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A transdisciplinary systems-level approach to maternal health: Developing a Research Center of Excellence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2026

Anne Elizabeth Glassgow*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
Sage J. Kim
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Amanda Knepper
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
Zeynep Madak-Erdogan
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
Arden Handler
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Tamara Hamlish
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
Jess Rothstein
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Aiman Soliman
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
Rachel Caskey
Affiliation:
University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
*
Corresponding author: A.E. Glassgow; Email: aglassgo@uic.edu
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Abstract

The United States faces a critical maternal health crisis, characterized by the highest mortality rates among high-income nations and profound racial disparities. The University of Illinois Chicago established the Luma Center, a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence funded by the National Institutes of Health IMPROVE initiative. This article details the center’s development, implementation, and theoretical foundation. Central to the Luma Center’s mission is the Biopsychosocial Ecosystem Framework, which shifts the research focus from individual-level factors to the multilevel systemic drivers of maternal morbidity and mortality. Utilizing a transdisciplinary approach involving 18 academic disciplines, the Center operates through five core areas: Leadership, Community Partnership, Research, Training, and Data. The primary objectives are to conduct robust multilevel research, cultivate a diverse research workforce, and strengthen community partnerships to ensure the translation of findings into effective postpartum interventions. By integrating community expertise with academic innovation, the Luma Center seeks to systematically address the fundamental causes of poor maternal health outcomes and advance science to promote perinatal health and wellness.

Information

Type
Special Communication
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for Clinical and Translational Science
Figure 0

Figure 1. Figure 1 long description.Academic disciplines represented on the Luma Center transdisciplinary research team.

Figure 1

Figure 2. The Luma Center Biopsychosocial Ecosystem Framework for maternal health research.

Figure 2

Figure 3. The Luma Center organizational structure.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Figure 4 long description.The Luma Center logic model.