Author Archives: Oluoma Obi, Sharla Smith, Joi Wickliffe

About Oluoma Obi, Sharla Smith, Joi Wickliffe

Oluoma Obi is a research associate in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health from the University of Iowa. She is interested in improving health outcomes for Black communities.

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 »