NICHQ 25th ANNIVERSARY
Celebrate 25 years of MCH improvement
Join us in highlighting NICHQ’s dedication to improving systems of care in maternal and child health since its inception. Our first 25 years were a testament to people like you—nurses, doctors, educators, public health professionals, dedicated families, mission-driven foundations and government entities—our network of partners in improvement and advocates for change.
New Look, Same Commitment
Ensuring All Children Reach Their Optimal Health
During the past 25 years, NICHQ has led nearly 100 initiatives and reached millions of children and families. Our unique approach to improving children’s health systems gives more families access to care and coordinated services, and helps more children achieve better outcomes. Together with our partners, our work has helped the country achieve real changes in children’s health.
Our mission calls us to bold action, to build capacity and drive change in communities least empowered to give their children the brightest futures—communities with a disproportionate number of children living in poverty, children devalued by racism, ableism, and other forms of bias and discrimination.
Our Impact
NICHQ’s project work approaches pressing issues with a lens of shared learning, action, and impact, with a focus on equity, reducing health disparities, and addressing root causes of inequity. From our continued efforts, more mothers and birthing people, their children, and their families have better access to care, better coordinated services across systems and sectors, and better designed solutions by involving families and their communities.
What is one way you’ve seen NICHQ grow in the last 25 years?
“I remember sitting in the living room of David Packard, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, talking with Charlie Homer and others about the compelling need to address the gap between where we are and what we want to accomplish in quality of care for children. This discussion led to the formation of NICHQ and the beginning of its 25-year journey of relentlessly working to close this gap. It has been a great honor to be there at the founding of NICHQ, to be able to look back on the wonderful accomplishments of this organization, and to look forward to a continued record of working to improve the health of children.”
David Bergman, MD
Founding NICHQ Board Chair
Stanford University
School of Medicine
“NICHQ has retained its mission, hired passionate staff, done quality work, and promoted its vision of a better future for children and their families. As it has grown it has never lost that. And it has made a difference as it strives to help every child achieve optimal health.”
Fay Donohue
Former NICHQ Board Chair
“NICHQ has continued to develop a more sophisticated view of maternal and child health. The organization has become more focused and sophisticated in how it approaches the work to have a long-lasting impact on the healthcare system. It has added to its ability to run quality improvement projects very well, to becoming a sought-after voice with clear areas of expertise.”
Sean Gleeson, MD
Former NICHQ Board Chair
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
“NICHQ has been working to drive progress towards more equitable and accountable health care and public health systems for 25 years. It has been a great honor to partner alongside NICHQ to help ensure that all children and all families have what they need to thrive. Congratulations on 25 years of transformative social change. Here’s to 25 more years of working to make health and healthcare more accessible, affordable, dignified, and just.”
Jamie Bussel
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“NICHQ has uniquely positioned itself as a leader by understanding the landscape and staying true to the core value of improving equity for the MCH population in the US. Congratulations on 25 years! Greater things are ahead!”
LaToshia Rouse
NICHQ Board of Directors
Birth Sisters Doula Services
“It has been a joy to work with NICHQ as the organization has evolved into a recognized national leader working on some of the most complex children’s health issues that we face as a nation.”
Scott O’Gorman
NICHQ Board Chair
“Congratulations, NICHQ, on celebrating 25 years! NICHQ’s family- and community-first approaches guide both services and policy and have set a precedent in supporting quality children’s health for the nation. Your success is based on your willingness to learn from others, innovate, and constantly recognize that there is always more to do. To another 25 years of impact and success.”
Jeanette Betancourt, EdD
NICHQ Board of Directors
Sesame Workshop
“We founded NICHQ 25 years ago because we thought all children and their families deserved the highest quality health care. We particularly thought that inequities in care contributed to inequity in outcomes and that by addressing these we could enable all children and families to thrive. Over 25 years, NICHQ has grown in its reach, expanded its scope to include broader systems that affect the lives of women and children, and tightened and elevated its focus on equity. I’m incredibly proud of what NICHQ has and continues to accomplish, and look forward to the next quarter century of its making a difference for good.”
Charlie Homer, MD
NICHQ Founder
Former CEO
“Over the last 25 years, the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) has made incredible progress in improving the health of children and families in the United States. They have been a leader in promoting health equity and acknowledging racism as a public health issue, providing key testimony at HRSA’s Federal Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality.
As the current coordinating center for the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives, NICHQ is at the forefront of improving the quality of maternal and infant health care. They support all 50 state PQCs, including how to incorporate equity into their operations and how to increase family and community engagement. This work provides more opportunities to make measurable improvements in maternal and infant health outcomes.”
Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, FAAP
Director, Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
“It has been a distinct honor to serve on the board of the National Institute of Children’s Health Quality. As the longest serving board member, during the past almost 20 years I have seen the organization grow and expand as it has maintained its focus on maternal and child health. In particular, keeping an equity lens focused on all the organization does has made a significant difference in the lives of so many women and children around the country. And the infusion of funds from MacKenzie Scott and The Studio @ Blue Meridian, will increase NICHQ’s capacity.”
Michal Regunberg
NICHQ Board of Directors
Staff Appreciation
NICHQ Team in Action
NICHQ’s dedicated team of experts showcase their passion and influence daily in their work to improve health systems for children and their families.
NICHQ INitiatives
Helping every child reach their optimal health
Over 25 years, NICHQ has committed to improving quality of care for children and their families by supporting health professionals
Publications
Community infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion
A mixed-methods study to improve population-level health outcomes
Though breastfeeding is a protective factor against sudden unexpected infant death, motivations to breastfeed often couple with unsafe infant sleep practices. Racial/ethnic disparities are present in sudden unexpected infant death, accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and breastfeeding. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between community-level strategies and associated state-level outcomes for infant safe sleep and breastfeeding.
Findings
We identified two mixed insights: gaps in promotion and outcomes, and persistent disparities between infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion and outcomes. Findings indicate conversational approaches could improve infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion, outcomes, and relative disparities. Community collaboration is needed to address organizational capacity limitations in promoting infant safe sleep and breastfeeding.
What’s New from NICHQ
The Community-Centered Hospital Initiative
NICHQ was awarded $6.9M in growth funding by The Studio @ Blue Meridian to promote a new paradigm in which Communities, Hospitals, and state Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) work together to eliminate disparities in maternal and infant mortality. This significant award will launch the Community-Centered Hospital Initiative (CCHI), developed by the NICHQ team.
Enhanced Equity Resources and Tools
NICHQ is committed to achieving equity in all forms, including race, nationality, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and ability. Get health equity updates from NICHQ including new frameworks and research, equity resources to improve your practice, insights and findings from NICHQ’s project work and more.
NICHQ Research and Evaluation Services
In addition to supporting program monitoring and evaluation, organization-level research and development, and publication efforts at NICHQ, our Department of Applied Research and Evaluation (DARE) possesses the expertise and interest to offer additional value to programs and organizations beyond NICHQ including implementation science, program evaluation, clinical research data management, and more.
Opportunities to Connect with NICHQ
NICHQ experts will be providing oral presentations and facilitating sessions at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo in Minneapolis. Stop by booth #1617 for opportunities to connect with NICHQ’s staff, hear about NICHQ-led projects and initiatives, and learn how you can get involved in our work.
Spread the Word
SIDS Awareness Month Social Media Toolkit
Health professionals and advocates can share these ready-to-use graphics and posts on social media to continue the conversation about the importance of creating safe sleeping environments for infants and encourage people to learn and promote safe sleep guidelines.
SIDS Awareness Month Toolkit
Share safe infant sleep information and resources
Save the Date
Weekly Observances
Five distinct weeks are celebrated during Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
NICHQ Insights
NICHQ’s 25th Anniversary Reading List
At NICHQ, we are committed to making breastfeeding and infant safe sleep the national norm. Check out our insights to learn how you can support this initiative.
NICHQ News
Stay in the Loop
Get information on observances like Breastfeeding Awareness Month and other NICHQ news delivered directly to your inbox.