People

Deborah Ehrenthal, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She attended the University of Massachusetts Medical School, completed her internship and residency training in General Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and received an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was recruited to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014, where she is currently director of the new Division of Reproductive and Population Health in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Population Health Sciences. Her research focuses on the health of women and children over the life course. She is the PI of the Health Disparities Research Scholars (T32) Postdoctoral Training Program, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In addition, she is the PI/Director of the *new* University of Wisconsin-Madison Prevention Research Center, one of 25 academic institutions to receive five-years (2019 – 2024) of funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop and maintain a Prevention Research Center. The goal of this new center is to improve the health of low-income women, infants, and families by conducting health promotion and disease prevention research focused on maternal, infant, and child health.

Dr. Gillespie is the Deputy Director, UW-Madison Prevention Research Center and Assistant Scientist in the Division of Reproductive and Population Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northern Illinois University and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Community and Public Health from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Gillespie has extensive experience in maternal and child health that fostered her research in risk-based maternal care. She is particularly interested in qualitative studies on the effectiveness of integrating public health programs that support women during the perinatal period with clinical care.

Madelyne Greene received her PhD in Nursing Science in 2017 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and also holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gender and Women’s Studies from Georgetown University. Dr. Greene’s research focuses on the drivers of disparities in reproductive health outcomes. Her work focuses on disparities in access to high quality reproductive health care for various marginalized groups of women, including disparities across sexual orientation, racial/ethnic identity, and geography. She is particularly interested in developing and testing strategies to improve the effectiveness of reproductive health care for vulnerable women and to improve their experiences in health care. Her research is grounded in sociocultural theories that explain health outcomes in structural and sociopolitical contexts. Building on epidemiological frameworks to address disparities, she employs these theories to investigate the role of health systems and providers in driving and/or addressing disparities in maternal and other reproductive health outcomes.

Dr. Ellen Hartenbach received her MD from the University of Missouri and completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Missouri and a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Minnesota. She is currently a Professor, the Vice Chair of Education and Faculty Development, and the Gloria E. Sarto MD PhD Chair of Women’s Health and Health Equity Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). Dr. Hartenbach has been a faculty member at the UWSMPH for more than 20 years in various roles in clinical care, education, research and administrative service. She is dedicated to the betterment of women’s healthcare in Wisconsin and beyond.  Her current research interests include the broad reproductive health issues of access to care and disparities in rural maternal health.

Marina's primary research interests include maternal polysubstance use, particularly around racial disparities and adolescent health. She is also interested in maternal morbidity and mortality, health policy, and health communication. She earned her BA in Human Evolutionary Biology from the University of Washington in 2017. Marina is also a member of the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team (SMAHRT) led by Dr. Megan Moreno where she is the study lead for the Cannabis Advertising and Social Media Study (CASM). 

Allie graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a degree in Economics and Certificate in Global Health in December 2019. She joined the Division of Reproductive and Population Health as a Research Program Administrator in July of 2020. She is also the Administrative Assistant for the UW-Madison Prevention Research Center. Allie is interested in the socioeconomic determinants of health especially among women and children.

Daphne received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin with her focus areas including social stratification and mobility, demography, and quantitative methods. She minored in Economics and Educational Policy Studies. Her research interests include health disparities, maternal health, fertility outcomes and offspring's well-being, fertility transition, maternal/child health and social inequality, ACE and health behaviors, multilevel analysis, dyads data analysis, and structural equation modeling.

David's research interests include maternal and child health epidemiology, social determinants of health, life course epidemiology, and causal methods. He earned his BA in Economics and Communication Studies from the College of Wooster in 2013, and went on to earn his MS in Healthcare Research from Dartmouth College in 2015. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Population Health Sciences.

Melissa’s research interests center in patient experiences in health care, particularly for marginalized populations (e.g. immigrant and limited English proficient (LEP) populations). She is also interested in qualitative and mixed-methods research. A PhD student in Population Health, Melissa is co-advised by Dr. Rachel Grob. She earned her MS in Population Health in 2017 while working with Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs, and graduated with a BS in Engineering Psychology (Human Factors & Ergonomics) from Tufts University in 2006. Prior to entering graduate school, she worked for nearly 10 years as a user experience researcher and strategist. Melissa is currently a scholar in the TEAM-Science Program, funded by an NIH R25 awarded to Dr. Molly Carnes, PI.

Angela's research interests focus on the intersections between maternal-child health, mental illness, and substance use. She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2015 with a B.S. in biology in chemistry, and subsequently received her M.S. in chemistry from UW-Madison in 2019.

Erin Curtis Nacev graduated from Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, PA in 2013 and is now a third year dual degree MD/MPH student in the Training for Urban Medicine and Public Health (TRIUMPH) program at UWSMPH. She is interested in reproductive health systems research, environmental health, and health policy and education. She serves as President on the Board of Directors of the Medical Students for Choice organization.

Mireya Taboada is a third year MD-MPH student in the Milwaukee-based Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health (TRIUMPH) program at the UWSMPH. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Human Biology at Brown University in 2014. She has served as a clinic coordinator in the MEDiC Student-Run Free clinic organization, on the board of Medical Students for Minority Concerns and was a co-president of the UWSMPH chapter of Medical Students for Choice. Her research interests include reproductive health care, women’s health, mental health, and systems-based approaches to clinical care improvement. In her free time she enjoys cooking, baking and exploring the outdoors. She is hoping to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynecology.

Tess graduated from Oberlin College with a double major in Biology and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies in May of 2018. She joined the Division of Reproductive and Population Health as a Research Program Administrator in June of 2018. She is also the Administrative Assistant for the UW-Madison Prevention Research Center. Tess is interested in how the social determinants of health influence reproductive health.

Olivia is a graduate of St. Norbert College, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in 2018. She is currently a Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine (WARM) student. Her research interests include rural health, pregnant and postpartum women, and access to substance use treatment in Wisconsin. She enjoys baking, reading, and playing board games in her free time!

Yousra's research is centered on understanding the contributors to disparities in adverse birth outcomes, particularly infant mortality, both within the United States and between the United States and other developed countries. Her dissertation work is focused on estimating the impact of contextual drivers on infant mortality for babies born at term. More generally, she is passionate about epidemiologic methods and is always excited to learn new analytical methods to apply to her research which often means borrowing from other fields including: social science, demography and economics. Yousra holds a Master’s of Science degree in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University of Public Health. She also has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Microbiology with minors in Public & Community Health from the University of Maryland-College Park.