Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2009

Margaret Lynn Yonekura Appointed Executive Director of LA Best Babies Network

Los Angeles--LA Best Babies Network is proud to announce that Margaret Lynn Yonekura, MD, FACOG, has accepted the appointment to Executive Director of LA Best Babies Network. Dr. Yonekura has been Senior Advisor to the Network since 2006, and prior to that served on the LA Best Babies Collaborative Advisory Board from 2002-2005.

LA Best Babies Network is a dynamic network linking more than 100 organizations that are dedicated to improving the health of mothers, newborns and their families.

“I am proud to be a part of this great organization and its important work,” said Dr. Yonekura. “The goals of the Network are ones about which I am passionate, and to which I have dedicated my entire career— improving birth outcomes and erasing health disparities for women and their children.”

As a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist with subspecialty certification in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Dr. Yonekura has devoted nearly 30 years to improving the health of women and their babies, especially those in underserved communities. The only child of Japanese-American parents who met in a WWII internment camp, Dr. Yonekura was the first in her family to graduate from college.

She holds a number of appointments, including Director of Community Benefits at California Hospital Medical Center, Associate Professor of clinical OB-GYN at UCLA School of Medicine, Executive Director of the Hope Street Family Center at CHMC and of Options for Recovery: Harbor/South Bay, a comprehensive care program for pregnant and parenting chemically-dependent women and their children.

Among her many honors are a 1986 FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation for exemplary dedication and performance of duties leading to discovery of the outbreak of listeriosis due to contaminated cheese, the 1998 Los Angeles County Commission for Women 14th Annual Woman of the Year Award, and a 2000 Los Angeles Physician Humanitarian Award.

Dr. Yonekura succeeds Carolina Reyes, MD, as Executive Director. Dr. Reyes, who has guided the Network since its founding in 2004, will be relocating to Washington D.C. with her family, but remains as Principal Investigator to the Network.

“It has been an honor to lead the development of a vibrant network actively engaged in improving the lives of new parents and their newborns,” said Dr. Reyes. “I am very proud of all we have accomplished in four years, yet there is so much that remains to be done. I am heartened to have someone of Dr. Yonekura’s incredible abilities and talents at the helm. I know I leave the Network is in good hands.”

Dr. Yonekura received her BA from Pomona College and her MD from USC School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency at L.A. County + USC Medical Center and a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at George Washington University Medical Center.

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About LA Best Babies Network

LA Best Babies Network is a dynamic network linking more than 100 individuals and organizations that are dedicated to improving the health of newborns and their families. Launched as part of First 5 LA’s Healthy Births Initiative, the Network works to ensure that high quality perinatal care and social support is available to all families throughout L.A. County. To achieve this goal the Network focuses on five interrelated strategies of the Healthy Births Initiative: (1) caring for mothers-to-be; (2) improving the quality of perinatal care; (3) creating a network of caregivers and advocates; (4) sharing knowledge and resources; (5) advancing policies that advance healthy births.