


C. Renée Byfield
MS, RN, FNP, C-EFM
Program Director
Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement
C. Renée Byfield is the Program Director and co-author of the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement’s SPEAK UP Against Racism Program, a groundbreaking national perinatal equity curriculum and cultural change paradigm to accelerate the elimination of perinatal disparities by addressing the maternal mortality crisis. This program has reached thousands of perinatal professionals across the US resulting in greater collaboration between local and state governments, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions. With a career encompassing academia, hospital, and ambulatory settings, she has made significant contributions to institutions including Drexel University as Clinical Assistant Professor teaching baccalaureate and masters level courses; the Association of Women’s Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) as Program Manager of internationally recognized perinatal and neonatal programs; NYP – Weill Cornell as Perinatal Safety Administrator launching team training and in-situ interdisciplinary simulation drills; and Kaiser Permanente GA as Nurse Manager for OB/GYN, Urogynecology where she launched the Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimulation clinic. She is AWHONN’s 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award recipient and a 2024 Nurses Educational Fund Scholar. As a PhD student at Emory University and an NINR T32 Pre-Doctoral Nurse Scientist Trainee, her research focuses on leveraging data science and health information technology to mitigate obstetric violence.