MatCHES logo with a mother and baby in the center surrounded by two hugging arms, a building, a tree, a medical symbol, and text reading "Healthy Communities, Health Moms, Health Babies"

The Maternal Child Health Equity & Safety (MatCHES) Lab, led by Dr. Zoua Vang, supports innovative research to improve maternal child health locally and globally. Current research supported by the Lab includes projects on:

  • The impact of a co-designed, trauma-informed, community health worker intervention (Mat-CHW) on access to health care services and maternal, infant and child health outcomes among refugees in Wisconsin.
  • The effects of childbirth evacuation on perinatal depression and infant growth/development among the Inuit in Nunavik.
  • The cross-cultural adaptation and validation of culturally appropriate perinatal depression screening tools.
  • Racism and settler colonialism as barriers to Indigenous women’s access to culturally safe healthcare.

Researchers in the Lab investigate these issues using quantitative and qualitative methodologies and participatory research approaches.

The overall goal of the MatCHES Lab is to work together with mothers and their communities to improve maternal healthcare services and maternal-child health outcomes.

Research

The MatCHES Lab is currently concentrated on four research studies.

Resources

We have compiled resources for mothers and families in the United States and Canada.

People

Meet our team.

Director

Zoua Vang, PhD

Position title: Director, MatCHES Lab

Pronouns: she/her/hers,

Email: zvang8@wisc.edu

Phone: 608-890-0221

Address:
4145 Nancy Nicholas Hall,
1300 Linden Drive,
Madison, WI 53706

Dr Zoua Vang is the founding director of the Maternal Child Health Equity & Safety (MatCHES) Lab. She is a Meta Schroeder Beckner Outreach Professor and holds a joint appointment as a Professor of Civil…

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers

Adejumoke Olopade

Position title: Ph.D. Student, Civil Society and Community Research

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Email: aolopade@wisc.edu

Nilvio Alexander Punguil Bravo

Position title: PhD Student, Teaching Assistant/Project Assistant, MSW

Pronouns: he/him/his/él/pay

Email: punguilbravo@wisc.edu

Carla Rattunde

Position title: Project Assistant

Pronouns: they/them/theirs

Email: crattunde@wisc.edu

Staff

Michaela Bunakova

Position title: Research Assistant, PhD Candidate

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Email: michaela.bunakova@mail.mcgill.ca

Mozghan Kohzadi

Position title: Community Research Liaison and Data Coordinator

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Email: mozhgan.kohzadi@mail.mcgill.ca

Sarah McLeod

Position title: Research Assistant

Email: sarah.mcleod3@affiliate.mcgill.ca