The National MCH Workforce Development Center once again had an exciting summer supporting 23 graduate and undergraduate student interns in the 2025 Title V MCH Internship Program! We matched teams of one to three interns with 10 state and jurisdictional Title V programs, and each team completed a 10-week project to support or improve the health of that state’s women, children, and families.
Since 2014, the Title V MCH Internship program has supported 240 students and 42 states and jurisdictions.
The program is designed to give student interns hands-on experience in state Title V agencies and a window into a career path that they might not have otherwise contemplated. The program also allows Title V programs to temporarily expand their capacity, as the interns complete meaningful projects that contribute to each state’s current Title V priorities and goals.
“We regularly hear from recent interns and alumni of the program that their experience led them to consider or take a job in governmental public health,” said Arden Handler, DrPH, MPH, an adviser for the internship program. “And we hear from Title V preceptors that the students are passionate, competent early practitioners who create valuable deliverables by the end of their 10-week tenure.”
The Title V MCH Internship program provides more than just a placement for students — students also participate in a 10-week training program. Before the internship even begins, Center experts help orient the interns to Title V. Over the course of the summer, Center experts and partners provide skills training in project management, successful collaboration, and four areas essential for effective MCH practice: change management and adaptive leadership, systems integration, evidence-based decision making, and engagement with communities and families.
The interns also benefit from group mentorship sessions and informational workshops about MCH career pathways.
“We’re really proud of the long-term success of this program,” said Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, MPH, MSW, the director of the National MCH Workforce Development Center. “The wraparound training and support really give students what they need to be successful. And by consolidating the training and mentorship into one program, we take some of that burden off the states, so they can focus on building relationships with the students and guiding them to create meaningful project deliverables.”
Each summer, states and jurisdictions develop a project that will benefit their agency and identify activities and deliverables they would like a team of interns to complete. This year’s projects included conducting a landscape analysis of developmental screening programs, creating educational materials about safe sleep and infant mortality, and assessing how housing challenges are affecting family and child health.
State and Jurisdiction Projects Completed by Interns
District of Columbia
An intern team supported the District of Columbia’s Title V program in synthesizing their 2025 Needs Assessment results. To support the priorities identified in the assessment, they also created a policy brief on care coordination for children and youth with special healthcare needs (CYSHCN), synthesized data and created new outreach and education materials.
Hawai‘i
Interns with Hawai‘i supported the state’s Title V Needs Assessment process. They reviewed and presented on evidence-based strategies related to the agency’s selected National Performance Measures (NPMs). To support community organizations’ understanding of the state’s key health priorities, they created a fact sheet for each NPM. The team also built a public scoresheet of maternal and child health indicators from the National Survey of Children’s Health, comparing Hawai‘i’s rates with national rates.
Maryland
Maryland’s interns worked on several initiatives to support the state’s families. They supported the agency’s Title V Block Grant application by identifying evidence-based strategy measures for the state action plan. They also created a statewide database of the perinatal workforce and created short-form educational videos for the Office of Children and Youth with Specific Health Care Needs.
Minnesota Team 1
An intern for Minnesota developed a centralized digital resource hub for maternal and child health (MCH) professionals across the state. The hub is accessible to both Minnesota Department of Health staff and the members of regional Community Health Boards in the state. It consolidates over 100 curated materials relevant to MCH, organized according to the Foundational Public Health Services framework, ensuring relevance to population domains, funding categories, and priority health topics.
Minnesota Team 2
A second intern team with Minnesota supported the state’s ongoing efforts to promote breastfeeding and the use of pasteurized human donor milk (PHDM). They created a survey and interview guide for health care workers to collect information on barriers and facilitators related to counseling patients. They also analyzed quantitative data on PDHM usage and conducted a literature review on necrotizing enterocolitis, a health condition in small infants which PHDM can help prevent.
New Mexico
New Mexico’s team focused on evaluating and addressing the needs of pregnant and postpartum women and the families of children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) in the state. The team analyzed data, assembled regional and statewide reports, and created informational materials for the public.
South Dakota
Two interns working with South Dakota supported the state’s infant mortality prevention efforts. They developed educational materials on newborn screening and safe sleep, conducted a landscape analysis and created an asset map for organizations focused on infant health, and assisted with the development and testing of a new digital newborn screening surveillance system.
Utah
A team of interns worked on three different projects to support families in Utah. After completing literature reviews, analyzing data, and conducting landscape analyses, they wrote a comprehensive report with recommendations for how the Division of Family Health can improve their patient and client feedback mechanisms. They also created mental health resources for fathers in Utah and produced a best practices guide for how the division and community organizations can organize social connection events.
Vermont
Vermont’s interns laid the groundwork for a mixed-methods study that will help the state’s Title V program better understand the role of parents and caregivers in health outcomes for adolescents. They conducted a comprehensive landscape analysis, launched a statewide survey, and piloted interview and focus group guides for parents and caregivers.
Virginia
Working with Virginia, two interns created a report outlining key themes and recommendations to guide the state’s future developmental screening efforts. They synthesized five years of key highlights and challenges reported by Regional Developmental Screening Initiative Hubs and conducted interviews with cross-sector developmental screening partners throughout the state.
Washington
Supporting Washington state, two interns conducted a needs and opportunities assessment related to housing insecurity for the state’s families with children. To support the assessment, they completed a literature review on housing instability and public health systems, conducted a landscape analysis, analyzed quantitative data, and conducted key informant interviews with national, state, and local community organizations.
Participating Universities
As in previous years, student interns were selected from three training programs supported by the Health Resources & Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB): Centers of Excellence in MCH Education, Science, and Practice (CoE), MCH Public Health Catalyst (Catalyst) Program, and the MCH Leadership, Education, and Advancement in Undergraduate Pathways (LEAP) Training Program. In 2025, student interns were from the following MCHB-funded training programs:
- Drexel University
- East Carolina University
- Emory University
- George Washington University
- Georgia State University
- Harvard University
- University at Albany — State University of New York
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of Minnesota
- University of South Carolina