ATLANTA – Rose L. Horton came to the Atlanta for what was supposed to be a three-month interim job. Instead, she’s stayed five years and found her life’s work.
As executive director of Women and Infant Services at Emory Decatur Hospital, Horton, RN, has made it her mission to combat maternal mortality and morbidity. Her use of a simple hashtag, #notonmywatch, has helped draw attention to a health crisis underscored by a deep racial divide. In the United States, statistics show, Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
Her work has received national attention, and Horton has been tapped by the Biden administration to participate in the Black Maternal Health Stakeholder Group, which will help guide the administration’s work in this area. The stakeholder group is part of a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the March of Dimes. Their focus: hospital-based qual