by Rona | Nov 1, 2022 | KPFA, Podcasts, Radio Shows
Globally, maternal mortality has decreased, but in the U.S. it continues to rise! Maternal health outcomes have become more disparate with black women being three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women. Most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, so what are the causes? What work is being done to end preventable mortality and racial disparities?
12/19/22 KPFA.org—94.1FM
Listen Now
Guest: 
Amanda P. Williams, MD, MPH, FACOG is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and strategic physician leader focused on eliminating health disparities and leveraging virtual care. She currently oversees clinical innovations for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative at Stanford University. Additionally, she advises digital women’s health endeavors such as RiskLD, Nike Fitness Club- motherhood program, and nascent startups via High Alpha Innovation. She is clinically based at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center where until Summer 2022 she served as Director of Maternity Services. She also led the maternity continuum for the Chiefs of OBGYN across 15 medical centers and 44,000 annual births in Northern California. Dr. Williams’ research topics have included: expansion of abortion access, contraception continuation, peripartum depression, and minimally invasive hysterectomies.
Dr. Williams is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University where she majored in American Medical History and Biochemistry. She completed her medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine where she also received a master’s degree in public health, focusing on health policy and management. She completed her graduate medical training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of California, San Francisco. She has served on multiple state and national committees, including currently the California Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review. After hours, Dr. Williams can be found hiking in the redwoods, taking cardio-hip hop dance class, mentoring women of color in the medical pipeline, or attending her teenage boys’ endless sports activities.
by Rona | Aug 8, 2022 | KPFA, Podcasts, Radio Shows
Tune in now to About Health on KPFA.org radio 94.1FM
(Monday August 15, 2022)
There are so many questions regarding digital media’s impact on a child’s development. How does it affect their mental and physical health? We know there are consequences of too much media exposure for children’s minds, physical health, and social wellbeing, but how much is too much? And what about the quality of the media children absorb starting at a young age? Most parents, grandparents, and providers struggle daily to make decisions about how to set limits on screen time, no matter what age a child is.
My guest:
Kris Perry, Exe
cutive Director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, most recently served as Senior Advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Deputy Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency where she led the development of the California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and the expansion of access to high-quality early childhood programs. She led systems change efforts at the local, state and national levels in her roles as executive director of First 5 San Mateo, First 5 California, and of the First Five Years Fund. Through it all, Perry has fought to protect children, improve and expand early learning programs, and increase investments in low-income children. Perry was instrumental in returning marriage equality to California after the landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Hollingsworth v. Perry, which she wrote about in her book, Love on Trial (Roaring Forties Press, 2017).
by Rona | Jul 28, 2022 | KPFA, Nurse Rona, Podcasts
Bullying and abuse can be seen in all corners of society from children’s playgrounds, to baseball practice, and dance class. We also see adult bullying in the classroom, at summer camp, at home, on the job, and in the political arena. The psychological trauma of being bullied produces damage to the developing brain, and the child who is doing the bullying also suffers. The bullied brain can heal, and children can be taught to not fall victim to bullying. Join us to learn more.
Listen now to About Health on KPFA.org— 94.1FM (8/1/22)
My guest is best-selling author and award-winning teacher, Jennifer Fraser. With a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto, Jennifer is trained to take different discourses—literature, anthropology, psychology, pedagogy, neuroscience, philosophy—and put them into dialogue. Her wide-ranging knowledge, lived experience, dedication to learning and teaching, produce new insights into age-old problems. Not content to merely discuss, Jennifer’s goal is to set in motion significant change. Her latest book is The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health. Jennifer’s first book was on the rite of passage from being a reader to a writer of culture. Her second book was on suppressing grief in childhood, only to have it resurface as either numbness or aggression. Her third book was about the way children learn bullying from influential adults. She is interested in designing a world with our brain in mind. Go to https://www.bulliedbrain.com/ to learn more.
by Rona | Jul 6, 2022 | KPFA, Podcasts, Radio Shows
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, cutting off millions of women across the country from essential health care. All women have the right to accessible and culturally sensitive reproductive health care! And did you know that pregnant women in the US are more than twice as likely to die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth than those in most other high-income countries in the world?
Tune in now to About Health on KPFA.org, 94.1FM (7/11/22)
Guest:
Joy A. Cooper, MD MSc is a Philadelphia native and an Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Oakland, California. She completed residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her MD from Howard University and completed a Master’s in Sexually Transmitted Infections & HIV at University College of London/London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She earned an A.B. in African and African-American Studies at Harvard College. Through her telemedicine startup, Culture Care, she is fulfilling her mission to impact women of the African Diaspora by linking Black women to Black doctors with the click of a button. Go to www.ourculturecare.com to learn more.
by Rona | Jun 3, 2022 | KPFA, Podcasts
There is collective trauma in our nation, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the horrific gun violence epidemic. With the recent shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa, people are once again dealing with the deep pain of loss, grief, anger, and fear. The trauma of gun violence impacts all of us, but our children are suffering in ways that are so hard to witness. What can teachers, parents, and all adults do to lessen the burden?
Listen now to About Health, KPFA—94.1FM (6/6/22)
What you are doing to help the children in your life during this painful time?
Guest:
Julie Kurtz is a child and family therapist and national speaker consulting and training on trauma and resilience. She is the Founder and CEO for the Center for Optimal Brain Integration® which promotes the concept of optimal brain integration to maximize human growth potential.
Julie is the co-author of—Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators: Relationship-Based Approaches that Support Healing and Build Resilience in Young Children, Culturally Responsive Self-Care Practices for Early Childhood Educators, Trauma Informed Practices for Early Childhood Leaders: Creating and Sustaining Healing and Engaged Organizations, and Trauma-Responsive Family Engagement in Early Childhood: Practices for Equity and Resilience. She is also the author of the award winning children’s books, Understanding My Brain: Becoming Human(E)! (Ages 4-8 and 5-10). Julie is the creator of the phone/tablet Application (APP) Trigger Stop: Sensory and Emotional Check-in designed specifically for children ages 3-8 years to promote sensory and emotional literacy and to support self-regulation. To learn more go to https://www.optimalbrainintegration.com/.
