Meet the Guests

Lastascia Coleman

Lastascia Coleman ARNP, CNM

Lastascia Coleman is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She is a Certified Nurse-Midwife. She attended the University of Iowa and obtained a BS in Psychology and a Master’s in Nursing and Healthcare Practice. She completed her Nurse-Midwifery training at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In her role as clinical assistant professor, she provides patient care in the outpatient setting and in labor and delivery. She teaches medical students and residents in OBGYN. Her interest areas are maternal quality and safety, breastfeeding, racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality, and simulation in healthcare. She has presented nationally on all of these topics. She was appointed to work on Dr. Lisa Hollier’s Heart Disease and Pregnancy Taskforce the developed the practice bulletin on the topic, representing the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She is the founding chair of the Black Women’s Maternal Health Collective, a community engagement organization for Black birthing people. She is a co-investigator on HRSA 19-107 Innovations in Maternity Care grant, where she is initiating a CNM training program in Iowa, serving on the workforce committee and participating in the development of the Iowa Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. She served as treasurer for the Board of Directors at the Emma Goldman Clinic and as Director-at-Large of the Iowa affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She is currently a PhD student in the University of Iowa College of Public Health in the department of Health Management and Policy.
Dr. Denise Martinez

Dr. Denise Martinez

Dr. Martinez serves as the associate dean for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. In 2011 she became the youngest medical school assistant dean in the country. She founded the Iowa Latino Medical Student Association in 2012, and currently she is the faculty advisor for the Iowa chapters of the Student National Medical Association and the Minority Association of Premedical Students. For her work with these organizations she received the Hawkeye Award for Faculty Advisor of the Year for the entire University of Iowa, as these organization serve to foster and mentor future minority health professionals. Additionally, she is the medical director of the Iowa Mobile Health Clinic, a free health clinic system run by University of Iowa health professional students mostly serving underserved population. She is co-primary investigator of a $1.3 million HRSA grant to provide free counseling services through these clinics to populations who normally would not have access to these services. As the primary investigator of the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she oversees a free summer program for 80 underrepresented undergraduate pre-health students each summer. She was named by the National Minority Quality Forum as one of the “40 under 40 Leaders in Minority Health”.
Storm O'Brink

Storm O'Brink

Storm O’Brink (they/them/their) is the volunteer coordinator for the Rape Victim Advocacy Program in Iowa City and a full-spectrum doula. They started their career in anti-violence work in 2016 at Transformative Healing, an LGBTQIA centered sexual assault advocacy program which was defunded in 2017. They are a co-creator of the Queer Health Advocates program and a co-facilitator of the Queer Art Healing Group. They are the instructor of “Responding to Sexual Violence” in the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa, and will be one of many instructors for “Clinical Skills for Responding to Sexual Violence” in Carver College of Medicine this fall. In their role at RVAP they specialize in working with survivors of medical and obstetric violence, as well as LGBTQIA survivors. They provide technical assistance and training to any organization looking to improve services to survivors and LGBTQIA people. Their areas of specialization in doula work include birth and medical trauma, postpartum services, reproductive healthcare, and abortion.
Claire Phillips

Claire Phillips MN, RN

Claire Phillips is a nurse leader and systems change expert – aka a Systems Nurse. She has a DNP in Health Innovation and Leadership and is the founder and CEO of Nursing the System.  Claire is on a mission to give nurses the tools and pep talks they need to lead healthcare system change. You can learn more about her work at Nursingthesystem.com. 

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