Late last year, Survive and Thrive, a 51���� 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 .

Survive and Thrive partners 51����’s School of Nursing, School of Social Work and the College of Urban Affairs team members alongside  – 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 51����’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.