The Couplet Care Story
Couplet Care, Inc was founded to follow through on opportunities to strengthen care for new families that Dr. Kristin Tully identified through research.
The healthcare system is not optimized for birthing parents, infants, or those caring for them. Collaborating with patients, clinicians, and a dedicated team with diverse expertise, Dr. Tully led development of an innovative bassinet for use in birthing facilities.
The Couplet Care Bassinet enables the access that new mothers and infants need for their safety, health, and well-being. Through a human-centered design process, the team created Couplet Care Bassinet prototypes and made the device better with each round of feedback.
This critical enhancement to the structure of postnatal unit care is a part of the respectful, equitable, and supportive care Dr. Tully advances through her scientific work and advocacy.
Couplet Care Team
Couplet Care, Inc. team members are leaders in human-centered design for maternal-focused health care services.
The Couplet Care Bassinet provides a new standard of inpatient postpartum care and is a catalyst for culture change. The early postpartum period is a sacred part of life.
With great pride and joy, the team members offer their creativity and effort to safely connecting parents and newborns:
Stacie McEntyre
Chief Executive Officer
Member of the Board of Directors
Ms. McEntye is a results-driven visionary executive leader with over 25 years’ experience in healthcare innovation. She has a strong history of building and leading privately held companies from an early stage through transition and growth. Prior to joining Couplet Care, she founded and led Veritas Collaborative, a system of specialty hospitals making a meaningful difference for thousands of patients.
Kristin Tully, PhD
Founder and Chief Scientist
Key inventor of the Couplet Care Bassinet™
Dr. Tully is Founder of Couplet Care Inc, which is a spin-out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the UNC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Tully is also Associate Faculty at Ariadne Labs, a center for health systems innovation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. She is a founding member of the 4th Trimester Project.
Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc
Clinical Advisor
Key inventor of the Couplet Care Bassinet™
Dr. Stuebe is a distinguished scholar in infant and young child feeding in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is also a maternal-fetal medicine physician and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Stuebe has served as President of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and she led the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) redesign of postpartum care. She is a founding member of the 4th Trimester Project.
Carl Seashore, MD
Clinical Advisor
Key inventor of the Couplet Care Bassinet™
A pediatrician with a passion for enhancing early bonding and development. His profound commitment to enhancing newborn care, coupled with his extensive experience in quality improvement and technology implementation, provides invaluable insights into the development of innovative solutions that prioritize both safety and family-centered care.
Andrea Braden, MD, IBCLC
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Braden is an award-winning obstetrician-gynecologist and breastfeeding medicine specialist with extensive experience in clinical practice and healthcare innovation. Her deep understanding of postpartum needs is informed by both her personal and professional journeys. As an advisor for Couplet Care, she supports the development of innovative maternal health solutions, including the Couplet Care Bassinet, which aims to enhance postpartum recovery and infant care.
Catherine Sullivan, MPH, RDN, LDN, IBCLC, RLC, FAND
Lactation Consultant
Key inventor of the Couplet Care Bassinet™
Catherine Sullivan is Director and Assistant professor at the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI). Catherine leads CGBI programmatic efforts in the areas of breastfeeding friendly healthcare, childcare, communities and in lactation training. She serves as CGBI’s Co-Principal Investigator on the core leadership team of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention EMPower Breastfeeding Initiatives and is Principal Investigator of the ENRICH Carolinas project, serving North and South Carolina.
Francoise Knox Kazimierczuk, PhD, RDN, LD, CLC, ATC, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, FAND
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Francoise Knox Kazimierczuk is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati in the Department of Rehabilitation, Exercise, and Nutrition Sciences. Her scholarship integrates public health and cultural studies. Dr. Knox Kazimierczuk focuses on African American women’s health, investigating cardiometabolic syndrome, maternal health, breastfeeding, and obesity, all which are mediated by racial/ethnic bias in the health care system.
Commercialization Experts
Don Holzworth
Board Chairman
Serial Entrepreneur
Jan L. Davis
Board Member
Serial Entrepreneur
Davis Growth Partners
Nikin Shah
Board Member
Co-Founder & General Partner
Front Porch Venture Partners
Marshall Kuremsky, MD
Observing Board Member
Partner
LOUD Capital
Ty Hagler
Biomedical Design Coach
Key inventor of the Couplet Care Bassinet™