Dr. Jean Marie Place is a maternal and child health researcher and an Associate Professor of Health Education and Promotion.  She began teaching at Ball State University in 2014 and studies adverse experiences in a woman’s reproductive life, particularly issues in the perinatal period such as infertility, postpartum depression, sexual violence, and infant mortality. She also examines fertility awareness among young people and prenatal care models.  Her work has centered on exploring these issues in low-resource contexts including Mexico, Guatemala, and immigrant populations in the United States.  Upon moving to Muncie, she became interested in maternal opioid use disorder and has since obtained external funding to explore this issue from the Volunteers of America, SAMHSA, and the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.