At the Florida Perinatal Mental Health Conference – Making a Difference Together, Sharon Ross-Donaldson received the 2022 Excellence in Perinatal Mental Healthcare Award.

The award recognizes an individual for their work providing excellent clinical care, training, advocacy, and leadership in perinatal health in Florida and nationally.

Sharon Ross-Donaldson is the CEO and President of the Center for Health Equity, Inc., (CHE) an organization in Gadsden County, in Quincy, Florida founded in 2000. The CHE is dedicated to public service and participatory research that is community-based and focused on the elimination of disparities in health outcomes due to race, ethnicity, gender, age, geography, or socioeconomic status.

She oversees a multidisciplinary team with expertise in social work, behavioral health, nursing, nutritional health and wellness, research, evaluation, community development, and public health.  This team implements three major initiatives under the umbrella of CHE that includes: the Gadsden Federal Healthy Start Project, the CHE Brother to Brother (B2B) Fatherhood Project, and the CHE Behavioral Health.

She is the Principal Investigator/Project Director of the Gadsden Federal Healthy Start Project, which is one of six federal projects in the state whose mission is to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates among African American women through lowering risk factors associated with infant and maternal mortality, creating access to quality services, improving women’s health, improving the health of the family, father’s and educating the community.  She also oversees the operations of the B2B Fatherhood project and the CHE Behavioral Health services offered to women, children, fathers, and families of Gadsden County, Florida.  

Since 2004, she has served as specialized faculty, and assistant teaching professor, and is now an adjunct faculty member with the FSU College of Social Work.  She is a two-time graduate of the college (BS 1983, MSW 1985).

The 7th annual Perinatal Mental Health Conference is organized by the Florida Maternal Mental Health Collaborative, founded in 2015 by Lauren DePaola, a licensed clinical social worker, and Dr. Heather Flynn, professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine and director of the FSU Center for Behavioral Health Integration at the FSU College of Medicine.

The collaborative engages leaders, professionals, advocates, and families dedicated to the vision that every woman in Florida and her family receive the help and support they need for optimal maternal mental health and well-being.