Uniting Kentucky’s perinatal professionals to enhance family health through shared knowledge and teamwork.

Committed to advancing maternal and infant well-being statewide

Uniting Kentucky’s perinatal professionals since 1988

Who We Are

Advancing Maternal and Infant Health Together

KPA brings together stakeholders from across Kentucky to address maternal and infant health challenges through shared learning and coordinated problem-solving.

We provide evidence-based resources and support quality improvement projects in birthing facilities statewide to enhance care outcomes for families.

Our Purpose

Core Principles Guiding Our Work

KPA’s Commitment to Collaboration, Education, Advocacy, and Equity

Collaboration

Education

Advocacy

Equity

Partnering across disciplines to improve care delivery and outcomes for mothers and infants throughout Kentucky.

Providing up-to-date clinical resources and training to support informed decision-making among perinatal professionals.

Championing policies and initiatives that protect and enhance maternal and infant health at local and state levels.

Ensuring respectful, inclusive care that honors the diverse needs of families and healthcare providers.

Fostering an environment where every voice contributes to advancing health equity and quality improvement.

Our Executive Committee

Caring for people has always been close to Lucy’s heart.  She started her career as a massage therapist. However, after having three high-risk pregnancies and all three children spending timein Good Samaritan’s NICU, she felt drawn to nursing, specifically NICU nursing. She had natural instincts caring for these tiny little ones and felt the need to be a voice for that frightened mom at the bedside. In 2005 she graduated from Northern Kentucky University’s Nursing program with an ADN and then attained her BSN from Thomas More University in 2018.

Throughout Lucy’s career she has worked in the University Hospital Cincinnati’s NICU, Oral Facial Surgery Associates, (surgery is another of Lucy’s passions), St. Elizabeth Homecare WellMom/Well Baby program and St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s NICU. Her most recent position is with St. Elizabeth’s Baby Steps program as the NOWS Community Nurse Liaison working closely with moms who have an opiate use disorder. This role has enabled her to implement evidence-based practice surrounding the care of infants with Neonatal Opiate Withdrawal Syndrome(NOWS) and act as an advocate for this population and their mothers.

In addition to her role as the NOWS Community Nurse, Lucy remains active in teaching newly hired nurses how to assess infants for NOWS using the Eat Sleep Console (ESC) model of care. She was among the core champions that brought ESC to St. Elizabeth. The study they participated in was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. She has had several speaking engagements surrounding the topic of NOWS education and ESC. She currently serves as President of the Kentucky Perinatal Association.  Her passion is education and advocacy for the families she cares for.

Lucy lives in Sparta, Kentucky, where she resides with her husband Dave and daughter Olivia.  She has two sons, Nicholas and Nathan, both are currently serving in the United States Navy. She is active in her community and church. She enjoys cooking, and spending time outdoors, gardening, hunting, fishing and taking care of dogs, cats and chickens.

This once High School Science teacher, is now a Board-Certified Neonatologist and Medical Director at Baptist Health Lexington’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 2005. She remained at the University of Kentucky to complete her Pediatric Residency and Neonatal Fellowship. Baptist Health Lexington is her work home since completion of her training. She became Medical

Director of the NICU in 2014.

Dr. Reid has a passion for improving the quality of care provided to neonates in the State of Kentucky. It is through that passion she became involved with the Kentucky Perinatal Association. Over the last several years she partnered with KPA and Maternal Child Health to provide education across the state of Kentucky on non-pharmacologic treatment for Neonatal Opiate Withdrawal. At Baptist Health Lexington she championed the start of the Parent Empowerment Group to help opiate-addicted women prepare for

labor, delivery, and the transition of care to home. Ultimately, these efforts resulted in decreasing numbers of infants admitted to the NICU for pharmacologic care for NAS at Baptist Health Lexington.

Dr. Reid is currently focused on utilizing quality data available from hospitals and the state to improve neonatal care. She is organizing a Neonatal Service Line to coordinate efforts across the Baptist Health System and has joined the Neonatal Workgroup for the KY Perinatal Quality Collaborative. She is hopeful that her work with the Kentucky Perinatal Association will facilitate communication between academic hospitals, private providers, and the Department of Maternal Child Health.

Susan Caudill deGraaff is a Senior Administrative Research Assistant at UK Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology. She has been employed by the Division for over 25 years, and in that time has seen many positive changes in patient care due to research. She feels incredibly honored and blessed to work with the wonderful staff, doctors, and nurses in the Division and the NICU. Because of personal experiences, Neonatology holds a special place in her heart. A native of Boyd County, Kentucky, she attended Ashland Community College and UK, and is a certified professional coder. She’s been a member of KPA for over twenty years.

Susan’s family is the most important thing in her life. She has two wonderful daughters and two amazing granddaughters, and she spends as much time with them as possible. She is also an avid reader. She lives in Wilmore with her fiancé.

Susan was honored to be awarded the 2021 recipient of the Dr. Tom Pauly Memorial Award.

 Dr. Morrison enjoys a long history with the Kentucky Perinatal Association going back to the mid-to-late 1990s when then KPA President Dr. Ron Lubbe encouraged him to join the KPA. Dr. Morrison was elected KPA President in 2003 to 2005, and since then has served in various board roles as Secretary (2010-2013), ex-officio board member, and IT Tech-For-Life for our annual June KPA Conferences. His four-decade clinical career as a pediatric and newborn hospitalist began in service in the U.S. Navywhere he met his wife, soulmate and colleague Irene Jentz MD, also a pediatrician.Both achieved the officer rank of LCDR, MC, USNR before deciding to plant civilian roots in Kentucky.

   In conjunction with his love of teaching Family Medicine residents, his post-Navy career spanned two decades at St. Elizabeth Health Care Edgewood KY from 1992-2012, where he also served as PALS Course and Regional Faculty. As Associate Director and then Director of Pediatrics at St. Elizabeth, he found the KPA a perfect fit for his career interests. He also served as KPA representative to the National Perinatal Association Board and was the NPA State Forum Chair for several years. Although he retired from clinical care in 2024 after a decade working at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, he continues to teach medical students as adjunct faculty for the UK College of Medicine Northern Kentucky Campus ECM and TTR Courses, remains Emeritus Staff at St. Elizabeth, and seeks to perdure his gratifying relationshipwith the KPA.

   Dr. Morrison has been blessed to have worked all these years with so many talentedKPA board members, and is honored to have received KPA Awards such as the Dr. Tom Pauly Award. He feels a deep debt of gratitude to Gary Walls, all the previous KPA Presidents, and the wonderful previous and especially current board members who have so faithfully and diligently continued the tradition of teaching about and advocated for perinatal welfare of Kentucky.

   Irene and John raised three children, now adults with their own careers as an Industrial Specialty Welder, a Senior Energy Engineer for Climate/Energy Solutions, and in Medicine as a dedicated Pediatric Hospitalist. John and Irene continue to live in the first home they purchased in northern Kentucky, and after their Navy days, the Bluegrass State became their home.