Public health alumnus Joe Russo, DrPH ’23, MPH ’14, partnered with the March of Dimes to launch a Mom and Baby Mobile Health Center that will provide prenatal and postnatal care for families who face barriers to care in the metro Phoenix area.
Joe Russo, DrPH ’23, MPH ’14
Joe Russo, DrPH ’23, MPH ’14, an alumnus of the Zuckerman College of Public Health, partnered with the March of Dimes to launch a Mom and Baby Mobile Health Center in metro Phoenix. The mobile Center will provide prenatal and postnatal care, reproductive health care, and newborn health care for families. Dr. Russo serves as the senior director of strategic partnerships and innovation in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University, and the Mobile Health Center is operated in partnership with Edson College and Wesley Community & Health Centers, with funding provided by United Healthcare Community Plan of Arizona.
Russo credits his professors and the work he did for his DrPH dissertation at the Zuckerman College of Public Health with the knowledge and network that led to the Mom and Baby Mobile Health Center program. He thanked several of our faculty including Leila Barraza, JD, MPH, Heidi Brown, PhD, MPH, Christina Cutshaw, PhD, and Velia Leybas Nuño, PhD, MSW, for their guidance and support through the DrPH degree program.
“This opportunity directly arose from my dissertation, which means you all share some credit for this as well!” said Dr. Russo in an email to faculty, “It’s a really exciting opportunity for our communities here in Phoenix, and for our students at Edson, that wouldn’t have been possible without the time and wisdom you all shared with me. As always, thank you all for everything you do.”
The new Mom and Baby Mobile Health Center offers three rooms, including two for exams. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
Dr. Russo is also working with MEZCOPH faculty Sheila Soto, DrPH ’22, MPH ’17, around how this project can collaborate and mutually support the work of the college’s Primary Prevention Mobile Health Unit in Phoenix. Soto and Russo are hoping it will be a good opportunity for collaboration between ASU and UArizona as they work to better understand and address the health needs of underserved communities here in the greater Phoenix region.
The March of Dimes operates five of the mobile centers across the United States, with two of them in Arizona. The Tucson mobile health center has been running for several years, and the licenses for the metro Phoenix mobile health center is in the process of being finalized, with the expectation that it will be up and running in late April or early May. The centers will operate up to three days a week, but the specific sites have yet to be determined. March of Dimes wants to co-locate the centers in underserved areas and near homeless shelters, YMCAs and food banks in the Phoenix metro area. To learn more visit the website: nursingandhealth.asu.edu/mobilehealth
