Gillings, works to improve the capacity and skills of the public health workforce through training, collaborative learning, coaching, and consultation. The services are particularly aimed at those working in state-level health departments. In more recent years, Cilenti’s center has collaborated with other organizations in the field, such as the MCH Evidence Center at Georgetown University.

“I like that there are many ways to do interdisciplinary work across campus at UNC, which generates better research,” said Cilenti. “FPG has been a great partner, with a fantastic model for how they do their work.”

Cilenti and Christine Tucker, PhD, assistant professor of maternal and child health at Gillings, were recently awarded a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services. The team will build a repository of evidence-based practices that address urgent warning signs in maternal health and then translate those practices into WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) settings. Larelle Bookhart, PhD, MPH, RD, IBCLC, assistant professor of maternal and child health at Gillings, is leading the review on evidence-based practices in WIC settings, after which the team will distribute funds to WIC sites to test the interventions.

This project exemplifies Cilenti’s ability to combine her academic and practitioner backgrounds. “We are building research partnerships with state and local WIC sites to see to what extent research to address urgent maternal health warning signs can be implemented in community WIC settings,” said Cilenti.

Cilenti is about to embark on two new projects: an initiative with Gallaudet University to support maternal and child health professionals working in programs to detect early hearing loss and provide intervention services; and Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES), which will explore how to create safety in families dealing with interpersonal or domestic violence and issues around child support and child custody. In addition, she works with the state health department on improving community outcomes for maternal and child health and serves as an implementation specialist with regional and single county projects addressing Infant mortality using evidence-based practices.

Cilenti says that beyond making research available to community members and educating them about it, she works to build relationships with practitioners and community partners, tailoring her consultation services to the specific needs of each group, and leveraging partners’ strengths and assets. “My work is about sharing power and resources,” she said. “We learn as much from our partners as we provide to them. My hope is that they develop long-term relationships with academic partners who can work side-by-side with them to accomplish their important work.”

Cilenti teaches both undergraduate and graduate students and serves as a mentor to students. As a faculty fellow, she appreciates having FPG as a partner in training her students and providing them with opportunities to learn. She says that another advantage of being a fellow at FPG is having collaborators and academic partners with expertise, particularly around implementation, that support her work.

“I like that there are many ways to do interdisciplinary work across campus at UNC, which generates better research,” said Cilenti. “FPG has been a great partner, with a fantastic model for how they do their work.”