Team Lead
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Florina Serbanescu, an obstetrician by training, now focuses on tracking the level and causes of maternal and neonatal mortality globally. Dr. Serbanescu is leading the Global Reproductive Health Evidence for Action team in the Division of Reproductive Health. Dr. Serbanescu joined CDC in 1992 and led national reproductive health surveys in 7 countries in Eastern Europe, including Russia. Building on the success of the survey work, she helped develop reproductive age mortality studies and maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response systems. In 2008-2011, she chaired the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for the International Obstetric Fistula Working Group, designed to support the worldwide Campaign to End Fistula. From 2011, she led the evaluation of a large maternal and perinatal mortality reduction projects in Tanzania and became the lead monitoring and evaluation technical adviser to the Saving Mothers Giving Life initiative in Uganda and Zambia. She co-wrote the protocol of the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance project currently implemented in 7 countries by Emory Public Health Institute in collaboration with CDC. Dr. Serbanescu has co-authored more than 100 publications and contributes technical expertise to several global initiatives and working groups aimed to improve maternal and newborn health including the WHO-led Mother and Newborn Information for Tracking Outcomes and Results (MoNITOR), the Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR), and the U.N technical advisory group for Maternal Mortality Estimation Interagency Group (MMEIG/TAG).