Late last year, Survive and Thrive, a CSU interdisciplinary research initiative created to help reduce infant and maternal mortality, was awarded a $957,387 grant from the Ohio Third Frontier program through the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE).

Survive and Thrive partners CSU's School of Nursing, School of Social Work and the College of Urban Affairs team members alongside Birthing Beautiful Communities – a local nonprofit founded in 2014 expressly to reduce Black infant and maternal deaths.

This funding has allowed the partnership to continue work into phase two with the ongoing development of a mobile app called "Thrive,” which captures clinical and social indicators for mothers, fathers and infants, and provides support resources to promote live births and a healthy first year for new babies. But it has lead to a lot more, as you will see.

Heather Rice, Ph.D., CPNP-PC, PMHS, assistant professor at CSU's School of Nursing, is principal investigator for the Survive and Thrive team, which was previously funded by Third Frontier Research Incentives. Her work has been critical in the ongoing funding/stabilization of the team's collective effort.