Growing up the daughter of an emergency room pediatrician and a registered nurse, Zoe Reich thought she understood as a person of color the extent that systematic racism led to health disparities. But it wasn’t until she was a student at the Rutgers-New Brunswick Honors College and Douglass Residential College that she learned some alarming statistics about maternal health in New Jersey. Now the 19-year-old rising sophomore is working on a project to ensure women who are ready to become mothers, embark on that journey with the odds in their favor. After discovering that New Jersey is ranked 47th in the nation for maternal deaths and has one of the widest racial disparities for both maternal and infant mortality, Reich was inspired to develop the app Mother’s Touch. The idea was conceived this winter while the High Bridge resident was interning with the Women’s Health Institute at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and contributing to their Writing Heals & Inspires journal. To read the full story.