Core Team

Meg Wirth

Meg Wirth is the founder of Maternova and a S.E.VEN fellow and a Cartier Women's Initiative finalist. An innovator at heart, over the last several years she co-developed the strategy for the first global health social venture capital fund with a focus on women's health in low-income countries. Meg has also led the business plan development for a next-generation medical device company with an application in global health. She has worked on women's health throughout her career in areas as diverse as starting a home visiting program for teen mothers in Appalachia to monitoring and evaluating a major Safe Motherhood initiative--funded by USAID and implemented by John Snow International's Mothercare project-- in Jakarta and South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Meg has also worked as a member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Health Equity team and co-edited a major volume called Challenging Inequities in Health: From Ethics to Action. She was a co-author of the UN Millennium Project’s final report on child and maternal health. She has a BA from Harvard University and an MPA in international development from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.

Allyson E. Cote

Allyson E. Cote is Maternova's VP of Business Development. With over fifteen years in the development field, her award winning expertise lies in high level client acquisition, strategic and channel partnership development, account management, and marketing. Prior to Maternova, Allyson acted as a founding Vice President team member of Shape Up, Inc. as well as acting as COO for Alessandra Gold, Inc. She holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts, and is currently working towards an MBA in Advocacy & Policy.

Emily Ellison Fallon

Emily Ellison Fallon has worked as part of the Maternova team working on Project Management since 2010. Emily's undergraduate thesis at Brown was on social globalization and its impact on HIV/AIDS advocacy in Brazil and Mozambique. She is interested in how powerful the combination of health advocates and the Internet can be in addressing the international institutions that dictate policies around health care spending globally. A particular area of interest of Emily's is in cultural competency in the introduction of health related technologies/practices.

Karin Kroh

Karin Kroh brings 15 years experience in financial management, accounting, bookkeeping, orders, fulfillment and project management to Maternova and keeps all of our operations in ship shape. She has worked with startups and seen them through all stages of growth but here work with large corporations brings us a diverse set of perspectives on our financial strategy.

Kirstin Krussell

Kirstin is a Brown University graduate who is our stellar blog researcher and writer!

Rachel Thakore

A Brown University senior who is keeping the Maternova Innovation Index current and up to date!

Smitha Gudapakkam

Smitha brings both a B.A. and Masters in Engineering to her Babson MBA training. She is passionate about metrics and measurement for social impact and is working with Maternova to capture all of the health, social and economic impact generated when a mother or infant has a safe birth.

Jessa Handang

Jessa Handang is an administrative assistant for Maternova. She is a Jill of all trades contributing to the efficiency of our operation.

Major Partners

Promail, Etc

is a fulfillment center in Providence, RI. This social enterprise employs people with specific health challenges who are in need of employment.

Prior Partners

The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals

The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) and Maternova were partnered as co-recipients of a Macarthur Foundation grant to work on mapping obstetric facilities in Mexico from 2010-2011.

Comite Promotor por una Maternidad sin Riesgos (CPMSR), Mexico

The Safe Motherhood Committee in Mexico was partnered with Maternova and ARHP to working together to build a user-friendly map of obstetric facilities--including their quality of care ratings.

Concern Worldwide Innovations:

Maternova worked with Concern Worldwide in 2011 on an initiative to pursue innovations for maternal and newborn health in Sierra Leone, Malawi and Orissa state in India.