DR. DANA IGLESIAS
D
r. Dana Iglesias has
DIRECTOR, CHATHAM HOSPITAL MATERNITY CARE CENTER; ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY MEDICINE AT UNC-CHAPEL HILL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Raised in Riverdale, Georgia, Dana lives in Briar Chapel close to her passions – family medicine, women’s care and maternity care. She completed her family medicine residency training in Chapel Hill in 2005, received a master’s in public health from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2011 and has worked for UNC Family Medicine periodically for 12 years. When she’s not working or enjoying an espresso at The Chatham Rabbit, you can find her hiking or cozying up with a book.
practiced medicine around the world, but her internal compass drew her right back to Chatham. Dana’s personal mission to provide underserved populations with equitable medical care led her to places like Costa Rica, California and Nigeria as well as Chatham, where she achieved one of her proudest moments: She was named the director of Chatham Hospital Maternity Care Center in 2020. Dana works with Chatham Hospital – one of three hospitals in the country recognized as the 2020 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award honoree for its efforts toward health equity – to
change the way mothers in the Chatham community experience childbirth by providing patient-centered labor care. Eight rural maternity care units have closed in North Carolina in the last three years alone, says Katie Nash, a communications manager for UNC Health Foundation. The number of maternity care centers continues to decline across the county. When the maternity care center opened last September, it was “a big deal for women of color, for women who are poor and the women of Chatham County,” Dana says, adding that the center hopes to deliver at least 115 babies in the first year, and eventually 350 babies annually. “We’re the only high-income, developed country that actually has
OUR 4TH ANNUAL
WOMEN’S THESE 12 REMARKABLE WOMEN ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF OUR COMMUNITIES PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MICHAEL SIMPSON
26
CHATHAM MAGAZINE
APRIL / MAY 2021
ISSUE