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Wendy Hellerstedt is a nationally recognized scholar in maternal and child health (MCH), addressing issues such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy prevention, and a gifted and dedicated teacher.

"I couldn’t wait to get to class every week and left each day feeling both better prepared and more passionate to work in the field of public health," says one former student.

Hellerstedt has a superb ability to empower students in research, uniquely combining intellectual challenges and rigor with humor and respect. She involves students in research early in their careers and mentors them as health professionals and academics long after they leave the University.

"She seems to seek out those graduate students who have scholarly potential but are underprepared to make the most of it," says a former student who counts herself among them. "The consistency of her support of my scholarship and of me has earned her a lifetime placement on my list of most respected people."

Hellerstedt has played a substantial role in planning and delivering the maternal and child health summer institute for students and health professionals. She also was instrumental in creating a maternal and child health concentration in the epidemiology doctoral program.

Her efforts have put Minnesota in a position to help meet the growing need for MCH epidemiologists.