My research program focuses on building knowledge to improve patient safety and quality in inpatient maternity and neonatal care. My research team investigates three inter-related topic areas: front-line provider perspectives on safety including likelihood of speaking up about concerns; parent perspectives on safety; and barriers and facilitators to implementation of evidence-based quality interventions. Current focus areas include:
- Communication and teamwork among care providers during labor and birth
- Serious childbirth complications (severe maternal morbidity)
- Parent perspectives on safety
- Relationship of nurse staffing and missed nursing care during labor and birth to patient outcomes

I am also a volunteer leader for the California section of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nursing, and serve on the Executive Committee of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. My clinical interests include women's health, perinatal nursing, patient safety, teamwork, interdisciplinary communication, high risk obstetrics, fetal monitoring, perinatal loss, breastfeeding, and family-centered maternity care. I teach graduate level courses in research methods and philosophy of nursing science at the UCSF School of Nursing.