MCH Bridges: The Official AMCHP Podcast

BONUS Episode: Strengthening Maternal & Child Health Through Impactful Partnerships

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In this bonus episode of MCH Bridges, guest speakers Terrance E. Moore, Chief Executive Officer of AMCHP, and Marcus Allen, immediate Past-President of the AMCHP Board of Directors, discuss the meaning of effective partnerships and relationships and their role in strengthening maternal and child health (MCH). 

Through a candid chat recorded live at the 2025 AMCHP Annual Conference, they walk us through Marcus’ experiences as the Director of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs at the Virginia Department of Health and President of the AMCHP Board and the importance of fostering collaborations rooted in purpose and focused on impact for all.  

As we look ahead, Terrance and Marcus also discuss the future of partnerships and the most pressing priorities for AMCHP members, including tips for seasoned, new, and emerging MCH professionals seeking to make a difference in their communities.  

Tune in now for an insightful conversation about partnerships, balance, self-care, and joy! 

Resources:  

[00:00:00] Nia Sutton: Hello, and thank you for joining us for this episode of MCH Bridges, the official podcast of the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, also known as AMCHP. MCH Bridges aims to lift up stories and people from the MCH field by centering community voice. [00:00:30] AMCHP hopes that MCH Bridges will help our listeners create new connections and ideas, as well as inspire and guide actions that will improve the systems of care that serve our MCH communities.

[00:00:44] Here's a bonus episode featuring our very own CEO Terrance Moore. Recording live at the AMCHP 2025 Annual Conference in Washington, DC, Terrance took a moment away from all of the action to chat with AMCHP’s now immediate [00:01:00] Past Board President, Marcus Allen. Listen in to this conversation between two of our MCH leaders to hear their unique perspectives about what it means to partner for impact.

[00:01:12] Terrance Moore: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for joining us today on this podcast. We are excited to be at AMCHP’s Conference, AMCHP 2025. Our theme this year is Partnering for Impact, and we're excited to be joined by so many people around [00:01:30] the conference from around the country. Today we have over a thousand participants, and in today's installment, we are joined with Marcus Allen with Virginia Department of Health.

[00:01:41] Marcus can introduce himself here in a moment, but we have had a wonderful relationship over the last year, especially Marcus, serving in the capacity of AMCHP’s President. Marcus, thank you for joining us. Why don't you introduce yourself to the audience? 

[00:01:54] Marcus Allen: Hello everyone. My name is Marcus Allen. I am the Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program [00:02:00] Director at the Virginia Department of Health, and also very honored to have served as AMCHP Board President.

[00:02:07] Terrance Moore: Thank you Marcus, and we have really appreciated, uh, your time on the board and all that you have contributed and so we're excited to have you share that with the listeners today. So I'm gonna start off easy, Marcus. We have a variety of questions that are around the theme of partnership.

[00:02:25] Continuing to strengthen our partnerships in the maternal and child health space. [00:02:30] Before we dive into that, why don't you tell the audience, um, what's a fun fact that people might not know about you? 

[00:02:36] Marcus Allen: So, I am a Trekkie, um, but I like Star Trek, the Next Generation. So my wife always fusses at me because I watched the reruns over and over and over again.

[00:02:47] In another life. I hope to be an astronaut in Living Space. 

[00:02:50] Terrance Moore: Awesome, awesome. Oh, thanks for sharing that, Marcus. So Marcus, uh, since we are again at AMCHP’s conference, I'm just curious what's your conference [00:03:00] experience like so far?

[00:03:00] Marcus Allen: Been absolutely amazing. And I think the highlight for me was this morning, the focus on families, those parents who spoke and shared, um, their experience.

[00:03:11] First of all, the courage to stand up in front of hundreds of people and do that is just amazing in itself. And then to also be willing to share some of your most personal details, it kind of helps to keep us grounded. Those of us who are doing the work every day, we need to be grounded. We need to remember why we're here, especially now in these stressful times [00:03:30] when everybody feels kind of tired.

[00:03:32] We need the energy that comes from people with experience. They just bring something that you just can't recreate. The stories, and it just helps us to remember why this work is so important and without this work, how, how hard it would be for families to meet their goals.

[00:03:48] Terrance Moore: I would agree, this morning's plenary, the family plenary was exceptional.

[00:03:54] The sort of range that was covered and the discussion about what simply is [00:04:00] necessary from a systems perspective for the needs of families to be met well. Not to just have efforts just occur. It's not for us if it has not been something that we're involved in. I think it's something that is hugely important for us to remember throughout our work.

[00:04:17] The youth plenary yesterday was exceptional and the participants and their ability to bring all their knowledge, their energy, uh, to that plenary was exceptional. I was one to also give a, a shout out to [00:04:30] a few sort of local participants in, at plenary some, uh, some high school seniors. This is amazing to see our hometown, uh, be represented, uh, in such an amazing fashion.

[00:04:41] And, uh, again, the leadership of the youth that participated, several of the trusted adults that were formerly youth that, uh, helped to really craft and sort of move us in this direction. It's become a mainstay at our conference, the youth focus, youth-led plenary. And so it's just been [00:05:00] really exciting to see that, uh, sort of gain traction over the years.

[00:05:11] Again, this episode is really built around strengthening maternal and child health through effective partnerships and relationships. We wanted to sort of dive right in, uh, around this theme of partnerships and, and keeping with our conference theme, what does partnership mean to you and why is it an important element in [00:05:30] your work? Uh, specifically your work in maternal and child health.

[00:05:33] Marcus Allen: To me, partnership is everything. We always achieve more by working together, and that's just a core belief that I have. In this MCH work, we can't accomplish much of anything if we don't work together. So in order to make the changes we need to make, we have to support one another and we have to include everyone, uh, that has a stake in this work.

[00:05:52] Terrance Moore: Mm-hmm. Oh, excellent. And you know, I wanted to go backwards a bit and share that, Marcus, you have been a [00:06:00] part of all of our work at the Board of Directors and staff level to pull together, uh, AMCHP's strategic plan. We are hard to believe we're in year three. I've often said that there are many elements of our strategic plan that are important, but.

[00:06:15] I would say one of the most important is our pillar around partnership. That's why we wanted to continue this theme, continue to reinforce it at this conference in, uh, particular, and really highlight the work that is occurring at every level at the [00:06:30] state and local level with governments, with partners in the field, community rooted organizations, in particular, families, et cetera.

[00:06:39] And so. Maybe you can expound on that a little bit more in your work. How have you seen the concept of partnerships, uh, reflected in your work as the Director of the CYSHCN program in Virginia, and I guess in your role as president of AMCHP’s Board of Directors? 

[00:06:55] Marcus Allen: So in Virginia. We simply would not be able to operate our Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs [00:07:00] Program without partnerships, period.

[00:07:03] Our partners, we combine our money, we braid our funding to offer more and better service and to achieve better outcomes. So government just can't do everything on its own. We need our community-based partners. We need our corporate partners. We need our health systems. We need our state funding and our federal funding.

[00:07:21] It has to be a situation where we're working together to achieve a common goal. 

[00:07:27] Terrance Moore: Excellent. I guess I'll sort of expound on that a little bit [00:07:30] more. How can we continue meeting the needs of, uh, the MCH population through effective partnerships and relationships, and I might even add in our current climate?

[00:07:40] Marcus Allen: Yeah. I think we must always make partnering a priority in every single thing that we do. It has to be ingrained in the fabric of the maternal and child health work. So whenever we're thinking about accomplishing a goal, we have to bring everyone to the table.

[00:07:56] And I think one of the things that makes me the most proud about [00:08:00] being on the AMCHP Board is that AMCHP lives it. So we don't just say we want to involve people, we put them on the board and we make them leaders. And their perspective means just as much, actually more than, uh, in some ways than those of us others, because they've experienced things that many of us haven't.

[00:08:20] So I, I'm just very thankful for the work that we do, and I think in this environment, I think we need to focus a little bit differently and realize that there's more than one piece to [00:08:30] the puzzle. So we have to work together to accomplish our goals.

[00:08:41] Terrance Moore: On the theme of policy, um, how has policy or the policy landscape shaped your role at the Virginia Department of Health and also at AMCHP?

[00:08:51] Marcus Allen: It has made me refocused and it's helped me to understand that moving forward it's gonna be very hard, if not impossible, to achieve the outcomes we [00:09:00] desire without working together.

[00:09:00] We are not gonna be able to continue to just rely on state and federal funds. We have to reach out and form relationships with corporations. We have to reach out and form relationships with community organizations, and then we, of course, have to always remember that the family is the focus of the work that we do. So experience must always be included in everything that we do. 

[00:09:22] Terrance Moore: That's an excellent point. And what you're highlighting here is that we're one big family. They're one large tent and everybody is [00:09:30] necessary as part of this work. How do you see the role of partnerships and relationships moving forward?

[00:09:37] And then what are some of the most pressing priorities for us? Uh, both AMCHP members and folks at home in Virginia, in the years to come. 

[00:09:46] Marcus Allen: Quite frankly, it is just, we are gonna achieve more when we work together. We need to work together. One of the most important things we're gonna need to do is work together to fill gaps.

[00:09:55] We're gonna be required to have partnerships, uh, to do that. I see us encouraging [00:10:00] everyone to be a part of the maternal and child health work, and to remember that maternal and child health is the foundation of a healthy society. Without a healthy maternal and child health population, our society can't continue to thrive.

[00:10:12] It's critical that we work together. Regardless of where you're from in this great country of ours, we all have to focus and realize that our maternal and child health, uh, is the basis for who we are. 

[00:10:24] Terrance Moore: Excellent. Another question here. Um. We're men. And [00:10:30] uh, I want to know, what advice do you have for other men in our work or encouraging other men, other fathers to participate and to be sort of engaged in the maternal and child health work?

[00:10:43] Marcus Allen: Yeah, so we, I think as fathers, we have to remember that we are an important piece of the family. I believe in family unity. So we need to love each other. We need to love our children. We need to, uh, love our sons. We need to love our daughters. Um, love is the foundation that to me, makes the world go round.

[00:10:59] So [00:11:00] we have to be supportive in different ways. And many times when it comes to the family, both people are working. We have to remember that our priority is not just about income. Some of those views that I know a lot of people maybe used to share. But our role also is helping in the household, helping to make the family run and spending that quality time with those that we love and lifting them up.

[00:11:22] It's okay to be a man and to show love and care for your family. It's okay to be emotional as a man [00:11:30] and to show how we feel and how we love our families.

[00:11:40] Terrance Moore: So Marcus, you transition into the immediate Past-President role, uh, tomorrow, and I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about the person that's going to assume the gavel, uh, tomorrow. And, uh, a little bit about Dawn.

[00:11:52] Marcus Allen: I'm extremely excited about Dawn becoming our president. I feel, uh, personally that she's the perfect person in [00:12:00] this time.

[00:12:00] We need people like her. She's unique in the, in the fact that she has life experience, but she also has years and years of experience working in maternal and child health. So she, she actually fill two roles. She's, she's a person who understands what it's like to care for a child with special health care needs.

[00:12:18] She's also a person who understands what it's like to be in the room, trying to make decisions, pushing, uh, for decisions. Our whole theme about partnerships, she's a person that understands the importance of partnerships [00:12:30] from serving on our board, and also being a leader in her state. It's just a really unique opportunity and, and I honestly believe it is something that's meant to be. I think she's coming into, um, being president at a really critical time, and I think she's meant to be in the role. 

[00:12:45] Terrance Moore: I think that's an amazing point to make and I would also, from a, I'm a facts person. Dawn, as I understand, is only the second president of the AMCHP Board of Directors that happens to be a family leader.

[00:12:57] It is both a huge sort of nod [00:13:00] to Dawn's leadership and abilities, and it's a really exciting, and as you put it in this time, to have Dawn stepping into this role. 

[00:13:07] Marcus Allen: And it’s AMCHP setting an example. I feel like based on what we've talked about earlier today, am shift setting an example with youth. So making youth, having youth engaged.

[00:13:16] Also, we are building with youth. We are building the future. So AMCHP does this every year and we're getting, um, young people excited about maternal and child health. And if we want the field to grow and to get better, um, in that growth, we [00:13:30] need to include youth. So it is not just, it's not just the family involvement, it's creating the next future, but it's also, like I said, involving people with experience.

[00:13:39] AMCHP always set an example in this realm. And I think we are not just talking about it, we actually live it. And that's what's important and helping people to understand that, um, they're just as valuable in this work as everybody else. Actually, in many ways, like I've said before, more valuable because they bring a perspective that a lot of us don't, and they also help to keep us grounded, [00:14:00] as I said, um, previously, and to help us to renew and remember what we are actually here for.

[00:14:05] Terrance Moore: Excellent. Thank you, Marcus. So what achievements are you most proud of in serving as President of AMCHP over this past year? 

[00:14:14] Marcus Allen: I mean, the, the biggest thing that I've seen we, that our organization do from the leadership all the way down is, uh, increased focus on making sure that we reach out to our corporate sponsors and form real, genuine relationships.

[00:14:28] We're not gonna be able to move forward [00:14:30] without doing that, and we're not gonna be able to achieve the outcomes we need if we don't braid our funding in a better way. We can't just rely on the state and federal funding and that goes for AMCHP and uh, our states. We have to braid the funding. And there are corporate sponsors that are very, very interested in this work.

[00:14:46] They want to be at the table and we need to, when we bring them to the table, we also need to bring in people with experience to give them a perspective that some of us policy people or some of us, uh, managers, uh, don't necessarily have.[00:15:00] 

[00:15:07] Terrance Moore: And questions about you and how you take care of yourself. We find ourselves in unprecedented times. Uh, we are all sort of managing, uh, our home lives. We are working really hard to make sure we lift up and support our colleagues, our community-rooted partners, et cetera. The 24-hour news. Yeah. And then all of social media, [00:15:30] et cetera.

[00:15:30] So we are always interested in hearing from our leaders, uh, about what they're doing to take care of themselves. And so how do you achieve balance? 

[00:15:40] Marcus Allen: So I, I remember one of the things I do to really ground me is remembering those people that I love and spending time with them. Life is never promised.

[00:15:48] The next day is never promised. I get a lot of joy out of setting aside time to spend quality time with my loved ones. That could be going out to a meal, that could be just sitting down and talking to my mom and my [00:16:00] dad. It's that quality time. Those things, um, are very important. And then also what happens when you spend time with family, you're able to lift each other up.

[00:16:08] And you're able to console each other in bad times. And then the other thing is, I love football. So when football season is over, I go into a mild depression. Uh, but other than that, um, I love the football season. I love watching football. Can't play football anymore. But sports really is a good outlet. I also believe there's sports brings Americans together, um, no matter who you are, what.

[00:16:29] [00:16:30] What side of the aisle you on? We all can come together and love each other in sports, and I think we can learn a lot of lessons from sports and how we are cheering from our favorite team. It doesn't matter where you're from, doesn't matter, uh, who you love. We all are there for one mission and we really need to focus more, uh, or function more like that in our open society.

[00:16:49] So I just love being around different people when I'm celebrating my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles. 

[00:16:56] Terrance Moore: Yay. Right. Super Bowl winners. Yes. [00:17:00] And finally, what advice would you give to new or emerging maternal and child health professionals?

[00:17:06] Marcus Allen: So this is a question I get a lot, and the best advice I can give to anyone is be you.

[00:17:13] You are always good enough. Stop doubting yourself and give your all. I think when you first enter into a leadership role, and I, and even me being in a leadership role for years now, I often feel like I'm not doing enough that I can do more. Um, that's all well and good. You should feel compelled to keep moving forward, but you also need to [00:17:30] remember that you are good enough.

[00:17:31] You got the position you got because you worked hard for it and you earned it. Nobody's gonna give you anything, uh, in that respect. So just be authentic. Be yourself. And remember that being you is good enough and you're in that role because you have gifts and you have things that you can offer to this population of wonderful people we get to serve excellent.

[00:17:50] Terrance Moore: And to invoke our incoming president, Dawn Bailey, in her short video that she did during the conference, accept your main character energy. Yes. [00:18:00] Well, Marcus, it has been, uh, a real pleasure to work with you. You're not going away. You move to the immediate past president role come tomorrow and you'll continue to make huge contributions, uh, at the Board of Directors level and also in our work.

[00:18:17] And so we're looking forward to continuing to work with you, but I just wanna thank you, uh, from the bottom of my heart because it's just been a real pleasure to work with you this year. 

[00:18:25] Marcus Allen: And I agree, Terrance and I wanna thank you for being a good example for the AMCHP community. Always [00:18:30] working hard, always putting your best foot forward even when you're tired and we know you get tired as a leader.

[00:18:35] So, and just the whole leadership team at AMCHP staff and leadership team, I've seen you all work so hard. It's a great organization and I'm just proud to have been a part of it and to continue to be a part of it. 

[00:18:46] Terrance Moore: Thank you, Marcus, and just wanna say thank you to the field and everyone that is involved, that is doing amazing work around the country. So thank you. 

[00:18:55] Marcus Allen: Yes, thank you, everyone. 

[00:19:04] Nia Sutton: Thank you all for joining us. For this episode of MCH Bridges, we kindly ask that you take a few minutes to fill out a quick feedback survey to let us know what MCH-related topics you're interested in hearing about and who you want to hear from in future episodes. A link to that podcast feedback survey [00:19:24] as well as the transcript of this episode can be [00:19:30] found at www.mchbridges.org. Be sure to also follow AMCHP on social media and subscribe to our newsletters. We hope this episode created some new connections for you. Be well, and we hope our paths cross on the next episode of MCH Bridges.