About

Christine Tucker, PhD, is an associate Professor of maternal and child health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She has two decades of experience conducting quantitative and qualitative research and practice in maternal and child health, with a particular focus on women's reproductive health within the Latina community. Dr. Tucker is passionate about improving maternal health care delivery for birthing people and postpartum women, and she evaluates maternal and child health evidence-based programs in North Carolina. Her research includes efforts to address maternal health disparities, advance health equity, and develop evidence-based strategies to recognize and treat urgent maternal health warning signs. She has served as an evaluator for initiatives such as the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center and is a co-principal investigator for the Partnering with WIC to Advance Maternal Health Equity Collaborating Center. Dr. Tucker has received multiple awards for her research and teaching, including the Gillings Research Excellence Award in 2024 and the Teaching Innovation Award in 2015 and 2016.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Family medicine
• Political Science
• Nursing
• Medical education
• Psychology
• Marketing
• Pediatrics
• Public administration
• Environmental health
• Public relations
• Business

Selected publications

• Using a Collective Impact Framework to Implement Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Maternal and Child Health Outcomes

  Health Promotion Practice · 2021 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Public relations
  • Medicine

  In 2016, the North Carolina Division of Public Health launched the Improving Community Outcomes for Maternal and Child Health program to invest in evidence-based programs to address three aims: improve birth outcomes, reduce infant mortality, and improve health outcomes for children 0 to 5 years old. Five grantees representing 14 counties were awarded 2 years of funding to implement one evidence-based strategy per aim using a collective impact framework, the principles of implementation science, and a health equity approach. Local health departments served as the backbone organization and provided ongoing support to grantees and helped them form community action teams (CATs) comprising implementation team members, community experts, and relevant stakeholders who met regularly. Focus groups with each grantee's CAT were held during 2017 and 2019 to explore how CATs used a collective impact framework to implement their chosen evidence-based strategies. Results show that grantees made the most progress engaging diverse sectors in implementing a common agenda, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities. Overall, grantees struggled with a shared measurement system but found that a formal tool to assess equity helped use data to drive decision making and program adaptations. Grantees faced logistical challenges holding regular CAT meetings and sustaining community expert engagement. Overtime, CATs cultivated community partnerships and multicounty collaboratives viewed cross-county knowledge sharing as an asset. Future collective impact initiatives should allow grantees more time upfront to form their CAT to plan for sustained community engagement before implementing programs and to incorporate a tool to center equity in their work.

  DOI

• Spanish-Speaking Parents’ Experiences Accessing Academic Medical Center Care: Barriers, Facilitators and Technology Use

  Academic Pediatrics · 2020 · 37 citations

  • Psychology
  • Family medicine
  • Medical education
  DOI

• Leveraging an Academic-Practice Partnership to Improve Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in North Carolina

  North Carolina Medical Journal · 2020 · 8 citations

  • Political Science
  • Medical education
  • Psychology

  An academic-practice partnership was integral to successful implementation of the ICO4MCH program and may serve as a model for moving evidence-based maternal child health programs to practice in LHDs.

  DOI

• Health Needs of Mothers of Infants in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

  Annals of Internal Medicine · 2020 · 26 citations

  • Medicine
  • Family medicine
  • Nursing

  BACKGROUND: Mothers with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) face a host of challenges following childbirth. Limited information is available on these mothers' postpartum health needs and access to services. OBJECTIVE: To identify health needs of NICU mothers, access to services, and potential service improvements. DESIGN: A mixed-methods study including a retrospective cohort study, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. SETTING: Large, Level IV, regional referral, university-affiliated hospital in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: = 6849). Interviews included 50 NICU mothers and 59 stakeholders who provide services to these mothers or their infants. MEASUREMENTS: Severe maternal morbidity, chronic health conditions, health care encounters from discharge through 12 weeks postpartum, maternal health needs, care access, and system improvements. RESULTS: Compared with mothers of well babies, NICU mothers had more chronic diseases, experienced more perinatal complications, and utilized more acute care postpartum. Qualitative analyses revealed the desire to be at the baby's bedside as a driver of maternal health-seeking behaviors, with women not seeking or delaying medical care so as to stay by their infant. Stakeholders acknowledged the unique needs of NICU mothers and cited system challenges, lack of clarity about provider roles, and reimbursement policies as barriers to meeting needs. LIMITATIONS: The study was conducted within a single health care system, which may limit generalizability. Qualitative analyses did not explore the influence of fathers, other children in the home, or length of NICU stay. CONCLUSION: Universal screening and convenient access to maternal health services for NICU mothers should be explored to reduce adverse maternal health outcomes. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

  DOI

• A Systematic Review of Patient-, Provider-, and Health System-Level Predictors of Postpartum Health Care Use by People of Color and Low-Income and/or Uninsured Populations in the United States

  Journal of Women s Health · 2020 · 54 citations

  • Medicine
  • Family medicine
  • Environmental health

  Postpartum health service research in marginalized populations has predominantly focused on patient-level factors; however, the multilevel predictors identified in this review reflect underlying inequities and should be used to inform the design of structural changes.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alison M. Stuebe

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  25 shared

• Sarah Verbiest

  15 shared

• Renée M. Ferrari

  10 shared

• Katherine Bryant

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  10 shared

• Brian W. Pence

  7 shared

• Kathryn Wouk

  Pacific Institute For Research and Evaluation

  6 shared

• Kristin P. Tully

  6 shared

• Michele Jonsson‐Funk

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  5 shared

Awards & honors

• Gillings Research Excellence Award 2024
• Impact Award, Graduate Education Advancement Board 2016
• UNC at Chapel Hill Teaching Innovation Award 2016
• UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Teaching Innovat…

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