National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths
The National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths is a resource center that promotes supports and enhances methodologies to improve death investigations, forensics and services to families; and helps states and communities develop strategies to prevent deaths and serious injuries to children. The center provides expertise across a broad spectrum of child health and injuries, including infant mortality, SIDS, unintentional injuries, and violence. The center provides consultation and trainings at the state, community and national levels. The Center also manages the web-based National Child Death Review Case reporting system. Used by the majority of states and representing more than 75% of the U.S. child population, this system is a database of comprehensive information on the circumstances involved in individual child deaths and compiled by local and state child death review teams. The center permits access to this database to state users, government agencies and researchers. The Center also provides national leadership in building public and private partnerships to incorporate findings from local and state death reviews into policy and program efforts that improve child health and safety. The Center has offices in Okemos and Washington DC.
Leadership
Theresa Covington,
M.P.H.
Senior Program Director
National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths
(517) 324-7332
tcovingt@mphi.org
Teri provides leadership to state and national organizations in review and prevention of child deaths and serious injuries. She manages a number of efforts to develop effective strategies to prevent child death and injury across a broad spectrum of causes, including technical assistance and training to states in child death review. Teri manages the National Child Death Case Reporting System, in partnership with the federal Heath Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal & Child Health Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also serves on many national child health advisory boards and provides consultation to national organizations on maternal and child health and injury prevention. She has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on child fatality and injury prevention. She developed and managed the Michigan Child Death Review and Michigan Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs prior to assuming national responsibilities. In this capacity, she facilitated a process to establish statewide protocols for investigating sudden and unexplained infant deaths. She has also established adolescent school-based health centers, teen parenting programs, early childhood intervention services, young father support services, and child abuse and neglect community education programs. Teri has a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan.
Key Contacts
Linda Potter
Senior Project Coordinator
National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths
(517) 324-7342
lpotter@mphi.org
Linda joined MPHI as policy director of the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths. She is an attorney whose career prior to joining MPHI involved advocacy and policy work on disability issues. She served as executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan for 11 years. Linda attended college and law school at the University of Washington.