MaRCH Retreat Photos
On April 1, 2026, the MaRCH Center hosted its inaugural Research Retreat in Fayetteville, Arkansas, convening 150 researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and community partners.
The half-day retreat featured six perinatal expert speakers, two panels, and structured discussions highlighting emerging research and fostering collaboration.
The program included:
- A Maternal Mental Health session featuring presentations on postpartum depression, care delivery innovation, and national policy trends, followed by a moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A.
- A Maternal & Reproductive Health Transformation session highlighting translational science, digital health initiatives, and integrated care models to address maternal health outcomes, with panel discussion and audience engagement.
- A closing synthesis and networking lunch, where key themes were summarized and attendees connected directly with speakers through table discussions
We are looking forward to the 2027 MaRCH Research Retreat. Stay tuned for more details.
Featured Speakers
Joy Burkhard is the Founder and CEO of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, a national nonprofit organization focused on advancing policies and systems-level solutions to improve maternal mental health care.
Connie Guille, MD, is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical University of South Carolina and founder of the Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health Division at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Talk Title: From Statistics to Solutions: Reimagining Maternal Health Care
Nicola Hawley, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. She also serves as Associate Director for Dissemination and Implementation Science at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.
Jennifer L. Payne, M.D., is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia and directs the Reproductive Psychiatry Research Program, which studies psychiatric disorders triggered by times of hormonal change in women.
Courtney A. Schreiber, MD, MPH, is the Emily and Stuart Mudd Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Chief of the Division of Family Planning in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and founding director of PEACE, the Pregnancy Early Access Center at Penn Medicine.
Akila Subramaniam, MD, MPH, is a tenured Professor and Division Director of Maternal–Fetal Medicine as well as the Director of the OBGYN Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Vice-Chair of Education, and the Bruce Harris Jr. Endowed Professor in OBGYN at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Support for this event was provided in part by the Maternal and Reproductive Community Health Excellence (MaRCH) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (P20GM156684). The content is solely the responsibility of the organizers and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.