Outreach Education

The Neonatal Outreach Program of the Emory Regional Perinatal Center (RPC) promotes the delivery of high-quality neonatal care across the region by offering outreach, educational opportunities, and resources to neonatal and perinatal healthcare professionals and community partners. 

Serving the Atlanta perinatal region—a 39-county region inclusive of the Atlanta metro area and north Georgia—the Neonatal Outreach Program offers a variety of educational and supportive services, guided by routine assessments of strengths and needs across the region, perinatal outcome data, direct requests from regional clinicians, and priorities of the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Program goals:

• Education: To provide—both directly and through connections to partnering organizations—educational offerings relevant to the needs and priorities of our perinatal region.
• Communication & Connection: To promote coordination and collegiality across the region, among the Emory RPC (including the Angel II transport team & NICU follow-up developmental progress clinic), the 30+ neonatal and perinatal hospitals and healthcare organizations, the Georgia Department of Public Health, and community partners.
• Quality: To promote high-quality newborn care through support for quality improvement initiatives, collaboration with the Georgia Perinatal Quality Collaborative (GaPQC), protocol sharing, case review, and more.

Neonatal Outreach Coordinator
Office: 404-251-4650
Cell:    770-695-7020

Jessi Barnes is a clinical nurse educator with a passion for the neonatal patient population. Her nursing practice consists of high-risk perinatal care, neonatal intensive care, and a few years in nursing informatics just to shake things up. Her passion for trauma-informed family integrated care fuels her professional work. Jessi holds a Master of Science in nursing education and certifications in high-risk neonatal nursing, nursing professional development, and care of the extremely low birth weight infant. She is also a graduate of the Trauma Informed Professional certificate program and a Community Resiliency Model Teacher.

In August 2022, Jessi experienced the NICU firsthand when her daughter was born at 27 weeks 5 days after a home placental abruption. Experiencing the environment she knows and loves from the “other side” was exhausting, traumatic, but most of all, hopeful. She hopes to share her passion for neonatal care and personal experiences with the region’s hospitals to help improve patient, family, and provider outcomes.

Medical Director of Outreach Education

Dr. Sternad joined the Division of Neonatology in 2021 and assumed directorship of the outreach program in summer 2023. She received her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed her pediatric residency and neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Vanderbilt University. While in fellowship, Dr. Sternad also earned her Master of Public Health with a focus in epidemiology.

Her research is centered around ensuring equitable access to medical care and follow up services, particularly for families who prefer languages other than English. She is also helping to implement a more streamlined process to screen for social determinants of health and provide community resources to families.