Despite advances in clinical care for perinatal populations, alarming rates of severe maternal morbidity and mortality continue to disproportionately impact Black people and other minoritized populations, particularly in the Gulf South. The need has never been greater for innovative and upstream strategies to mitigate the persistent and steadily worsening trend of outcomes in maternal and perinatal health, and for those efforts to be guided by people with lived experience from communities who have been most impacted by the crisis. A perinatal research workforce with health equity training will have the capacity to identify social determinants of perinatal health and develop effective and sustainable solutions to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes. The Southern Center for Maternal Health Equity will be guided by a paradigm rooted in reproductive justice and birth equity. The overarching objective of the Training component is to develop innovative and transdisciplinary educational and training opportunities for early career and junior scholars aimed at developing and strengthening a research workforce that is best positioned to improve maternal health and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality locally, regionally, and nationally. With a guiding emphasis on addressing root causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, particularly among Black women in the Gulf South, the overall proposal and specifically the Training component will support the development of a well-prepared group of researchers focused on health equity who are drawn from populations both historically underrepresented and deeply impacted. They will thus be able to carry on the overall objective of the Center, improving maternal health through testing community-prioritized strategies that improve maternal health, with a strong knowledge and skills based in the overall research theme of assessing implementation of existing evidence-based strategies and building the evidence base for novel strategies. The Training Component will foster a cross- institutional, team science approach rooted in the core Research Projects proposed. Trainees will benefit from the combined resources of four organizations exceptionally well placed to address issues: Tulane University, Dillard University, the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), and Ochsner Health System. The program is innovative in that it will bring community driven and prioritized input to elevate the voices of Black and other populations severely impacted by the crisis of perinatal health in the Gulf South. Participation of researchers from communities most affected will be achieved through the foundation of partners Dillard University, the oldest HBCU in Louisiana, and NBEC. The program directors from Tulane and Dillard will be assisted by external advisors in close cooperation with the Community component of the Center. The proposed training program seeks to directly support trainees to address severe maternal morbidity and mortality.