Click here to view the AMDD Program Overview Brochure.

The Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program (AMDD) at the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University is a global program of research, advocacy, policy analysis and program support dedicated to the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity.

In the seven years since its founding, AMDD and its partners have worked in some 50 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America with a focus on expanding availability, quality and utilization of emergency obstetric care (EmOC), which is life-saving for both mothers and newborns.

The AMDD Program addresses the health systems factors that constrain or facilitate equitable access to life-saving care, and the integration of facility-based EmOC interventions with other dimensions of the continuum of care.

Delivering EmOC at scale, and ensuring appropriate and equitable utilization of EmOC services, depends on strengthening the health system. This is the focus of AMDD’s “Going to Scale” project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This project concentrates on systemic barriers to scale-up of EmOC, such as human resources, equity, cost and referral.

The AMDD Program is directed by two leaders in the field of maternal health – Allan Rosenfield, Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Lynn P. Freedman, Professor of Clinical Population & Family Health at the Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health. AMDD is staffed by a global group of highly-experienced, multi-disciplinary professionals.

Lynn P. Freedman, JD, MPH
Professor of Clinical Population & Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Director, Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program

Lynn P. Freedman is Director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program and Professor of Clinical Population & Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.  She received a graduate law degree (JD) from Harvard University, a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree (BA) from Yale University.

Before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 1990, she worked as a practicing attorney in New York City.  As Director of the Law & Policy Project at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health since 1997, Lynn has been a leading figure in the field of health and human rights, working extensively with women’s groups, health groups and human rights NGOs internationally.

Lynn has published widely on issues of maternal mortality and on health and human rights, with a particular focus on gender and women’s health. She served as a Senior Adviser to the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health and was the lead author for the Task Force’s widely acclaimed report, “Who’s Got the Power? Transforming Health Systems for Women and Children.”

Allan Rosenfield, MD
Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Senior Adviser, Averting Maternal Death & Disability Program

Allan Rosenfield is currently Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, DeLamar Professor of Public Health and professor of obstetrics and gynecology. He came to Columbia in 1975 as founding director of the Center for Population and Family Health and director of ambulatory care for the Department of Ob/Gyn. He also served for two years as Chair of the Department of Ob/Gyn. Earlier in his career, following training in ob/gyn at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, he worked first in Nigeria as an obstetrician and then in Thailand as Population Council Representative and advisor to the Ministry of Public Health for family planning and maternal/child health. He earned his B.A. at Harvard and his M.D. at Columbia.

Dr. Rosenfield is a diplomate of the American Board of Ob/Gyn, a fellow of the American College of Ob/Gyn and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine. He is a member of many scientific and professional organizations and serves on the boards and/or committees of a number of international, national, state and local health-related organizations. He is a member of the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Packard Foundation and serves on advisory committees to other national foundations, including the Dyson Foundation and the Open Society Institute (Soros). He has served, in the past, as president of the New York Obstetrical Society, president of the Association of Schools of Public Health, chair of the Executive Board of APHA, chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of WHO's Human Reproduction Programme, and chair of the Boards of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and EngenderHealth.

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