2025 Danielle Peress Memorial Fund Awards
Pictured above (left to right): Drs. Catherine Klammer, Amber Lachaud, and Jecca Steinberg have been selected as the recipients of the 2025 Danielle Peress, MD Memorial Fund Award.
The Danielle Peress, MD Memorial Fund was established in 2018 in memory of Dani Peress, MD, who envisioned supporting MFM fellows in their clinical or translational research endeavors. Learn more about the Danielle Peress, MD Memorial Fund Award here.
Catherine Klammer, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, will conduct a study, “Assessing Barriers and Facilitators to Bundled Obstetric Sepsis Care through an Implementation Science-Informed, Multidisciplinary Approach.”
Sepsis is a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths, and delays in recognizing and accessing appropriate care contribute significantly to the mortality rate. Care bundles can be successful in reducing morbidity and mortality from sepsis, but implementation in the pregnant population requires further study to ensure success.
Dr. Klammer’s study aims to adapt current obstetric sepsis management practices for an urban, multi-site healthcare system and evaluate the implementation of bundled care for sepsis in this context. Dr. Klammer will be mentored by Rebecca Feldman Hamm, MD, MSCE.
Amber Lachaud, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, will conduct a study, “Finding the sweet spot: Exploring the patient experience with CGM in pregnancy.”
The prevalence of diabetes during pregnancy has risen significantly over the last decade and leads to an increased risk of perinatal complications. Advances in diabetes technology, specifically continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), show promise as a tool to improve perinatal outcomes during and after pregnancy, but adoption of this technology is lower in certain marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Reasons for these disparities may include provider bias, health system and structural barriers, and insurance/cost barriers.
Dr. Lachaud’s study aims to better understand patients' perspectives regarding the use of CGM technology for diabetes management during pregnancy, especially for the most marginalized and socially disadvantaged individuals, via a mixed-methods approach. Understanding the patient perspective regarding CGM use in pregnancy for this at-risk population will help assess unmeasured benefits of CGM and provide evidence to support its utilization. Dr. Lachaud will be mentored by Celeste Durnwald, MD, and Rebecca Hamm, MD, MSCE.
Jecca Steinberg, MD, MSc, a maternal-fetal medicine fellow at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, will conduct a study, “Birth capital: Financial toxicity in pregnancy and postpartum.”
Pregnancy and the first year postpartum represent a time of high economic instability, due in large part to factors including costs of prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum daily living expenses. Although financial hardship in this period is associated with poor maternal and neonatal health outcomes, much remains unknown about how socioeconomic instability affects financial and obstetric health.
Dr. Steinberg’s study aims to assess financial toxicity, a measure of economic burden, in a diverse pregnant and postpartum population, and explore the association between financial toxicity and poor health outcomes. Dr. Steinberg will be mentored by Lynn Yee, MD, MPH.
Learn more about the Danielle Peress, MD Memorial Fund Award here.
