Dr. Dorothy Cilenti has a broad background in public health and maternal and child health, with 35 years of supervisory experience in public health programs at the local and state levels. She has held various leadership roles in local and state public health agencies in North Carolina with a focus on strengthening public health systems for underserved populations. She is currently a Clinical Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health where she directs the National Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Workforce Development Center and the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center through cooperative agreements with the Health Resources Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. She was also recently awarded a cooperative agreement through USDA Food and Nutrition Services to implement an evidence-based research center in collaboration with local and state WIC sites to identify best practices to address maternal urgent warning signs. She provides training and technical assistance on behalf of the Strengthen the Evidence for MCH Programs initiative (funded by a cooperative agreement with HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau), as well as serves as an implementation coach for the Improving Community Outcomes for Maternal and Child Health project in North Carolina. She has served as Principal Investigator for more than 40 contracts and grants totaling more than 58 million, ranging from training grants to public health systems research awards. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and was lead editor for the Practical Playbook III: Working Together to Improve Maternal Health. In her previous role as Deputy Director of the NC Institute for Public Health, she led the NC Public Health Practice-Based Research Network which brought together practitioners and researchers to study areas of public health systems and services. Prior to her work at UNC, she served as Local Health Director of Alamance and Chatham counties in North Carolina and while on faculty at UNC, she served as Interim Health Director for the Orange County Health Department and Interim Public Health Division Director for Wake County Human Services. Her state level public health experience included her role as the Deputy Director of the NC Division of Public Health and the state Title V program.

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