UT College of Social Work (UTCSW) MSSW student Hana El-Messidi is already making an impact in the field of perinatal mental health, recently presenting her research at the Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC) Annual Meeting held in Franklin, Tennessee.
Born and raised in Knoxville, El-Messidi earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and psychology in spring 2025 and developed an early interest in the connection between mental and physical health.
“I always knew I wanted to work in a field where I was able to see the overlap between mental and physical health, especially with vulnerable populations,” El-Messidi said.
Now, alongside her graduate studies at the UTCSW, she serves as a research study coordinator with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, Knoxville, working with maternal-fetal medicine and neonatology teams.
“I selected the MSSW program at UT due to the versatility of the social work field,” El-Messidi explained. “Social workers are able to work in a variety of settings and can hold roles from researchers to clinicians to program developers and beyond. There’s so much work to be done, and with a social work degree, you can truly do it all.”
At the TIPQC conference, El-Messidi presented her project, “Early and Expanded Prenatal EPDS Screening Reduces Median Depressive Symptom Severity Across Implementation Phases,” which examines the impact of early and expanded prenatal depression screening. While maternal depression is often associated with the postpartum period, her research highlights the importance of screening throughout pregnancy. Her findings showed that when screening is introduced at the first prenatal visit, depressive symptom severity decreases over time, reinforcing the value of earlier intervention.
“It has been such an honor and a beautiful experience to present at TIPQC,” El-Messidi said. “The emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration to create change in perinatal care has been inspiring, and I’m grateful to be a part of such a passionate group dedicated to this work.”
Looking ahead, El-Messidi hopes to build a career that blends clinical practice, research, and program development within an academic medical center, continuing to address both mental and physical health disparities at both the individual and systems level.