Governor Reynolds is being honored for reforming maternity care, including payment, in Iowa, while the Perigee Fund is being recognized for providing critical capacity funding to non-profits addressing maternal mental health.
The Policy Center is recognizing the recipients of the 2025 Maternal Mental Health Hero Awards during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month. The awards program was established in 2020 to recognize a leader or organization that has transformed maternal mental health care. This year, a policymaker category was added, for which Governor Reynolds is the first to be honored.
The 2025 award recipients are Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and the Perigee Fund. Governor Reynolds is being recognized for her leadership in transforming maternity care, including looking at ensuring maternity care providers are paid adequately and no longer paid a flat rate for all care they provide. Perigee Fund, a philanthropic organization, is being honored as the first funder to provide critical capacity funding to maternal mental health non-profits, including supporting those addressing Federal and state policy.
Iowa is among the first in the nation to address the unbundling of maternity care payment through Medicaid.
“I am honored to receive this award as a Maternal Mental Health Hero for the groundbreaking work we are doing in Iowa to improve maternity care,” said Governor Kim Reynolds. “We are raising Medicaid maternal payment rates, bringing more doctors to Iowa through payment reforms, and doubling Iowa’s investment in loan repayment programs to ensure healthcare access to new mothers, as well as Iowans in every corner of the state.”
The Perigee Fund investments have catalyzed major milestones, including the passage and formation of the Federal Maternal Mental Health Task Force, the creation of the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, and more.
“On behalf of Perigee Fund, we want to thank the Policy Center for this tremendous honor,” said Marcy Miller, Executive Director of the Perigee Fund. “At Perigee, we believe we must act now to heal intergenerational trauma through the power of early relationships in every single state and community—starting with maternal mental health.”
“Together, Governor Reynolds’ leadership in unbundling maternity care payments and Perigee’s investments in maternal mental health policy are changing how mental health care is provided in the U.S.,” said Joy Burkhard, CEO of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health.
