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Tuesday Conference Speakers
Sen. Natalie Murdock
Senator Murdock is a Democratic representative in the NC Senate, representing District 20 (Chatham & Durham). Natalie has a passion for women's health care & reproductive rights both in the US and beyond our borders.
As a native North Carolinian, UNC alum, and local elected official, Natalie has spent a lifetime learning about the strengths and challenges of North Carolina. She has committed her life to public service, most recently serving as Deputy Communications Director for NC Attorney General Josh Stein.
She was the first woman of color under 40 to be elected to the NCGA. She is dedicated to pursuing a progressive agenda that will transform the lives of hardworking North Carolinians. She hit the ground running as a freshman senator, filing over 100 bills that range from supporting black maternal health, expanding healthcare access for ALL to providing greater access to the ballot.
Senator Murdock is the daughter of a public health nurse, which inspired her interest in public health policy. Since she's been in the general assembly, she has filed and supported legislation focused on improving health outcomes for black mothers and birthing persons, as well as all North Carolinians. She and every black woman in the Senate sponsored bills that were part of the 2023 MOMnibus Package. These bills included funding for community based health organizations, and wouldve made various policy changes including protections for pregnant women in the military, requirements for implicit bias training in healthcare, expanding TANF eligibility to include pregnant women, and allowed doula services to be covered by Medicaid. While MOMnibus has not yet been passed, she and other BMH champions have been able to secure funds for some of the community based organizations that focus on black Maternal health. This includes both MAAME Inc. and Equity Before Birth.
In addition to Black Maternal health, Senator Murdock has sought to address menstrual equity. With the help of former Senators Deanna Ballard and Kathy Harrington, she was able to secure funds for the Feminine Hygiene Products Grant Program, which provides funds for schools to purchase menstrual products and provide them for students who are in need.
Senator Murdock has previously served on the health care committee and has supported other public health efforts like expanding Medicaid and protecting reproductive rights.
Emily Kobayashi, MPH
Head, HPV Vaccine Program, Gavi
Ceci Chamorro
Assoc Director, Research Operations, Duke University School of Medicine
Dr. Reynold Grand'Pierre
Reynold Grand'Pierre is attending the conference as the representative of the Haitian Ministry of Health. (Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population, MSPP)
Dr. Grand'Pierr graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Haiti State University in 1979 and holds a certificate of specialization in obstetrics and gynecology from Haiti State University hospital. He has worked as attending physician and trainer at the same institution, responsible for the supervision of residents. He then joined the Gheskio centers, a research and training institute dedicated to the fight against sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis and AIDS. Dr. Grand'Pierre has participated at many reproductive health training courses focused on sexually transmitted diseases and cervix cancer management in USA and France. He is also trained in project management. Since 2012, he is the director of Family Health Unit, entity of the Ministry of Public Health in charge for developing policies, guidelines, and standards for reproductive and sexual health. In 2018 Dr Grand’Pierre has been appointed as government focal point for the GFF initiative.
Dr. Grand'Pierre was president of the Haitian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has presented several communications on obstetric practice in both local and international congresses. During the last two decades, he has been involved in the drafting of numerous articles published in several international medical journals.
Dr. Jennifer S. Smith
Dr. Jennifer S. Smith is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Smith is also affiliated with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC Center for Aids Research and the UNC Center for Women’s Health Research.
Dr. Smith has conducted research on HPV infection and associated cervical neoplasia and cancer since 1995 and has published over 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. Her current research focuses on epidemiological studies of human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer worldwide (primarily in China, Kenya, South Africa and North Carolina), with a focus on prevention via screening, HPV self-screening and prophylactic vaccines.
Dr. Smith is currently conducting self-screening demonstration projects of HPV infection among high-risk women in Mombasa, Kenya and in rural North Carolina.
Dr. Megan Huchko
Megan Huchko, MD, MPH, has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the department of obstetrics & gynecology and the Duke Global Health Institute. Huchko, who earned her bachelor's degree at Duke, completed medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and residency training at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Prior to coming to Duke, she was an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she completed her fellowship in reproductive infectious disease and joined the faculty in 2009. She practices as an OB/GYN generalist and specializes in cervical cancer prevention through her clinical work and global women's health research.
Dr. Huchko's research focuses on optimizing the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer among vulnerable women in settings where health disparities occur. She has been working with the Kenya Medical Research Institute through the Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES) program and Ministry of Health Clinics in the Nyanza Province of western Kenya since 2006. She designed and implemented a cervical cancer screening and prevention (CCSP) program for HIV-infected women enrolled in care at FACES. The CCSP program has provided a clinical resource, as well as a cohort, to evaluate the epidemiology of cervical cancer among HIV-infected women, the feasibility of integrating cervical cancer prevention programs into HIV and general outpatient clinics, the safety of various diagnostic and treatment modalities, the efficacy of low-cost/low-resource screening modalities in HIV-infected women and provider and patient-level barriers and facilitators to uptake of cervical cancer prevention activities. Currently, she is carrying out several large studies in partnership with the Ministries of Health in central Uganda and western Kenya to evaluate the optimal implementation strategy for HPV-based cervical cancer screening in rural settings.