Natalie D. Hernandez, PhD, MPH

Dr. Hernandez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and the Interim Director of the Center for Maternal Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Hernandez has a broad background in community-based participatory research (CBPR), women’s health inequities, health policy, and social determinants of health. She has more than 15 years of experience in developing community partnerships and implementing CBPR that engages with diverse stakeholder groups. Dr. Hernandez has served as the Principal Investigator (PI) or co-investigator on numerous university, foundational, and NIH-funded grants focused on women’s health inequities.

In 2019, she helped to establish the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Center for Maternal Health Equity and serve as the PI to conduct interdisciplinary translational research aimed at advancing the understanding, prevention, and reduction of maternal mortality or morbidity among ethnoracial minority women and underserved populations. She is Co-PI on numerous projects examining the integration of technology in addressing maternal health inequities and improving reproductive and sexual health outcomes for ethnoracial minority women. Dr. Hernandez currently sits on Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, Georgia PRAMS Steering Committee, and on various maternal and child health organizations including Postpartum Support International-Georgia Chapter Advocacy Group and Georgia Maternal Health Stakeholder Group. She also sits on national organizations including the American Public Health Association Committee on Health Equity, Health Disparities Taskforce of the National Preeclampsia Foundation, and many others. Dr. Hernandez has presented her work at various international, national, state, and local conferences.

Dr. Hernandez received her Master of Public Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Stony Brook University in New York. She earned her PhD in public health as well as a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary women’s health from the University of South Florida.