Nana Mensah, PhD, MPH

Dr. Mensah is a maternal/child health epidemiologist and postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Research & Evaluation. Her research seeks to understand how clinical guidelines and practices shape preterm birth outcomes in women at risk for preterm labor. Her research priorities include working with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Pregnancy Registry.

Before joining Kaiser Permanente in 2021, Dr. Mensah worked in research in a number of roles at the University of Utah to identify substance use trends and uncover factors that affect substance use treatment outcomes for specialized populations. During her doctoral training, Dr. Mensah focused on studies of maternal/child health related to epidemiologic research. She worked with the Utah Department of Health to evaluate the state’s maternal and infant health home visiting program. Her dissertation explored the association between prenatal substance exposures and feeding problems, congenital heart disease, and child welfare system involvement.