BLACK BIRTH MATTERS 2026

Dr. Joia Crear-Perry

As the founder & Director of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, M.D., FACOG identifies & challenges racism as a root cause of health inequities. She is a highly sought-after trainer & speaker who has been featured in national & international publications, including Essence & Ms. magazine. In 2020, Dr. Crear-Perry was honored by USA Today in its “Women of the Century” series & featured on ABC Nightline’s “Hear Her Voice.” Dr. Crear-Perry has twice addressed the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to elevate the cause of gender diversity & urge a human rights framework toward addressing maternal mortality. Previously, she served as the executive director of the Birthing Project, director of women’s & children’s services at Jefferson Community Healthcare Center, & as the director of clinical services for the City of New Orleans Health Department. Dr. Crear-Perry currently serves as a principal at Health Equity Cypher & on the Board of Trustees for Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Community Catalyst, National Clinical Training Center for Family Planning, & the University of California, San Francisco Preterm Birth Initiative. She is an adjunct professor at Tulane School of Public Health. After completing undergraduate studies at Princeton University & Xavier University, Dr. Crear-Perry received her MD from Louisiana State University & completed her residency in obstetrics & gynecology at Tulane University’s School of Medicine. She is married to Dr. Andre Perry & has three children (Jade, Carlos, & Robeson) & one grandson (Quinn). Her love is her family; health equity is her passion; maternal & child health are her callings.

Kiersten Gillette-Pierce

Kiersten TâLéigh "Gillette" Gillette-Pierce, MSPH, is a reproductive justice researcher, birthworker, and Lead Consultant for ITOA Movement. Their work centers Black birth justice, ancestral healing traditions, and community-rooted approaches to improving maternal and infant health. Kiersten holds an MSPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a public health practitioner and student, and is the director of Nô Médsinn, Go Back and Get It, a short documentary exploring Black traditional midwifery and ancestral birth knowledge in Louisiana.

Christine McNabb

Christine McNabb is a maternal mental health and reproductive health advocate, community organizer, and graduate student at Texas State University. Her advocacy is deeply informed by her own experience with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, which inspired her commitment to ensuring that mothers feel seen, supported, and never alone. Christine has advocated for stronger maternal mental health care, organized community support efforts, and testified before the FDA in support of the first medication specifically approved for postpartum depression. She is passionate about Black maternal health, compassionate care, and creating systems in which mothers can truly thrive.

Marica Lowe

Marica Lowe is a free, courageous, authentic woman who has done the rare and courageous thing — she walked away from a 12-year corporate career, from Big 4 accounting firm auditor to VP of Finance, not because she failed, but because she was called to something bigger. Marica Lowe is a conscious business strategist, spiritual facilitator, breathwork and meditation guide, artist, and mother who has built a practice where financial expertise and soul work live in the same room. She is the creator of The Energy of Money workshop, a featured artist in the short documentary Ori, honoring Black maternal health, and a woman who shows up for her clients and for every room she enters with her whole truth.

Ausinikka Hunter

Ausinikka is a New Orleans native, filmmaker, producer, and storyteller whose work explores folklore, memory, and cultural preservation in the Gulf South. She was an Associate Producer of The Inquisitor, which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, and a Field Producer for Class Action, hosted by MSNBC’s Katie Phang. A 2024 NOFF South Pitch Finalist and Forum RIDM Fellow of Doc Lab Montreal, she also serves on the board of the local nonprofit Neighborhood Book Peddler. She is currently developing Man in the Kangol Hat, a Southern Gothic horror preservation project that spans film, radio drama, and documentary.

Kaitlyn Joshua

Kaitlyn Joshua is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a graduate of Southern University and A&M College. In 2022, while pregnant with her second child, Kaitlyn experienced miscarriage complications at 11 weeks. She sought care at multiple Baton Rouge–area hospitals but was denied treatment due to Louisiana's abortion ban. Months later, she shared her experience at a Louisiana Department of Health hearing, which led to national media attention, including an NPR feature published on December 29, 2022. Throughout 2023, Kaitlyn appeared in major outlets such as 60 Minutes and CNN, as well as documentaries highlighting reproductive health care access in post-Roe America. In February 2024, Kaitlyn attended a White House event where President Joe Biden signed proclamations supporting women's health. She later joined the Biden re-election campaign's Reproductive Rights Tour, traveling nationwide to share her story, and co-campaigned with the Harris/Walz 2024 campaign, visiting over 20 states. Kaitlyn spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on reproductive rights. She was named Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year. In late 2024, Kaitlyn co-founded the nonprofit Abortion in America to elevate the stories of people impacted by abortion care restrictions. Kaitlyn resides in South Louisiana with her husband Landon and their two children. She has over 5 years of experience organizing in environmental justice and seeks to educate the community on the intersection of environmental issues and maternal health outcomes.

Qiana Lewis-Arnold, MS, MDiv

Qiana Lewis-Arnold (she/her) is a nationally recognized Black reproductive justice leader, human rights advocate, movement strategist, full spectrum doula, and organizational leader whose work spans more than two decades of community care, birth justice, abortion access, policy, and movement building. Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Qiana entered birth work at fifteen while supporting a family member through childbirth. After building an early career across healthcare, hospice, home health, insurance, education, and organizational leadership, she relocated to Dallas, Texas, where her work evolved into reproductive justice organizing and professional birth work. Today, she lives and works between Missouri and Texas, carrying a perspective deeply informed by Black communities in both the Midwest and the South. Qiana currently serves as Director of Operations and Cultural Stewardship for Jamaa Birth Village in Ferguson, Missouri, providing executive leadership, organizational stewardship, strategic planning, and operational oversight. She is the Founder of The Holy H.O.E. Institute, The Holy Health Options Education Institute, a reproductive justice sanctuary centering direct support, education, healing, sacred sexuality, and community care. She is also the co founder and former President of the Texas Doula Association and serves as Co Chair of the Governing Board of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Her movement work extends across reproductive justice, abortion justice, Black maternal health, birth equity, and human rights. She has built birth justice programs for leading reproductive justice organizations, including The Afiya Center, contributed to state and congressional doula and human rights legislation, and worked within national coalitions and advisory spaces advancing reproductive health and bodily autonomy. Her advocacy has included work with SCORES and coalition spaces focused on translating the lived realities of Black women and marginalized communities into policy, accountability, and systems change. Qiana has twice participated in United Nations human rights advocacy as a member of civil society through the People’s Universal Periodic Review process. Her work has taken her to Geneva, Switzerland, where she has spoken and advocated within the United Nations human rights ecosystem to help hold the United States accountable for human rights violations, particularly those affecting Black women, reproductive freedom, maternal health, and marginalized communities. She approaches reproductive justice not simply as a healthcare framework, but as a fundamental human rights framework connected to racial justice, economic justice, state violence, and the conditions people need to live and raise families safely. Qiana holds master’s degrees in Psychology and Christian Counseling. She is also a trained doula, childbirth educator, abortion doula, yoga instructor, Hoodoo practitioner, and root worker. A Black queer woman, mother, and grandmother, Qiana brings lived experience, ancestral knowledge, formal education, grassroots organizing, and executive leadership into every space she enters. Her work is grounded in the belief that Black people deserve more than survival. We deserve dignity, bodily autonomy, sacred care, joy, safety, and the power to determine our own futures.

Victoria Coy

Victoria Coy is a native Louisianian and Tulane alum whose dedication to social justice spans two decades of global and local movement-building. Her international work includes opening Fiji’s first rural women’s crisis center and serving as Economic Development Advisor to the African Model Forest Network in Cameroon. Upon returning home, she focused on grassroots organizing and gendered violence across Louisiana. She served as Director of the People's DA Coalition—the first in the nation to elect a progressive District Attorney—and founded the Louisiana Violence Reduction Coalition following her work as a National Organizer with Everytown for Gun Safety and leading the End Gun Violence campaign for Amnesty International. Throughout her career, Victoria has served on the Policy Committee of the Independent Women’s Organization, the Violence Pillar of Nola4Women, the Legislative Agenda for Women, and the NCJW WAY cohort. Nationally, she served on the leadership board of Generation Progress (Center for American Progress) and as Southeastern Rapid Responder for the Community Justice Reform Coalition. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom (LCRF), leading statewide efforts to expand access to bodily autonomy, health, and racial justice.

Deon Haywood

Following Hurricane Katrina, Haywood was named executive director of Women With A Vision (WWAV), the groundbreaking HIV/AIDS prevention organization that pioneered harm reduction in the Deep South. Under Deon’s leadership, WWAV’s work blossomed, connecting HIV/AIDS prevention and education to reproductive justice, youth advocacy, harm reduction, and more. In 2012, WWAV helped organize sex workers to stand up for their rights and defeat Louisiana’s archaic “Crimes Against Nature by Solicitation” statute that victimized poor, Black women and LGBTQ+ individuals by placing them on the sex offender registry. This defeat was a milestone victory for constitutional rights in Louisiana as those affected were removed from the sex offender registry in 2013 and were able to begin rebuilding their lives. Through her relentless advocacy, Haywood has grown WWAV into a leading voice on the criminalization of Black women and girls in the American South, advancing community-led policy solutions on international and national stages and at home in Louisiana. She has been honored for her work at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, harm reduction, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, and racial justice, by the Center for Constitutional Rights, SisterSong, Ms. Foundation, National Organization of Women (NOW), ACLU Louisiana, the Human Rights Campaign, the Red Door Foundation, Philadelphia FIGHT, Planned Parenthood, Forum for Equality, BET.com, Frontline Defenders Dublin Platform, and more. In 2018, she was appointed to the New Orleans Human Relations Commission to advance this body’s work on Human Rights and Equity.

Dr. Tyra Toston Gross, PhD, MPH

Dr. Tyra Toston Gross is an Associate Professor of Public Health at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she has worked as a public health instructor, researcher and mentor since August 2015. Her research expertise is in maternal & child health disparities. Prior to joining Xavier, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in reproductive women’s health at University of Texas Medical Branch. Given her interest in maternal & child health, the majority of Dr. Gross' research has focused on the health of reproductive-age women. In 2024, she launched the Maternal and Child Health Equity Research & Engagement (MA CHERE) Lab. Her current research projects include exploring impact of natural disasters on maternal & child health and the health of Black postpartum women in UK and Canada. Dr. Gross is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). She is a Certified Personal & Executive Coach through both the CaPP Institute and Maxwell Leadership. Dr. Gross is also a proud wife and mother of four spunky kids and an aspiring entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Shamell Lavigne, MA

Shamell Lavigne, Chief Operating Officer for RISE St. James Louisiana, received her B.S. and Master's degrees from Southern University and A&M College. She has over 25 years of experience in public health, having worked as a Program Director of a local non-profit to provide administration of several federal, state and local funded grant programs to include the Ryan White Part A and D Programs, State of Louisiana HIV prevention programs and HIV housing programs funded through HUD and other services for low-income people disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Ms. Lavigne served as the Program Administrator for the City of Baton Rouge's Ryan White Program for 5 ½ years where she oversaw all aspects of the program. In her most recent role, Ms. Lavigne served as the Executive Program Administrator for the City of Baton Rouge's Division of Human Development and Services. Ms. Lavigne served as the executive officer for the East Baton Rouge Parish Community Action Agency-Office of Social Services. In September 2022, Shamell resigned from the City of Baton Rouge to join RISE St. James Louisiana full-time and serve as the Chief Operating Officer. RISE St. James was founded in 2018 by Shamell's mother, Goldman Environmental Prize Winner, Sharon Lavigne, to stop Formosa Plastics from being built in St. James Parish. Since 2018, Shamell has supported RISE St. James' efforts by speaking at events, panel discussions and marching alongside her mother and other RISE St. James members and partners. Shamell has been featured in The Years Project's documentary entitled "They're Human to Me," Story Center's Women of Cancer Alley, Our Town, Our Fight short story, interviews and other documentaries created to raise awareness about Cancer Alley and RISE St. James Louisiana's fight for clean air, water and soil.

Dr. Kimberly Terrell, PhD

Dr. Kimberly Terrell is a Research Scientist at Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit environmental watchdog organization. She provides technical support to communities that are impacted by heavy industry, and her research focuses on racial disparities and health impacts associated with industrial pollution, including developmental harm. In 2024, she published the first study to provide evidence that toxic air pollution contributes to Louisiana’s high rates of babies born underweight and preterm. Her ongoing research focuses on understanding pollution impacts on other health outcomes in Louisiana, including birth defects.

Edith Romero Velasquez

Edith is a New Orleans based cuir Honduran writer, researcher, and organizer. Edith envisions storytelling and art as a tool for social change, exploring the intergenerational harms of imperialism, colonialism and displacement, and the ever present resistance movements born out of struggle. Through her community-centered work, Edith centers immigrant voices and healing through the lenses of reproductive justice and immigrant justice. Edith is a fellow for the Press On Freedomways Fellowship and has been published by LatinoNewsNetwork, Truthout, and NACLA

Tyler Barbarin

Tyler Barbarin (she/they) is a Philly-born daughter, sister, teedy, activist and organizer, with New Orleans roots. A current Masters of Public Health student at the Gillings School of Public health, Tyler has over a decade of experience organizing in areas of racial justice, leadership, education equity, and reproductive justice. Her research and professional work is focused on the intersections of reproductive justice, economic solidarity and Black liberation. Through organizing, advocacy and political education, she works to change material conditions for those abandoned under the weight of carcerality, anti-Blackness, and economic oppression. The work that brings her joy is supporting the inherent ingenuity, resourcefulness, resilience and brilliance of her community in the Deep South.

Coming Home the Wellness Way

The Wellness Experience at the Black Birth Matters Conference brings together three passionate practitioners committed to creating intentional spaces for healing, restoration, movement, and connection. Tieara Dokes, owner of Serene Nola, is a Certified Holistic Registered Nurse, Certified Doula, and Acupressure, Reiki, and Yoga Practitioner with 16 years of nursing experience. Her holistic approach incorporates meditation, yoga, sound healing, energy work, and acupressure to encourage relaxation, balance, and whole-person well-being. Nova, a Certified Womb Practitioner, Pilates Instructor, and Somatic Practitioner, centers the womb through intentional movement, somatic embodiment, breathwork, energy work, and ritual, creating sacred spaces that support emotional release, nervous system regulation, embodied self-trust, and deeper connection to the body and intuition. Shancoa Burke, Yoga Therapist at Stretch Galore, doula, wellness entrepreneur, and community advocate, centers her work on therapeutic movement, maternal wellness, and empowering women to feel supported and connected within their bodies. Together, Tieara, Nova, and Shancoa will create a nurturing wellness experience rooted in rest, movement, mindfulness, embodiment, and community care—honoring Black women and birthing people as they reconnect with their bodies, their breath, and themselves.

Ashley-Nicole Grosse

Ashley-Nicole Grosse is a visionary entrepreneur, author, and maternal-health advocate dedicated to transforming how families experience pregnancy and birth. She is the Founder and CEO of Tahda Baby, a maternal-family platform that connects mothers with trusted birth and fertility practitioners while also delivering innovative education and culturally centered care solutions. Ashley-Nicole is also the author of the bestselling book Birthing Bare: Homebirth, which empowers families with tools, knowledge, and encouragement to navigate natural birth confidently. Through both Tahda Baby and Birthing Bare, she is building a holistic ecosystem that blends technology, education, and community support to improve maternal outcomes and help families thrive.

A.J. Haynes

A.J. Haynes is a Grammy award-winning interdisciplinary enchantress from Louisiana and leader of the acclaimed soul power band Seratones. A current artist-in-residence at Ashé Cultural Arts Center through Artists at Work, her work spans performance, ritual, and immersive storytelling, rooted in the belief that art is collective community care. As a reproductive justice advocate, she engages sound and ancestral technologies to affirm the body as a sacred site of liberation and pleasure. With a voice both powerful and tender, A.J. plays in the liminal spaces of Black diasporic sound—soul, rock & roll, disco, gospel, folk, and found soundscapes—conjuring spellbinding experiences uniquely her own.\n\nAbout M/othership: “I began creating music and performing to understand myself, connect with others, and honor my lineages. M/othership has expanded my artistic praxis to weave sound, songwriting, poetry, performance, field recordings, found objects, textiles, scent, and participatory installation to explore mothering, collective memory, and embodied liberation. My process is relational and intuitive. I gather sounds, stories.”

Queen Mother Sula Janet Evans

Queen Mother Sula Janet Evans is the CEO of Sula Spirit, LLC, a multidisciplinary cultural and spiritual arts company that houses her original music, temple workshops, published works, global talks and both beaded and painted visual artwork. Nana Sula is the founder and Mamisi Priestess of the Temple of Light — a spiritual house for the elevation of all. She was initiated at the Temple of Mami Sika Apukesi in Ghana, West Africa in 2007 and has served as a lightworker for the past 41 years. She is also known as Sula the Doula and has been a Birth & Death Doula since 2009. She is the founding Director of the Nazyia Doula Collective, which made history as the first bilingual Doula collective of color in the state of Louisiana from 2009-2015.

Dr. Kelly Baquet

Dr. Kelly Baquet, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, is a board-certified family nurse practitioner and founder of The Clinic NOLA, a sexual and reproductive health practice dedicated to affirming, accessible, patient-centered care in New Orleans. She earned her Doctorate in Family Nursing Practice from LSU Health Sciences Center, following a BSN from William Carey University and a BA in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana. Dr. Baquet began her nursing career at University Medical Center New Orleans, gaining experience in oncology, intensive care, and forensic medicine. Her work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault shaped her commitment to trauma-informed care and her passion for sexual health, HIV prevention, and hormone replacement therapy. She is a recipient of the Reverend Dr. James A. Ertl Clinical Excellence Award, and has expanded community-based reproductive services through Planned Parenthood of New Orleans and the Hope Community Health Clinic. At The Clinic NOLA, she provides STI screening and treatment, PrEP and PEP services, hormone replacement therapy, early pregnancy ultrasounds, birth control, and comprehensive well-woman exams.

Jamilla Webb

Jamilla H. Webb, BSN, RN is a registered nurse, health educator, writer, and founder of HER Health Nurse, a New Orleans-based organization that promotes reproductive justice and empowers adolescent girls and young women through evidence-based health education. With 19 years of clinical experience in public health, infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS), pediatrics, and labor and delivery nursing, Jamilla has dedicated her career to advancing health equity through clinical care, community outreach, and education. She previously served as a full-spectrum doula with Birthmark Doula Collective and now serves as its Education Coordinator. Her volunteer work includes service with Nurses for Africa and International Medical Relief in Zambia and Senegal, mentoring with Generation Hope, and serving as a Community Health Ambassador with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. Jamilla is the author of The Reproductive Life Planning Workbook and has been featured in Geaux Girl! Magazine and ANTIGRAVITY Magazine. Her honors include the Emily Schoenbaum Grant, the March of Dimes New Orleans Impact Award, and the Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health Karen Edlund Future Nurse Leader Fellowship. Her work is inspired by the legacy of Public Health Nurse, Nurse Educator, and Grand Midwife Maude Callen.

Latona Giwa

Latona Giwa is a Doula, Registered Nurse, IBCLC Lactation Consultant, and advocate. As Executive Director of Repro TLC (formerly Midwest Access Project), she leads sexual and reproductive healthcare provider training, education, and movement building efforts in the U.S. Latona co-founded Birthmark Doula Collective and the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center.

Mia R. Williams

For more than 20 years, Mia Williams has been an unwavering advocate and catalyst for social and systemic change, with a particular focus on Black communities and other marginalized groups. Her career began as a Child Protective Services social worker, walking alongside families in crisis, and later as a supervisor who insisted every decision center the safety, dignity, and humanity of those she served. From 2008 to 2018, she served as a subject matter expert examining disparate outcomes for Black people and other historically marginalized communities, analyzing how policies, practices, and institutional cultures produce inequitable results and working with agencies to confront those inequities directly. In 2019, Mia moved into independent consulting, partnering with organizations such as the Houston Public Library and Region 4 Education Service Center to advance equity, inclusion, and community-centered practice through curriculum development, strategic advising, and facilitation. In 2021, as Texas enacted severe restrictions on body autonomy and reproductive rights, Mia and her daughter co-founded HOOCHIES of Houston — a bold, visible force championing body autonomy, informed consent, and access to essential resources through education, outreach, and joy-centered engagement for Black women and femmes. A 19-year triple negative breast cancer survivor, Mia brings lived understanding of medical racism and health disparities to her work. Across every chapter, she has modeled what it means to lead with courage, integrity, and radical love.

Nia Jones

Community organizer, content creator, rapper and overall bad bitch. Nia Jones is a force from Houston, Texas with a passion to love and fight for Black women in any setting. Since April 20, 2020, with the knowledge of the murder of 16 year old Ma'Khia Bryant by Ohio police, she has been using her social media fame to spread awareness about local Houston politics, reproductive justice, and voting rights! Using social media as a tool to inform the masses is one of the reasons she began this organization, and she encourages all of her followers to do so as well.

Ashley Hill Hamilton

Ashley Hill Hamilton is an advocate, mother of four, and New Orleans native whose work spans reproductive justice, policy, community organizing, and writing. Her career has included birth work, lactation support, lobbying, maternal health advocacy, and systems change. Ashley formerly served as Advocacy and Outreach Director for Birthmark Doula Collective and the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center and later as Policy Manager for the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights. Her work has included supporting families during the perinatal period, advancing maternal health and doula policy, and bringing together communities, medical professionals, advocates, and policymakers to improve dignity, safety, and outcomes for Black families. She continues to offer community support around birth, breastfeeding, and parenting while expanding her work as a writer and storyteller exploring culture, motherhood, justice, identity, and Black life.

Lindsey P. Boxie

Lindsey P. Boxie, LPC, PMH-C, R-PLC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Perinatal Mental Health Certified clinician, RETAIN Parental Leave Coach, and founder of LMP Counseling & Consultation, LLC in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her work centers on supporting women and families through perinatal mental health challenges, fertility journeys, pregnancy and postpartum transitions, parenting, grief and loss, and other significant life experiences. Lindsey's connection to maternal mental health is both professional and deeply personal. In July 2015, at 37 weeks pregnant, she experienced the stillbirth of her daughter, Parker. Her experience with loss has shaped her passion for creating spaces where mothers and families feel seen, supported, and empowered to speak openly about experiences that are often carried in silence. Through counseling, education, advocacy, and community engagement, Lindsey combines clinical knowledge with lived experience to bring compassionate and practical conversations to maternal mental health.

LaToya Papillion

With more than a decade of experience at the intersection of community engagement, education, advocacy, and entrepreneurship, LaToya Papillion brings a relationship-centered, justice-driven approach to leadership as the Executive Director of Doulas United in Equity New Orleans (DUENOLA). Native to Louisiana and shaped by her Black Creole and Indigenous heritage, her work has consistently focused on creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, loved, and empowered to thrive. Her professional background spans strategic partnerships, program development, communications, and spiritual counseling — all work that she uses to uplift and serve historically underserved and underrepresented communities. As a homeschooling mom herself, LaToya maintains a philosophy that stands on the belief that community care is not supplemental nor suggestive — it is essential to life and the safety of Black and brown families. Throughout all of her work, she has created and led collaborative projects that integrate education, storytelling, holistic support, and direct support to improve outcomes for her communities.

Fatima Garba

Doula Fatima Garba, originally from New Orleans, La, currently based in Bossier City, La. Trained as a Doula under Sista Midwife Productions.

Britney Taylor

Britney began her yoga journey in 2011 as a way to keep active during her first pregnancy. In 2014, she enrolled in a 200-hour yoga teacher training at Shanti Yoga Shala in New Orleans. Since completing her instructor certification in January 2015, she has been committed to making yoga accessible to those in her community. Her teaching style is based in the vinyasa tradition and allows space for finding freedom within a personal practice. Britney focuses on creating a nonjudgmental space for self-care where individuals can come together to learn, heal, and grow. She is continuously transforming her practice and her efforts to share yoga with those around her.

Watotos of Kumbuka

Founded in 2018 by Nailah Smith, Watotos of Kumbuka is a New Orleans-based African dance group dedicated to preserving and celebrating the vibrant traditions of African dance. The group’s name is rooted in Swahili, with “Watotos” meaning “children” and “Kumbuka” meaning “remember.” This powerful name reflects the group’s mission to honor and carry forward the rich cultural legacy of their predecessors.\n\nThe origins of Watotos of Kumbuka trace back to 1984 when Kumbuka Traditional African Dance Company, the first African dance company in New Orleans, was established by the esteemed Ausettua Amenkum. As a former member of this pioneering group, Nailah Smith recognized the growing demand for her talents and decided to form a new ensemble. She envisioned Watotos of Kumbuka as a collective of dancers who were the literal and symbolic descendants of Kumbuka, connected through lineage, mentorship, and tradition.\n\nSince its founding, Watotos of Kumbuka has become a vibrant force in the cultural landscape of New Orleans, performing at festivals, cultural events, and educational workshops, all while embodying the essence of African dance and its enduring legacy.

Portia L Williams

Portia L Williams, BSN, RN, IBCLC, RLC, is a registered nurse and board-certified lactation consultant based in New Orleans, supporting families through NOLA Baby Cafe (@nolababycafe).

Nancy Davis

Nancy Davis is a mother, reproductive justice advocate, speaker, and Executive Director of the Nancy Davis Foundation, a Louisiana based organization working to support families and address barriers to reproductive and maternal healthcare. Nancy’s advocacy began with her own pregnancy in 2022. At 10 weeks, she learned that her baby had acrania, a fatal condition in which the skull does not fully develop. Although her doctors recommended ending the pregnancy, she could not access the care she needed in Louisiana and had to travel about 1,400 miles to New York for her abortion. During that experience, Nancy decided to speak openly about what happened to her. She has shared her story with communities, policymakers, national organizations, and media across the country. She has advocated at the Louisiana Capitol and in Washington, D.C., and traveled with the Biden-Harris campaign during the 2024 election cycle to speak about reproductive healthcare and the impact of abortion restrictions. Her advocacy also helped bring attention to the gap in Louisiana’s abortion exceptions. Following Nancy’s case and public advocacy, Louisiana moved to add Acrania to its list of medically futile conditions that could qualify for an abortion exception. Nancy turned her experience into action by creating the Nancy Davis Foundation, where she works to connect families with resources, education, support, and advocacy. As a Black mother from Louisiana, Nancy brings both lived experience and advocacy to conversations about maternal health, reproductive justice, pregnancy loss, and healthcare access. Nancy believes people deserve to be heard, supported, and treated with dignity especially during some of the hardest moments of their lives. She is using what happened to her to help make sure other families do not have to navigate those moments alone.

Dr. Nakeitra L. Burse, DrPH

Dr. Nakeitra L. Burse is a public health leader dedicated to creating healthier, more equitable communities, especially for Black mothers and families. As the Founder and Executive Director of Six Dimensions, a Mississippi-based nonprofit, she works alongside communities to advance health equity through research, training, advocacy, and storytelling. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Burse is passionate about addressing the deeper, root causes of maternal health challenges, including the impact of systemic barriers and inequities across the Deep South. Her work focuses on bringing people together, lifting up community voices, and driving meaningful change. She is also the Executive Producer of Laboring with Hope, a nationally recognized short documentary that shines a light on Black maternal health and the urgent need for change. The film has been featured on platforms like Disrupt and Dismantle with Soledad O’Brien, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and at the CDC. Dr. Burse serves on the Mississippi Maternal Mortality Review Committee and contributes to several national advisory councils. At the heart of everything she does is a strong belief in the power of community, thoughtful policy, and storytelling to create lasting impact.

FreeQuency

FreeQuency is a gender-renegade, anti disciplinary Story|Teller based in the in between. Their award winning debut manuscript (On|Un-)Becoming:POEMS, poetry videos & collages are available on their website. They proudly performed at the first Black Birth Matters conference.

Lawrencia N. Gougisha, MSN, MPH, RN

Lawrencia N. Gougisha, MSN, MPH, RN, is a statewide Infectious Disease Clinical Educator and Public Health Nurse with the Louisiana Department of Health, specializing in STI/HIV prevention, maternal health, and congenital syphilis prevention. She is passionate about translating evidence-based guidance into practical clinical education and innovative public health initiatives that improve provider capacity and patient outcomes.

Nikkisha "Nikki" Napoleon