CORAL is co-led by three principal investigators within the Administrative Core and operates through a Community Accountability Board (CAB) and interconnected cores that center community expertise, build the next generation of researchers, and generate policy-relevant evidence on maternal behavioral health. These cores are the Community Partnership Core (CPC), the Training Core (TC), and our research project OVAL. Together, these efforts strengthen community-engaged solutions, advance scientific knowledge, and inform practices and policies that improve outcomes for women during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
The Community Accountability Board (CAB) is composed of community leaders, advocates, and individuals with direct experience navigating maternal behavioral health. Together they inform and strengthen the work of CORAL.
Co-led by CORAL’s Community Partnership Core (CPC), the CAB plays a central role in shaping the Center’s direction. Through ongoing collaboration, the CAB and CPC work together to establish a community-driven research agenda that reflects local priorities and emerging needs.
The Community Partnership Core (CPC) reimagines the relationship between researchers and community members in recognition of the unique and needed value in community perspective and expertise garnered from lived experience.
Reinforced by partnerships with community-based organizations, the CPC aims to promote and demonstrate consistent community engagement in a meaningful and just manner to understand and prioritize the needs of women as they relate to maternal behavioral health (MBH) conditions.
OVAL is a mixed-methods research project that examines how laws governing drug use during pregnancy are implemented and how these policies shape health outcomes for women enrolled in Medicaid. Using Medicaid claims data and in-depth qualitative interviews in the Atlanta metropolitan area, OVAL investigates relationships between legal implementation practices and overdose risk, substance use disorder treatment access, and prenatal and postpartum care utilization. Grounded in the Public Health Law Research Model, the project also partners with community stakeholders to identify intervention points and apply evidence-based community organizing strategies aimed at improving policy implementation and health outcomes.
The training core aims to develop a new generation of scientists, evidence, and interventions that will help end the maternal behavioral health crisis among women, the Training Core will serve a pivotal role in advancing community-engaged research, developing early-stage investigators (ESIs), and building multidisciplinary research capacity at the intersection of maternal and behavioral health.
CORAL’s leadership frameworks are centered on self-determination for vulnerable communities through a focus on community leadership and voices in research to facilitate genuine, lasting social change.
These frameworks guide CORAL to a Horizontal Governance structure, encouraging more balanced teams, including team members’ empowerment and autonomy; innovation and agility; and free-flowing communication across all CORAL members.
The Administrative Core, led by the three CORAL MPIs will serve to provide scientific and operational direction and oversight of CORAL as a whole to ensure that CORAL realizes its mission.
CORAL offers a range of opportunities to engage in community-informed research, training, and capacity-building initiatives focused on maternal behavioral health. These opportunities support partners, trainees, and stakeholders in contributing to and benefiting from CORAL’s mission to improve pregnancy and postpartum outcomes. Explore the opportunities below, and contact us if you would like additional information or have questions about how to get involved.
The CORAL Community Partnership Core (CPC) invites community members, community based organizations, advocates, clinicians, academic partners, and others with a passion for this work to apply for pilot funding to support community-driven projects focused on maternal behavioral health in Georgia.
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