News

The 2025 Advancing Health Equity through Multidisciplinary Research and Training Symposium is being offered by the Perinatal Origin of Disparities (POD) Center in collaboration with the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR) and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing ReACH T32 Program on Friday, September 26th, from 10 AM – 5 PM at the UC Davis Health Education Building.

As of November 2023, the POD Center's administrative home has moved to the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. This occurred when POD Center Co-Director Dr. Leigh Ann Simmons started a new position on November 1, 2023 as a tenured professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. 

While the POD Center has transitioned, we continue our mission statement's commitment to:

The POD Center Pilot Project Program (PPP) was established with support from the Office of Research to advance research that contributes to preventing health disparities early in life. Through this program the POD Center provides financial support for new or ongoing projects that aim to understand the multifactorial perinatal influences on health trajectories and disparities across the lifespan and/or to reduce the perinatal origins of disparities through innovative interventions. 

Leigh Ann Simmons, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, has won the inaugural Women & Philanthropy Impact Award at the University of California, Davis, in recognition of her work in mentorship and leadership, and efforts on behalf of women’s health.

(SACRAMENTO)

A new UC Davis Health trial is focusing on behavioral strategies to improve health care among racially and ethnically diverse patients with gestational diabetes.

A national 12-year study that enrolled a highly diverse group of pregnant women, including women in the Sacramento region, found rising exposure to chemicals from plastics and pesticides that may be harmful to development. 

Over 34 million adults in the United States, roughly 1 in 10, have diabetes. That rate is even higher within the Black community, particularly in Black women. This is often attributed to an increased prevalence of obesity in Black women — since being obese is the strongest predictor for type 2 diabetes — but new research suggests the link is not so simple and that special consideration for risk factors may need to be adjusted in this population.

Listen here to the Key Ingredients podcast featuring POD Faculty Dr. Lauren Au, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, to be released by Tufts Unviersity on Feb 15th! 

In this podcast Dr. Au discusses her WIC research, interventions for lifelong health, and changes she’s noticed with her WIC participants since the start of the pandemic.

In March 2020, when California imposed a shutdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 outbreak, many pregnant people experienced pandemic-related fear and anxiety. 

They worried about availability of equipment and resources, having access to healthcare teams, in-hospital delivery conditions and contracting the virus itself. They were also rethinking whether they should consider giving birth outside the hospital setting.  

Leigh Ann Simmons, a professor and chair in the Department of Human Ecology and co-director of the Perinatal Origins of Disparities (POD) Center, has received a $3 million award to build and strengthen community-based health and social support systems in Yolo County to address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress.