Dara D Méndez

My research, teaching, and practice aim to promote equity-based solutions that address the impact of racism and oppression on health throughout the life course. For over 20 years, I have worked to advance racial and socioeconomic equity, justice, and well-being in pregnancy, birth, and women’s health. My work is guided by frameworks such as Public Health Critical Race Praxis, Reproductive Justice, and Community-Partnered Research Approaches. 

I am the founding MPI of the EMBRACE (Equity in Maternal and Birthing Outcomes and Reproductive HeAlth through Community Engagement) Center (MPIs: Birru-Talabi, Simhan), an NIH-funded Maternal Health Center of Excellence. The center is dedicated to advancing maternal and reproductive health equity and justice through multidisciplinary research, training, practice, and policy efforts, with a focus on Black birthing people in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding region. My team and I have also developed novel approaches to measuring and understanding structural and social contexts, including racism and oppression via real-time data collection using mobile devices coupled with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and geographical momentary assessment (GMA) in pregnancy-related studies such as the Postpartum Mothers Mobile Study. I also lead research into structural and policy-based interventions aimed at improving maternal health through the STudy of Racial Equity Among Medicaid Recipients (STREAMR) (MPI: Jarlenski). The overall aim of my research and practice is to identify and implement sustainable interventions that address the root causes of inequities in maternal and reproductive health as well as disseminate research that supports equity-based structural practices and policies.

I have also worked closely with community-based and governmental agencies to address inequity in maternal and infant health including the Birth Equity Strategies Together (BEST) Allegheny County Initiative, the Black Equity Coalition (BEC) and formerly serving on Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee.