About
Dr. Garland McKinney
I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Community, Equity, Data, and Information (CEDI) Lab at the University of Maryland at College Park. I am a wife, mother to two beautiful girls, sister, daughter, friend, researcher, educator, advocate, mental health clinician, perinatal mental health specialist, and birth doula among other things.
Research Projects
Please click the links included in the pictures below for more information about each study.
My research, clinical practice, and scholarly endeavors uplift Black women's perinatal experiences. Through these endeavors, I explore the connections between maternal health disparities and maternal mental health outcomes. As I further my research agenda, I intend to investigate the impacts of gendered racism on the relationship between Black mothers and daughters among other topics.
Training and Measurement
Black Maternal MEntal Health
I am currently developing a training program focused on Black maternal health and designed for doulas and community health workers. This training complements a maternal mental health tool that I have created for this demographic. The primary aims of these efforts are to decrease undiagnosed or misdiagnosed maternal mental health concerns and increase the number of culturally responsive providers with whom Black women are able to openly discuss mental health symptoms.
Delphi methodology
Study Information
The use of culturally responsive instruments in interprofessional settings (e.g., mental health, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, social work, nursing) is critical to decreasing the frequency of perinatal race-related psychological stressors and minimizing their long-lasting impacts. Using the knowledge and expertise of informed mental health experts in the field, this study was an initial step toward developing a screening tool to quantitatively measure the mental health impact of Black women’s experiences of race-related psychological stressors during pregnancy and childbirth.
This study was supported by funding from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES).
Cognitive Interviewing
Study Information
This study was one of the most important steps toward developing a screening tool that would capture Black women’s experiences of race-related psychological stressors during pregnancy and childbirth. Specifically, this study uplifted the voices and experiences of pregnant and postpartum Black women themselves. As a means of data triangulation, items that were developed by experts during the Delphi study were discussed with these women during cognitive interviews.
Research study: Instrument validation
Study Information
This study represented the initial psychometric validation for the screening tool I created, The Prepartum Form for Evaluating Race-Related Psychological Stressors (PP-FERRPS)©. This initial validation study determined that the 30-item, five-subscale PP-FERRPS© demonstrates initial reliability, convergent, and concurrent validity. Because this instrument marks the first to identify and define perinatal race-related psychological stressors for Black women, follow-up validation testing will need to be conducted; however, the development of the PP-FERRPS© is a significant step toward birth equity, reproductive justice, and culturally responsive maternal mental health screenings for Black women.
This study was supported by funding from the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES).
Professional Accomplishments and Affiliations
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I am a past recipient of the Clinical Mental Health Minority Fellowship. I was a masters-level fellow from 2019 - 2020.
I was the first Birth Equity Research Scholar to receive a pre to postdoctoral fellowship opportunity.
Formerly the National Birth Equity Collaborative*
I was part of the inaugural cohort for the Interdisciplinary Minority Fellowship. I was a doctoral-level fellow from 2020 - 2022.
I was named People’s Choice Award winner for the TMT Competition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2022.
I received the Research and Best Practice grant from SACES in 2022.
Contact Details
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jgm
Phd, lcmhca, ncc
Thank you for visiting my website. I look forward to connecting with you soon!
"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands - you need to be able to throw something back."
Maya Angelou