Presenter: Sunayna Wahi; Naomi Riches, PhD; & Melannie Green
Date: 10/10/25
Brief Description: Discusses tools for equitable bereavement care
Keywords/Main Subjects: Bereavement care, equity, tools
Copyright: copyright Sunayna Wahi, Naomi Riches, & Melannie Green ©2025
Sunayna Wahi MS, MBA, OLY is a Research Manager in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Utah Health and works in partnership to support the equity core of the Utah Stillbirth Center of Excellence. She is also the manager of the Culture, Resilience, and Community Health Partnership departmental committee. Her interests lie in representing health disparities through the use of geospatial tools, working towards culturally competent and community-supported decision-making processes that actively involve members of the community, and through an approach that centers on implementing solution-driven methods, identifying the barriers faced by people of color in women’s and maternal health which significantly contribute to healthcare inequities.
Naomi O. Riches is a Research Assistant Professor in the University of Utah Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of its Stillbirth Research Program and placenta insufficiency working group. Her research is centered around identifying and addressing the needs of stillbirth parents concerning their postmortem decision. Outside of her qualitative research interests on shared decision-making, Dr. Riches has experience in informatics, exposure science, and social determinants of health research. She received her Doctorate in Occupational and Environmental Health and completed a Postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Riches is an active member of the Center of Excellence in Exposure Health Informatics (CEEHI) and the NIH National Covid Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Social Determinants of Health working group. Additionally, she is examining the impact of air pollution, climate change, and social determinants of health on adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth.
Melannie Green has a decades-long history as an active volunteer within the Utah community. As the mother of seven children, she has been given countless opportunities to serve others at her children’s schools, local churches and businesses as well as with many notable organizations such as (1) President/Chair(s)/Volunteer with Share Parents of Utah, Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support, since 2013, (2) Executive Board Member with Utah’s Festival of Trees, (3) Contributor, CDC/DHHS, SOARS-Study of Associated Risks of Stillbirth, and (4) International Stillbirth Alliance Conference Planning Committee, Utah. #weWILLlivelifetotheMAX
