Achieving Health Equity in Neonatal Care: The Seeds, The Trees and Building a Better Future - F25OD320

Intended Audience: All neonatal nurses.

ANCC NCPD Contact Hour(s): 1.0

NCC Codes: NNP5, NIC4, LRN5, MNN4, OB6, ONQS28

Learning Outcome: Learners will increase their understanding of the root causes of health disparities in neonatal care and what health equity looks like for our patients.

Release Date: 9/6/2025

Expiration Date: 07/31/2027

Requirements for Completion: Participants must be registered for the conference, attend at least 90% of each session, and complete evaluations to earn ANCC NCPD contact hours.

Disclosures: No person with the potential to influence the content of this activity has declared a relevant financial relationship with an ineligible* company. Any exceptions to this disclosure are noted below.

Click Here for Accreditation Information, Requirements for earning ANCC NCPD contact hours, and Disclaimer.

*Ineligible companies are those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, reselling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Track: NN, AP, MB

Keywords: Disparities, equity, quality, racism

Francesca Okolie, DO, MPH

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Francesca Okolie is a neonatologist at University of Maryland Medical Center. She is a graduate of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center and moved to Baltimore at the completion of training. She received her BA in History from Boston University and a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University before matriculating into Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine. After graduation, she moved north for pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where she decided to pursue a career in neonatology. As a trainee, Dr. Okolie developed quality improvement initiatives to increase caregiver empowerment, engagement and support in the NICU, while conducting scholarly work that focused on racial disparities in preterm birth and maternal presentation.
As UMMC faculty she has continues to engage in similar QI efforts and health disparities research. Currently, investigating the role of doula care for black women and doula integration into the healthcare system. She serves as co-director of the UMMC NICU Multidisciplinary Patient Safety Review Committee, Vice Chair of the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Council for Inclusion and is a faculty leader in their unit’s Respiratory Care Collaborative.