2025 CHAMPS National Conference

CHEER Director, Executive Director and Founder of CHEER International Group (CHEERing)

Anne Merewood, PhD, MPH, is the Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) and Executive Director and Founder of the CHEER International Group (CHEERing) a nonprofit organization working with refugees in Greater Athens, Greece. Additionally, Dr. Merewood is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, an Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, Affiliate Faculty at the Boston University Center on Forced Migration, and visiting Associate Professor at the University of Nicosia School of Medicine, Cyprus.

For years, Dr. Merewood has led millions of dollars’ worth of funded projects that have successfully increased breastfeeding rates and reduced disparities in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Southern Texas and among Tribal Communities in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, by increasing the number of Baby-Friendly designated hospitals in those regions. Due to the documented success of the CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices) and Dr. Merewood’s other previous work with hospitals in Massachusetts and New Jersey, CHEER earned a 3-year cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to replicate the success of CHAMPS nationally.

Dr. Merewood has coauthored over 80 peer-reviewed publications, spoken at conferences nationally and internationally, and served as a member of the American Public Health Association, the International Society for Research into Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML), and the Society for Prevention Research. She is the former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Human Lactation and current editorial board member for the Journal of Maternal Child Nutrition. Dr. Merewood has also served as a consultant for the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, the DHHS Indian Health Service, and is a current consultant for the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

CHEER Associate Director

Laura Burnham, MPH, is the Associate Director at the Center for Health Equity, Education, & Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. Her work focuses on quality improvement and program implementation in the field of maternal and child health, with a particular focus on breastfeeding and maternity care practices. Laura manages CHEER’s CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Care Practices) programs, which assist birthing hospitals to safely implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. 

CHEER Senior Research Project Manager, CHAMPS National Coach

Trendle Samuel, MPH, BSN, RN, CLC, is a Senior Research Project Manager at CHEER and CHAMPS National hospital coach. She has been a registered nurse for more than 25 years, and was even named one of Alabama’s 10 Top Nurses in 2021. Before CHEER, Trendle served as one of five Perinatal Coordinators in the state who examined infant and fetal mortality as well as maternal mortality as a committee member.

Trendle’s career in nursing was primarily inspired by the caring for others she witnessed through her own family. After 16 years of experience as a clinical nurse, she went to work at a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving uninsured, underinsured, and/or underserved patients. In her role at the Alabama Department of Public Health, Trendle reviewed why patients became sick and how we could do things differently to prevent infant mortality and other poor health outcomes. She has collaborated with agencies, organizations, and advocates to better understand families’ experiences and make recommendations come to life.

CHEER Senior Research Project Manager, CHAMPS National Coach

Becky Knapp, MPH, RN, IBCLC, has been a maternal-child health nurse for 18 years. Since the start of her career, she has been driven to support moms, babies, and their families during the prenatal and postpartum period. Becky’s passion quickly became promoting and protecting breastfeeding, in particular addressing socioeconomic and racial inequities that can so often complicate the breastfeeding journey. This has guided her work across the country as a postpartum, nursery, and antepartum nurse and lactation consultant in hospitals and the community. Additionally, Becky has worked on research teams looking at best practices to address inequities in maternity care.

Project Management Specialist, CHEER

Mariah Banks, MPH, is a Program Management Specialist at the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. She received her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University in May 2023, with a special interest in maternal and child health, especially in refugee and immigrant health. Her focus areas included program design, implementation, and evaluation, and health communications and promotion.

Mariah previously supported immigrant and refugee populations in Boston as the Social Media & Communications Specialist and Patient Advisory Council Coordinator at Boston Medical Center’s Immigrant & Refugee Health Center. She also worked as a communications specialist for the nonprofit Nature and Culture International, promoting environmental and community health in Mexico and South America. Additionally, Mariah was the CHEER International Group (CHEERing)’s first ever fellow, coordinating various aspects of CHEERing’s preventative health program in Greece.

Research Assistant II, CHEER

Kathryn Pollack-Hinds, MPH, is a Research Assistant at the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. She received her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University in May 2023 where she focused on community assessment and program design and maternal- child health. At CHEER, she supports the team in developing and facilitating virtual and in-person clinician trainings using a racial equity lens. She also works to promote the workplace lactation support project, Mississippi WINS, and analyzes data trends from the Interprofessional Module, Breastfeeding | Human Medicine.

Research Assistant, CHEER

Gianna Hamann is a Research Assistant at the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. Previously, she volunteered with the CHEER International Group (CHEERing), supporting CHEERing’s Grow Clinics and football training program and coordinating healthcare appointments. She also worked with Madison Street Medicine during her studies at the University of Wisconsin, providing direct healthcare to unhoused folks, assisting folks with getting health insurance and healthcare appointments, and running a blood pressure screening project. Gianna is passionate about nutrition, food access and equity, maternal-child health, healthcare access, and LGBTQ+ health.

Research Assistant, CHEER

Madeline Caughron is a Research Assistant at the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. Madeline previously worked in behavioral and clinical psychology research and has a passion for helping people and advancing healthcare access for all, especially marginalized communities. She completed an internship in Australia developing DEI surveying and doing data analysis, and has worked for a women’s health business in Southwest Missouri where she advocated for women’s health education. Madeline aims to work to improve health equity and accessibility for communities across the globe.

Research Assistant, CHEER

Olivia Choi is a Research Assistant at the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center. Olivia has previously been involved in numerous mental health and maternal/child health advocacy & research initiatives at both Villanova and Brown University. She has worked as a Clinical Research Intern at MGH’s Department of Psychiatry and was also a 2023 Hassenfeld Summer Scholar at Brown. Additionally, she has actively been involved in serving her communities, such as teaching at the Korean School of New England on the weekends and volunteering with the Read to a Child program to promote youth literacy. Olivia hopes to work on and create interventions that address maternal and child-related health disparities, especially in marginalized and underserved populations. She aims to make a positive impact in all the communities she is immersed in and surrounded by.