Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health

Phone:

(317) 278-0538

Email:

wwynns@iu.edu

Departments:

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Degrees:

BS, Behavioral Health Science, Indiana University

MA, Health Education and Promotion, Benedictine University

Resume/CV

Biography

Whitley Wynns has focused majority of her career in community development utilizing quality improvement strategies. Ms. Wynns began her career as a Social Systems Analyst building community capacity for initiatives focused on education, public health and safety for the Indy East Promise Zone. From there, she started working at the Indiana School of Medicine on the Children's Health Improvement Partnership of Indiana team as a Quality Improvement Specialist. For 4 years, Ms. Wynns focused on addressing infant mortality and improving safe sleep through community partnerships with early childhood care and education programs and received her Masters from Benedictine University. She focused on building program capacity, increasing quality and strengthening business practices to improve built environments for families. In 2021, she transitioned to the Fairbanks School of Public Health to join the Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative as the Senior Programs Manager for faith-based partnerships and teen development programs. Through Ms. Wynns' experience with working at the community-level to drive change to improve maternal and child health outcomes, she understands the need for better policies at the local, state and federal levels to create equitable systems for women and children and improve pregnancy outcomes. This has led to Ms. Wynns' most recent endeavor of becoming a J.D. candidate focused on maternal, child and reproductive health.

Research Interests

• Faith-based partnerships in grassroots efforts to advance maternal and child health
• Teen development and sexual education policy reform
• Teen development and sexual education to improve birth outcomes for teens
• Protection and advocacy of human rights for the improvement of birth outcomes and the health of women and children

Current Projects

• Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative: Faith-based partnerships
• Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative: Teen Development

Selected Publications

• Physical, Mental, and Financial Stress Impacts of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Educators https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-021-01223-z