Speakers 

While her achievements are vast, she's honored for becoming Missouri’s first Black Certified Professional Midwife; creating Missouri's first Black midwifery clinic; creating the state’s first wrap-around holistic Midwifery & Doula care model; and writing the nation’s first home birth book written by a Black woman for Black women, titled, "A Black Woman's Guide to Home Birth.'' Okunsola has received 15+ awards in 6 years and is known as the Queen Mother of the Black Maternal Health Movement in St. Louis.

She currently operates Okunsola’s School of Traditional Midwifery™ and the International Doula Training Center™. In 2024, Okunsola released a series of books, guides, and manuals both for her schools and for birth workers and families. 

Charity is also a member of the Black Nurses Association of Greater STL/National Black Nurses Association, where she is Co-chair of the Health Policy Committee and Ambassador for the Mini Nurse Academy held in East St. Louis, IL. She is very well known throughout the STL metropolitan area for her work as a doula and black maternal and infant health advocate. She recently won Doula of the Year for St. Louis, MO as well as nationwide as member and ambassador of the National Black Doulas Association along with her work with the IDHS to expand Medicaid services for doula support in the state of IL. She has been featured in articles in various outlets including NewsNation Now and Voyage STL Magazine as well as multiple podcast and radio interviews including iHeartRadio Chicago. 

Tina’s herbal education has been a combination of self-instruction, ancestral guidance, and course offerings from various herbal programs and instructors.  Tina has a passion for midwifery and community herbalism that comes across in everything she does, from gardening and cooking to caring for her husband and four children, who were all born with the assistance of midwives.  Tina uses her intuition and knowledge of midwifery and herbs to provide holistic care to her clients. She is excited to pass the knowledge on to others and is committed to honoring and preserving the traditions of her foremothers.  

As her midwifery career advanced, Dr. Clarke continued to question the persistent racial and cultural health disparities. The need to affect changes within a healthcare system that was biased and racist was evident but would take time. Her doctoral studies, where she explored the benefits of preconception and prenatal bonding to improve birth outcomes, led her to discover similar rituals and practices to those that were intimate parts of the culture of traditional West African tribes over hundreds of years ago. 

The evidence today is clear that a program of preconception and prenatal bonding improves pregnancy outcomes for families. In 2014, Dr. Clarke participated in the CDC’s panel that developed national guidelines for preconception screening. Since then, she has presented numerous times in the US and globally on the neuroscience and morphological evidence that  document the positive psychological and physiological developmental impact of these practices for the maternal-child unit. 

She has worked with individual families to assist them in preparing for pregnancy and in mind, body, and spirit, and taught culturally sensitive prenatal bonding techniques that are culturally sensitive to Black families. She hopes that participants will gain some insights and find some information and techniques to share with Black clients to enable them to take advantage of the preconception and prenatal period to prepare for a healthy pregnancy and birth experience. 

She started her sonography career at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX in 2019 after graduation and upon passing three registries. Amariee was challenged to correlate MRI/CT/PET/X-ray/NM exams to find the smallest abnormality in the body. The systems that were examined were integumentary, breasts/lymph nodes, chest wall, female and male sexual reproductive organs, all abdominal organs and cavities, thyroid and all related glands and nodes in the face and neck, vessels from those from the brain to the neck, neck to wrist, abdominal vessels to pelvic region to the ankles, muscles and other locations where cancer to be found but not in the bone. The population of cancer is vast from infants to the elderly.

Amariee has also worked in the clinical setting at an endocrinologist's office, at Baylor, Scott & White Hospital, Children’s Health and Outpatient Centers. Her experience is vast with procedures, inpatient/outpatient/OR/ER, protocols, and standards set by the Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. 

As she entered midwifery school and networked with the birth community, there was an expressed need for mobile ultrasound technologists. She decided to expand her ability to work outside of the medical industrial complex by starting her mobile sonography business.

The exams are ordered by licensed professionals and read by a teleradiology group contracted with Amariee. This has allowed many families to be served in a greater capacity with the restrictions of COVID-19 in the hospitals and outpatient centers.  Many midwives who have multiple needs for learning how to use their Point-Of-Care US (POCUS) transducers and decoding diagnostic ultrasound reports have contacted Amariee for training. She has identified a great need to train midwives in the basics of sonography, for the safety of all parties involved.

Amariee currently advises the Black Students, Veteran's Students, and Students Residing Overseas at Midwives College of Utah. She has just become a NARM preceptor and plans on changing the way the Black student midwives are precepted, ensuring safe spaces with many educational opportunities to guarantee learning and hands-on opportunities to become well-rounded and grounded midwives.

In her other endeavors, Amariee is a veteran of the United States Air Force, holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Health and Human Performance, and a Master of Public Administration. A few positions she has held are budget analyst with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Secondary Science educator at Houston Independent School District, and an AmeriCorps VISTA/VISTA Leader for Texas Impact. Amariee is a community member and builder no matter her location and has a passion for equity for all in the world which keeps her busy as she resides in Ontario, Canada.

In her role as the Executive Director of Development and Partnerships for Doula Doula, Davon extends her impact across the San Francisco Bay Area, spearheading initiatives to enhance birth outcomes for BIPOC communities. Beyond advocacy, she actively equips the community through innovative training and workforce development programs, contributing significantly to the advancement of maternal and infant health.

Davon's dedication to the field is showcased through her participation in the documentary "BORN for THIS," where her insights and expertise enriched the exploration of a family's childbirth experience. Her remarkable achievements include receiving the Sacramento County Black Midwives Scholarship in 2021, a testament to her outstanding contributions and commitment to advancing maternal health. Davon was also featured in a New York Times story, further acknowledging her impactful work in the field.

With a robust educational background, extensive community engagement, and notable credentials, Davon Crawford stands as a leader in the pursuit of equitable, accessible, and positive birth experiences for all.

In her work in the United States, Carolyn has directed nationally recognized programs for pregnant adolescents and served as a staff nurse-midwife and the Director of the Division of Nurse-Midwifery at DC Health and Hospitals Public Benefit Corporation, expanding midwife services to eight neighborhood clinics throughout Washington DC. Carolyn has served on the faculty of numerous schools of nursing including Howard University, Charles Drew University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Case Western Reserve and the Frontier School of Nursing.  

She is the recipient of the 2022 American College of Nurse-Midwives Health Equity Award. Dr. Drew’s political activism originates from her family’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. She dedicates her energy to working at the local state and federal levels to support legislation that ensures access to equitable reproductive healthcare services and protects abortion access. As a nurse, midwife, and family nurse practitioner, Dr. Drew has spent her career, three decades, in healthcare systems that serve the underserved;  using her voice to ensure respectful care for Black and Brown mothers. She has attended the births of more than 2,000 babies. A proud graduate of Delaware Technical and Community College with an associate degree in nursing, Dr. Drew earned her master’s degree in public health from Tulane University, a master’s in nursing from Vanderbilt University, and a doctorate in nursing practice from Texas Woman’s University.

While working with the Alaska Native community in Anchorage, Gianna learned the value of culturally congruent care where the healthcare system uniquely meets the needs of the community they serve by uplifting their voices and prioritizing their values. 

As a Black mother and midwife working in metro Detroit hospitals, Gianna has gained a clearer understanding of her purpose to serve vulnerable families by using her presence to bridge the gap between their desires and the experience of the care they receive during pregnancy. Gianna is excited to join the BCE team and push towards the goal of safety, abundance and liberation for all birthing families through access to community birth centers in Wayne County, MI.

When Gianna is not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their three young children, exploring toddler-friendly activities in the metro Detroit area

She is a certified parent educator (Effective Black Parenting), certified childbirth educator (ICEA), trained in Lamaze childbirth education and is a certified lactation consultant (ALPP).  She brings to the Birth Detroit team a passion for nurturing expectant families and enhancing the quality of women health services. 

In 2015, she was asked by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to create a wellness program for pregnant women in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which she developed and ran for five years. It was at this time she began to uncover the depth of the crisis of maternal mortality. She formed the non-profit organization, Divine Deliveries Center For Reproductive Health and Childbirth and went back to school to pursue her midwifery degree from New York University

She is also an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Her research mission is to promote the health, well-being, and thriving of Black women, birthing people, and their infants. In her research, Dr. Jeffers utilizes a reproductive justice lens to examine the structural and social determinants of Black maternal and perinatal health. She also explores the role of Black midwifery, through culturally affirming and community-based care, in combatting Black maternal morbidity and mortality. She has been a Certified Nurse-Midwife since 2012 and served Washington, DC families for over eight years in birth center, federally qualified health center, and hospital settings. 

Kiki has a particular interest in healing models and modalities that have the potential to improve the transgenerational trauma experienced by her own community of Black women. Kiki is the former Director of the Marin Family Birth Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center that prioritized services for families with MediCal. She has recently joined a dynamic team of Black women who lead the EMBRACE program a Black group prenatal model that elevates the integration between maternal care and mental health services. She currently serves at the president of National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. While she has attended hundreds of births, the experience that most informs her practice and commitment to empowered birth was the transformative homebirth of her own son.

Her most recent investigation focuses on women’s health and the integration of birth doulas in hospital-based maternity care using a mixed methods design. She recently presented work on the role of doulas and their role as extended family in limited kinship systems and is collecting data for this project now.

The mission of the Dad Doula program is to provide resources, and guidance for the non-birthing parent as they plan to support the birthing person during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery and thereafter. This is done by learning how to advocate and support with intentional presence. This service is extended to expecting parents, new again parents, and parents looking to re-enter their children's lives. The mission of Life reDefined is to inspire family and community connection through intentional and collaborative experiences.

Josh Liston is an Army veteran, husband, and biological and bonus dad to four children. He is a lover of Christ and believes in the power of community. He also identifies as a womanist and uses he/him pronouns. His passion for fatherhood is rooted in the belief that Iron Sharpens Iron. 

She has helped families with physiologic birth, inductions, TOLAC and successful VBACs. She serves families postpartum for newborn and postpartum care, and breastfeeding issues within the scope of a Certified Lactation Counselor’s practice. She is bilingual and has taught Spanish, has worked in Montessori programs, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher and has Prenatal Yoga Certification. Pia is a Peer Mentor & Trainer for anxious and depressed moms with UC/Boulder and the Renée Crown Wellness Institute's Alma Program. Pia has been present for hundreds of births and is honored and humbled each time she has the opportunity to bear witness to these life events.

Sarah loves that she gets to provide access to funds that pay doulas a sustainable wage to provide the love that only a doula can give. She also trains and certifies people to doula within their communities. Recently she has discovered the excitement of advocating for birth justice at the state level.

Sarah has lived in four different states throughout childhood and currently lives in Aurora, Colorado where she has been the only parent to two adult children. She loves any activity that involves her paddle board and is currently reconnecting with her love for camping and exploring Colorado and all the magical places it has to offer. 

She brings expertise in grassroots strategizing and outreach, consumer education, and legislative advocacy in several states. She is skilled at connecting the big picture and grassroots, as it helps to educate and inform how midwives can be implemented in local, county, and state systems, institutions, and organizational frameworks. Tanya has expertise in and can speak to a variety of areas including medical education, health policy, consumer advocacy, maternity care in the military system, varied experiences of a Black woman in the system across providers and birth settings, as well as significant roles in two-state consumer and midwifery associations. Tanya has over 30 years of medical experience working in military medicine as well as various birth centers and community birth settings providing medical and midwifery care.

Tanya is the former vice-president of Californians for the Advancement of Midwifery where she worked tirelessly promoting the need for more midwives, especially midwives of color and those who care for under-served marginalized communities. She was instrumental in the transformation of the board and the creative force behind program creation and the shifting of focus and priorities to a more equitable lens. She acted as co-chair of the Birth Disparities and Equity Team from 2017 to 2019. She helped create and develop a program for student midwives of color to help them prepare for the NARM exam. She acted as lead program developer, creating, writing, and building the curriculum and program framework.

Tanya has extensive experience in bringing the consumer voice to the full spectrum of reproductive health advocacy and policy. As the former president of California Families for Access to Midwives, she worked with California stakeholders and legislators to help the passage of key legislation to increase access to licensed midwives. Tanya served on the board of directors of the Midwives Alliance of Hawaii as the Vice President and Oahu representative. She was on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery where she works to provide education to the public and policymakers regarding midwifery care as a quality health option for birthing people in North America and to increase access to quality maternity care.

Tanya is a strategist and Director of Outreach, Advocacy, and Education for The Big Push for Midwives, where she works on a national level to help states work on advocacy, policy, and legislative change to incorporate and integrate midwives on a national level. Tanya is one of the co-founders and Executive Director of Birth Future Foundation, an organization decolonizing philanthropy, and centering racial justice and equity in midwifery. Tanya is a member of the Hawaii Women’s Coalition and the Hawaii Commission on the Status of Women’s Feminist COVID-19 Response Team and co-authored the nation’s first Feminist Economic Recovery Plan in response to COVID-19. Tanya has presented at UN Women on midwifery and its importance in planning a feminist economic future. Her work is published in the UN Women's report   Beyond COVID-19: The Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice.

Tanya was the keynote speaker at the 2022 Alabama Black Midwives Conference and Tuft University’s 2023 Annual Black Maternal Health Conference.  

Tanya holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Science in Medical Science from Hampton University. She currently resides in Mississippi with her husband of 21 years and six children. Tanya is a newly appointed board member of MEAC and the President of the National College of Midwifery, a direct-entry midwifery school for midwives who practice traditional midwifery and out-of-hospital birth.

She is the 2018 recipient of the Kitty Ernst Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives. This award is given to one midwife each year who has been certified for less than ten years and has demonstrated innovative, creative endeavors in midwifery and/or women’s health clinical practice, education, administration, or research.

Char’ly is also the founder of Metro Detroit Midwives of Color (MDMOC).  MDMOC is a non-profit professional organization, inclusive of all minority midwives that serve women in the Metro Detroit area.  Ultimately all of their efforts will serve to reduce the prevalence of health disparities among ethnic minorities.

As a midwife and educator, Ellen is committed to centering the voices of her clients, students, and colleagues—especially those from BIPOC and queer communities—and working towards increasing their voices in healthcare, education, and policy development. 

As a teacher, Ellen’s focus is on building anti-racism and trauma-informed care into every course taught in the nurse-midwifery curriculum at the University of Washington, and on educating midwives to enter the workforce understanding the true history of midwifery and their power as change-makers. Ellen has published multiple articles on evidence-based ways to care for people seeking midwifery care and is the new co-editor of “Gynecological Healthcare,” a textbook used widely by students and practitioners alike. 

Her journey began as a pre-med student attending Hampton University, until she transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. She was introduced to midwifery after watching Alice Walker’s “Warrior Marks” in a medical anthropology course. After being certified as a doula, she unexpectedly caught her first baby which was all the validation she needed to know it was her calling! Ironically on her path to midwifery, Tia learned that her great great grandmother was also a midwife in Monroe, Louisiana. Earning a Master of Science in Midwifery from Thomas Jefferson University, Tia joined the Kaiser South Sacramento Midwifery Service in 2017. 

A mother of four children all with powerful birth stories and ushered in with midwifery care, Tia enjoys doing West African dance, cooking, listening to music, and being near the ocean for healing therapy.

“I didn’t choose midwifery, it called me. Every day I show up standing on the shoulders of my ancestors and mentors who guide me on how to provide patient, caring, empowering, culturally sensitive, traditional midwifery care.  This is my mission.”

She has also conducted research for the University of California San Diego as part of the THRIVE Study looking at the intersectionality of women's health and racial/ethnic health disparities. Aside from her career, her first calling is being a wife and mother. She serves within a number of community organizations including as a Fellow of the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), an American Association of Birth Centers Foundation Board member, Virginia Health Catalyst Board member, and a Mt. Trashmore YMCA Advisory Board member.

Seeing herself as a partner in her patients’ health care, Nichole is passionate about working with women, individuals, and families to ensure safe and informed care. Her areas of expertise include sexually transmitted disease education/prevention and teen pregnancy, with a special interest in transgender care.

Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Nichole loves coastal living. She is the mother of two daughters and has one fur baby as well. In her free time, she enjoys travel, knitting, and exploring different cultures.

She is proud of the launch of Birth Center Equity to grow and sustain birth centers led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color across the country. Birth Center Equity invests in Black, Indigenous, people of color-led birth centers to make birth-center birth a real option in all communities. She has nearly two decades of leadership experience in city, state, and national health organizations. She served as Interim Executive Director of Birthing Project USA, Deputy Director of Public Health for the City of Detroit, and consulted in the development of Michigan’s first comprehensive LGBTQ health center. 

Leseliey taught at the university level for over fifteen years and contributed to the development of Wayne State University’s Bachelor in Public Health program where she created undergraduate and master’s level public health courses on numerous health equity topics. She also lectured in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of Michigan, where she developed practicum courses on women's leadership, nonprofit, management, community engagement, and feminist practice. 

She earned her undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies, her Master in Public Health with a Certificate in Women’s and Reproductive Health, and her Master in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Leseliey is also an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow. She resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan with her wife and two children.

Dr. Williams is the “Conversation Starter,” the "go-to” expert on implicit bias training in the delivery of maternal healthcare. She educates healthcare professionals and students and advocates and educates nationally to improve poor maternal outcomes. She is the creator of B.L.A.C.K. Mothers Interrupted, a framework designed to educate about the high maternal mortality rate in women of color, which results from the disconnect caused by unconscious bias and systemic and structural racism. Dr. J is also a published author, course creator, and a nationally sought-after speaker.

Whit began studying power, reproductive justice, and feminist movements in 2015. She obtained a B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies with a minor in Social Justice in 2018 from Hollins University. Since graduation, Whit has become a certified full-spectrum doula with Ancient Song Doula Services in NYC. 

Whit also completed Whole Body Pregnancy Childbirth Educator training in 2021. Professionally, they have served as a Community Educator—facilitating workshops on reproductive justice, consent, and pleasure. 

Whit is also extremely humbled to have been chosen as a Grant Recipient for Ancient Song’s inaugural Juneteenth Seed Fund and the second grantmaking cycle of Birth Future Foundations—Sustaining Birth Justice: Sowing Seeds for Abundance.

She has had the blessing over the course of the past 16 years to travel back and forth between America and Africa, not as a tourist but as an initiate learning and immersing herself in the birth, spiritual, and healing cultures of the Gourmatche, Tem, Fon, Ga, Fula and Ewe peoples.

Her initiation has given her the opportunity to sit at the feet of elders, healers, traditional priests and priestesses, royalty, traditional mothers and birth-workers. These experiences have provided her the necessary tools to heal not only herself from the wounds inflicted by slavery but also to help others heal.