Faculty Profile

Cheryl Moyer headshot

Cheryl A. Moyer, PhD, MPH

  • Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy
  • Associate Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences
  • Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Cheryl Moyer is an Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her research focuses on the social and cultural factors that influence maternal and neonatal health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, including an emphasis on facility based delivery, neonatal mortality, social autopsy, and the assessment of ‘near-miss mortality’ – or those mothers and babies who suffer a life-threatening complication but ultimately survive. Most recently, she was the lead investigator on a 3-year USAID-funded project in northern Ghana that involved the conduct of social autopsies to explore maternal and neonatal deaths, sociocultural audits to explore the determinants of maternal and neonatal near-misses, and used GIS technology to map the location of deaths and near-misses against clinical, demographic, social, and cultural determinants. She also serves as a co-Investigator on an NIH-funded global health training grant for U.S. and Ghanaian post-doctoral fellows.

  • PhD, University of Michigan, 2012
  • MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995
  • BA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992

Research and scholarly interests: global health, maternal and neonatal health in sub-Saharan Africa, social and cultural factors that impact maternal and neonatal outcomes, research capacity development in Ghana and throughout Africa.

Subject-matter expertise: facility-based delivery, predictors of neonatal mortality, patient-provider interactions, social autopsy, qualitative methods, team science.

Other professional highlights: 
  • Associate Director of Global REACH, the medical school's international program
  • Co-Director, University of Michigan Global Health Research Training Certificate Program
  • Associate Editor at PLOS One, BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, BMC Pediatrics
  • Co-Investigator and Ghana Mentor for the Northern Pacific Global Health Research Training Program (fogartyfellows.org(link is external))
  • Co-Investigator on 5-year R01 through NICHD exploring the group-based antenatal care in Ghana (PI: J. Lori)

Oppong S, Bakari A, Bell AJ, Bockarie Y, Adu J, Turpin CA, Obed SA, Adanu RM, Moyer CA. Incidence, Causes, and Correlates of Maternal Near-Miss Morbidity in Southern Ghana: A Multi-Centre Cross-Sectional Study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30548506

Sakeah E, Debpuur C, Oduro A, Aborigo R, Sakeah J, Welaga P, Moyer CA. Prevalence and determinants of female genital mutilation among women of reproductive age in the Bawku Municipality and Pusiga District of Northern Ghana. BMC Women’s Health. 2018, 18:150. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-018-0643-8

Afulani P, Phillips B, Aborigo RA, Moyer CA. Person-centered maternity care in low- and middle-income countries: Analysis of Data from Kenya, Ghana, and India. The Lancet Global Health. 2019; 7: e96-e109. Doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30403-0 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(18)30403-0/fulltext

Moyer CA, Abedini NC, Youngblood J, Talib Z, Jayaraman T, Manzoor M, Larson HJ, Garcia PJ, Binagwaho A, Burke KS, Barry M. Advancing women leaders in global health: Getting to solutions. Annals of Global Health. 2018; 84(4): 743-752.

Bell AJ, Wynn LV, Bakari A, Oppong SA, Youngblood J, Arku Z, Bockarie Y, Adu J. Wobil P, Plange-Rhule G, Goka B, Adanu RM, Moyer CA. “We call them miracle babies”: How health care providers understand neonatal near-misses at three teaching hospitals in Ghana. PLOS One. 2018; 13(5): e0198169.

Moyer CA, Kaselitz E. Harnessing the power of the community to improve child outcomes. Lancet Global Health. 2018; 6: e602-603.