THE WINNER OF THE 2016 McNULTY PRIZE
AMY CROCKETT | CENTERING PREGNANCY SOUTH CAROLINA | USA
A Doctor’s Quest to Transform Birth Outcomes
Obstetrician and Institute Liberty Fellow Amy Crockett helps women in South Carolina find the secret weapon to fighting infant mortality: each other.
Every year in the United States, more than 500,000 babies are born preterm, resulting in life-long neurosensory and cognitive disabilities, disparities in education, gaps in health and employment, and additional lifetime medical costs of more than $26 billion. South Carolina in particular faces stark preterm birth rates, worse than those of Sudan and Bangladesh. But at a time when health care costs are soaring, Crockett is leading an expansion of Centering Pregnancy, an innovative model of group prenatal care that leads to healthier moms and babies and that has cut costs across South Carolina. When Crockett discovered that the social bonds created in group prenatal care significantly improved the lives of her own patients, she decided to make improving statewide access to the model her Liberty Fellowship venture. Centering Pregnancy dramatically reduces preterm birth rates, eliminates racial disparities in infant health, and slashes neonatal intensive-care unit admissions, resulting in state medical savings of more than $7 million. Furthermore, Crockett has convinced Medicaid and private insurers like BlueCross BlueShield to come on board, ensuring that more than 85 percent of pregnant women in South Carolina now have access to Centering Pregnancy care. Crockett’s leadership is spurring other states to replicate the model and improve birth outcomes across the nation.
THE 2016 McNULTY PRIZE LAUREATES
KC HARDIN
ESPERANZA | Panama
Working at the individual, group, and community level to address the root causes of gang violence in Panama City, real-estate developer and Central America Leadership Initiative Fellow KC Hardin is demobilizing street gangs and reintegrating former members into society. Using a holistic curriculum of education and entrepreneurship, Esperanza supports entire groups in the historic city center to find alternative, productive sources of income and a sense of dignity.
ANDREW ZALOUMIS
iSIMANGALISO RURAL ENTERPRISE ACCELERATOR PROGRAM
South Africa
A beautiful and vital UNESCO World Heritage Site, iSimangaliso Wetland Park is also situated in one of the poorest regions of South Africa. Park CEO and Africa Leadership Initiative-South Africa Fellow Andrew Zaloumis founded the Rural Enterprise Accelerator Program to transform an aid-dependent economy into a thriving one. The program provides entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, and seed capital to start small businesses in and around the historic park, igniting a cycle of job creation and economic growth.
MUKTI DATTA
MANDAKINI WOMEN WEAVERS | India
In the wake of massive floods in 2013, India Leadership Initiative Fellow and rural-development advocate Mukti Datta pioneered and replicated a model of weaving cooperatives. Mandakini Women Weavers provides women with sustainable livelihoods linked to global markets. The project’s success started a new hub for handlooms and created opportunities for women weavers across India’s Himalayan region.
