Meet Katie Breen, MPH | Vice President of Programs | Podcast Host

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Breen, MPH and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
The United States has the highest maternal death rate of any developed nation, and over 60% of these deaths are preventable. In fact, it was safer to give birth in the United States thirty years ago than it is today, as the rate of maternal deaths quintupled in the last thirty years despite advances in maternal care. The rate of people dying in childbirth or due to pregnancy-related causes continues to climb in the U.S., even while it declines in other high-income countries.

The reasons maternal death rates are on the rise in the U.S. include poor access to health care; racism, discrimination and disrespect; lack of integrated care models that address medical, behavioral and social needs comprehensively; and misaligned incentives for health systems with maternal health outcomes.

What’s more is that significant racial disparities exist in childbirth outcomes. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native individuals are 3-4 times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white people. These disparities exist regardless of income or education, and stem from the effects that a lifetime of systemic racism and its related stressors can have on someone’s health, in addition to bias and barriers to access built into the healthcare system.

At Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative, we are working to reduce maternal mortality in the state of Colorado by improving the quality of our healthcare while expanding access to comprehensive, integrated care during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started out my career in advertising and marketing, but realized pretty quickly that I did not find it fulfilling, as I wanted to contribute to the world in a more meaningful way. As a super Type A, lifelong overachiever, it was definitely unsettling to realize that what I’d worked so hard, for so long for…did not even make me happy. (Not that there’s anything wrong with working in those fields – I just personally felt that something was missing for me.) You know the phrase, “Life’s too short?” Well, for me, I couldn’t stop thinking that “Life’s too long” – to be totally unfulfilled in your career for ~50 years of your life! Even if we’re not all lucky enough to live that long, why spend the time we do have feeling bored and stuck?

In my spare time, I was passionate about all sorts of causes related to women’s health, gender equity, reproductive rights, and social justice. I knew that I needed a career that involved some of these elements, but I didn’t know what that might look like or where to start. The idea of “starting over” in my career, even though I was only in my late 20s at the time, was scary and overwhelming.

While I pondered my next career move, I decided to indulge those interests by starting a podcast where I could interview experts about the topics I was so interested in. Not only would I be learning, having fun, and exploring potential careers, but I’d get to spread awareness about these topics as I did so. I listened to a lot of interview-style podcasts at the time and found them an engaging and educational format…and it was also 2016, when everybody and their mom was starting a podcast – so I thought, why not? Femtastic Podcast was thus born.

Through my work on the podcast, I realized a) that I would love to make a career focused on reproductive health, rights, and/or justice, and b) that public health was a field.

No, really, I had no idea what “public health” meant before this. While talking to a lawyer about potentially going to law school to become a reproductive rights lawyer, I realized that I did NOT want to go to law school at all, but that I did want to learn more about how I could work in this mysterious field of “public health” to contribute outside of the legal world. (If you listen to the podcast, you’ll know I still absolutely ADORE repro lawyers.)

I learned more about the field of public health and explored jobs that sounded appealing to me, but quickly learned that many of them required a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. This set me on a path to eventually deciding to apply Master of Public Health (MPH) programs. After a lot of research and a lot of time spent studying for the GRE in coffee shops all over Boulder (shoutout to Ozo and Alpine Modern), I was ultimately accepted to Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and moved to Boston in 2018 to complete the program with a concentration in Maternal-Child Health.

While completing the program and enduring the horrendous Boston winters, my partner and I knew that we wanted to move back to Boulder once I finished my degree. In early 2020, we moved back to Boulder and I began work with the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC), where I immediately set to work solving the maternal mortality crisis in the state of Colorado. The pandemic hit about a month into my role, and has been making the world of maternal health even more complicated since then. While we don’t yet have finalized data, we know that maternal deaths across the U.S., from all causes, increased from their already-despicable rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My most meaningful accomplishment at CPCQC has been working to reduce deaths related to the top two causes of maternal death in Colorado – suicide and accidental overdose. Most people would be shocked to learn that these are the main causes of death during pregnancy and up to a year postpartum, but these are the top two causes of death not only in Colorado, but in every US state during this period of life (though they might swap for the #1 and #2 spots depending on the state). My work at CPCQC on this topic has focused on improving hospital processes to identify and care for patients with substance use and mental health concerns, while expanding access to integrated, comprehensive care networks through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum throughout the state, so that no person falls through the cracks while bringing life into this world.

If there’s any wisdom I can impart from my career journey, it’s to not settle for boredom. If you know you’re not satisfied with your career, you can take calculated risks – without even leaving your day job – to do some digging and figure out what it is that might make you happier. It’s definitely easier to stay where you are, so it’ll take courage and a lot of initiative to completely change your career – but just remember there’s nothing wrong with incremental change. There’s nothing wrong with setting off on a career path and then changing your mind once you realize it’s not for you. And it’s never too late to start over. After all, life’s too long.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Boulder and I love Boulder, so let’s start there. This friend should visit in the summer because I hate being cold. Luckily, we get plenty of sunny days year-round here on the Front Range!

We’ll start by strolling down Pearl Street. We’ll hit Avanti for a rooftop cocktail with the best views in town, stop at Oak for the kale salad, then head to Mountain Sun for local beers, fries, and tempeh reubens. Later, we’ll see a comedy show at Rayback Collective or Bohemian Biergarten.

The next day, we’ll rent B-cycle bikes, which are scattered all over the city, and take Boulder’s impeccable network of bike paths to Alpine Modern, where I spend all my retirement money on avocado toast. We’ll head to Chautauqua for a hike and satisfy our hunger afterwards with a giant Thai Tempeh sub on French bread (I know there’s a lot of tempeh in this itinerary, but this is Boulder, after all.) Then we’ll head to Eben G. Fine Park to lounge on rocks in the sun like lizards as the babbling Boulder Creek rushes past, or rent tubes and tube down the creek like we’re in some sort of Disney park version of a mountain town (because we kind of are).

We’ll then find ourselves at the graciously appointed St. Julien Hotel and Spa, where after a glorious nap (I am a nap aficionado) in our fancy room with Flatiron views, we’ll head down to the spa (I am also a spa aficionado). We’ll spend the rest of the day getting a massage, hanging in the hot tub, sipping champagne and spa water, and hopping between the sauna and Eucalyptus steam room. We’ll have rooftop cocktails across the street at Corrida, then order takeout from Aloy Thai for dinner (drunken noodles, tom yum noodle soup, and khao soi) and eat it in our cloud-like hotel bed.

The next day, on the way to our hike at Fourth of July trailhead (west of Nederland), we’ll grab a breakfast burrito from Blackbelly and some Ozo coffee. After our glorious hike, we’ll stop at Crosscut Pizza in Nederland for some wood-fired pizza and more local beers. We’ll cap the day off with a show at Red Rocks.

On our final day, we drive up Mt. Evans, or Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, so my friend can see the awesome microbiome above treeline and catch a glimpse of marmots and mountain goats. After returning to Boulder, we head to Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage to end our day with a Hot Honey Disco pie and drive up Flagstaff to eat it while watching the sun set over the Continental Divide. Fireworks go off to symbolize the end of a perfect vacation. (Jk, there are no fireworks because of the fire ban due to high wildfire risk.)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d love to thank all of the Colorado-based reproductive justice organizations and activists that have inspired and educated me along my journey to a career centered on reproductive health, rights, and justice. This includes the Colorado Doula Project, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Rights (COLOR), Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Cobalt (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado), Elephant Circle, and China Tolliver of Rise Up Midwife.

Website: femtasticpodcast.com; cpcqc.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femtastic_podcast/ ; https://www.facebook.com/cpcqc

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiebreen/ ; www.linkedin.com/company/cpcqc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Femtastic_Show ; https://twitter.com/cpcqc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femtasticpodcast ; https://www.facebook.com/cpcqc/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8HSk0a8JM8

Image Credits
For TEDxBoulder photo: Photography by On Three Media and Rebecca Lee Photography Ignite Boulder photos: Kit Chalberg Photography