Color & Culture’s first Maternal Health Summit (MHS) in Lancaster, PA, was a huge success, if we do say so ourselves! With over 400 attendees, 20 vendors at the conference, and 200 community baby shower participants, we brought together experts, providers, families, and resources to help address maternal health disparities in Pennsylvania and beyond. Thank you to our sponsors, vendors, presenters, panelists, moderators, and, most importantly, the professionals and community members who attended! Check out our photo gallery ICYMI!
The Maternal Health Summit was a call to action rooted in compassion and urgency. Across Pennsylvania, too many women and birthing people face preventable barriers to maternal care. The Summit provided an important platform to bring to light real, community-driven solutions that ensure essential maternal resources are readily accessible.
— George Fernandez, Founder and CEO of Color & Culture
A big shout-out to the Color & Culture staff members who poured their heart and soul and sweat, and dedicated late evenings and early morning hours into making this event a shining success. Maternal health is personal to this team, and as they set their sights on the 2026 summit, event planning committee members reflect on this year’s event and how to keep pushing the conversation forward.
Here’s a closer look at some of the individuals who made it all possible: Diana Escalante, Director of Operations & Client Services, helped with securing sponsorships and managing day-of-event logistics. Vedsy Lorenzo, Community Health Worker Supervisor, connected with various organizations to secure event vendors and was one of the first friendly faces attendees saw at registration. Michelle Connett-Bergstein, Senior Brand Manager, helped develop the look and feel of the Maternal Health Summit visual identity and event signage and helped project-manage the event. Dr. Sean McCormick, Associate Director of Public Health Programs, coordinated with healthcare professionals and doulas for community baby shower workshops.
Why Events Like the Maternal Health Summit Are Important
The team sees the Summit as valuable for women and birthing people, as well as for those working in maternal healthcare. “Events like this are important because they drive awareness, collaboration, and action, ultimately saving lives, reducing disparities, and strengthening families and communities,” said Diana.
The Summit brings people together who might not otherwise share the same space. Sean noted that the gathering was “an opportunity to align strategies, improve our work, and create new partnerships. We also ‘refill our own cups’ through togetherness and shared purpose.”
Providing education and resources directly to pregnant people and their families was equally meaningful for the team. As Vedsy pointed out, “Not all pregnant women have the support they need, and many face significant challenges.”
For Michelle, the Summit reflects Color & Culture’s core mission. “Color & Culture meets people where they are and elevates brands that are on that same wavelength,” she said. “There is a need for continued education, resources, and inspiration.”
The Greatest Barriers and Challenges to Reducing Maternal Health Disparities
Sean considers the approaches needed to make sustainable improvements in reducing maternal health disparities. “With limited public health resources, it is difficult to know whether to work to improve systems and society (work upstream) or help in the moment (downstream). We need to do both.”
Through her work with the Maternal Health Outreach program at Jefferson Health Plans, Vedsy has witnessed these challenges firsthand. “Some of the greatest barriers are lack of awareness about the importance of postpartum follow-up with their healthcare provider; transportation challenges make attending appointments difficult; food insecurity and unstable housing add stress and impact overall health.”
Transportation remains a particularly pressing issue across Pennsylvania. “This impacts folks, whether they live in rural, suburban, or urban areas,” Michelle said. “In a large state like Pennsylvania, it can be harder to navigate to places when you don’t have a car and a driver’s license.”
The Team’s Favorite #PAMHS2025 Moments
Each team member had a moment that resonated most deeply. For Sean, it was “seeing the faces of all the dedicated people eager to make a positive impact in the world.”
Both Vedsy and Diana pointed to the community baby shower as their favorite part of the Summit. “Watching pregnant women ride up the escalator, excited to engage with the vendors, was such a special moment,” Vedsy said. Seeing their smiling faces as they walked out with gifts for their babies was truly heartwarming.”
Michelle was energized by the keynote speaker, Terri Vaughn. “I loved Terri Vaughn’s fireside chat with Rep. Curry — hearing her passion for showing Black women in other professions through film to inspire Black girls and young women.”
Looking Ahead
Sean reflected on the balance between meetings and meaningful action. “There are so many meetings in public health and in today’s work world in general,” he said. “I sometimes wonder if we took even one-tenth of the time we spend in meetings and applied it to direct services, whether we wouldn’t see more success.”
Michelle expressed gratitude for the opportunity to help develop an event like the Maternal Health Summit. “It is an honor to devote time to fostering growth and inspiration for those who work in maternal health and for birthing people and their families,” she said. “To do this work alongside a team who understands, empathizes, and shares the same passion — mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles — makes it even more meaningful. I hope we can make the next one bigger and better to expand our impact.”
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
At Color & Culture, we continue to advance health equity and improve maternal and child health through our health-focused subsidiary, Latino Connection, and by also participating in statewide, regional, and county maternal health collaboratives and coalitions.
Following the Maternal Health Summit, we’ve convened “Maternal Health Action Sessions.” These virtual meetings invite attendees to help turn the best practices, lessons learned, resources identified, and gaps in care into bite-sized, actionable strategies to improve maternal health.
This working group has identified two initiatives that we believe can directly improve maternal health:
- Reducing tobacco use and smoking among pregnant individuals and family members by increasing organizational and provider capacity to automatically screen for, refer, and treat tobacco use disorder.
- Expand community health worker programs that provide culturally-responsive and needs-based support accessing health care and social determinants of health-related resources (e.g., support with high-risk pregnancies, transportation, healthy food access).
If you would like to get involved with the 2026 Maternal Health Summit or our “Maternal Health Action Sessions,” please contact us. We would love to hear from you!
