Institute for Families in Society

Dr. Catherine Vladutiu is a Senior Research Associate and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Families in Society. In this role, she provides leadership for MCH initiatives and coordinates efforts to ensure the delivery of high quality, data-driven research and services. She oversees research and technical assistance activities and builds collaborative partnerships to advance innovative MCH healthcare and policy research. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to improving the health and well-being of women, children, and families through rigorous and impactful public health science.

Dr. Vladutiu has more than 20 years of experience in maternal health and perinatal epidemiology, with expertise in administrative data, linked datasets, and large scale data analysis. She is driven by a passion for using data to understand and address the factors that influence maternal health outcomes. Her work focuses on strengthening maternal health systems through evidence based strategies and system level interventions, emphasizing the translation of complex data into actionable insights for programs, policymakers, and health systems.

Prior to joining the University of South Carolina, Dr. Vladutiu served as a Senior Epidemiologist in the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau. In that role, she provided substantive and methodological leadership in maternal health and perinatal epidemiology and served as a scientific advisor on performance measurement, program evaluation, and data systems for federal maternal health investments. Her work contributed to several national maternal health initiatives, including the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health and the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.

Dr. Vladutiu has authored more than 80 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has received multiple awards recognizing her contributions to maternal health research and public service. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPH in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology from the University of Rochester. She also holds academic appointments as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.