2nd Annual Leaders In Black Maternal Health Awards
Leaders in Black Maternal Health Awards 2 nd Annual
April 16, 2024
Kaiser Permanente exists to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve.
Invocation | Reverend Angie Burden, Board Member Baltimore Healthy Start
Lift Every Voice and Sing | Yvette Artis
Lunch | Violinist LStringz
Spoken Word | OluButterfly Woods
Introduction of Keynote Speaker | Teneele Bailey
Keynote Address | Tonya Lewis Lee
Award Presentations
Leadership Award | Deborah Frazier
Advocacy Award | Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins
Visionary Award | Alma Roberts
Champion Award | Dr. Joia Crear Perry
Lillian Armstrong Service Award | Florence Butler
Baltimore Healthy Start Guru Award | Maxine Reed-Vance
Closing
BALTIMORE HEALTHY START & MATERNAL HEALTH
Dyad Care
We at BHS know that mothers take their babies for their well child appointments but often neglect their own care including post-partum visits and well woman visits. This intervention provides postpartum care services, delivered by Certified Registered Nurse Practitioners, co-located and co-scheduled in FQHC pediatric clinics, at 2-week, 4-week, 2-month, 6-month, and 12-month infant well-child visits
Maternal Health Monitoring Intervention
BHS clients receive MHMI assessment services at regular prenatal and postpartum home visits, leading to: increased early identification of maternal health complications; and improved treatment and monitoring of maternal health complications.
Severe Maternal Morbidity Review
Augments the State of Maryland’s Maternal Mortality Review process with a Baltimorefocused Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM) review process. The SMM will lead to enhanced and consistent facility-based quality improvement processes across Baltimore maternity hospitals; improved and more timely identification of clinically relevant trends; sharing of findings leading to improved clinical and institutional responsiveness to changing trends; and sharing of best practices in response to clinical and social determinant challenges.
Patients as Partners Initiative
Trains mothers who have recently delivered to tell their birthing stories in efforts to bring the knowledge and experience of maternity patients to bear on hospital and health system quality improvement processes.
Pathways Project
The Baltimore Healthy Start Pathways Project will address disparities in hypertension, Substance Use Disorder (SUD), Low Birth Weight, and Severe Maternal Morbidity for pregnant and postpartum women and their infants living in the Baltimore Healthy Start census tracts within zip codes 21216 and 21217 in Baltimore City. The project will expand existing service coordination and home-visiting projects and facilitate access to primary care and substance use treatment through referrals. Interventions include hypertension education administered by trained CHWs, home BP monitoring and tracking, peer support groups, and care coordination addressing clients’ acute stressors and SDOH needs. The Baltimore Healthy Start FQHC partner for the project will be Total Health Care.
Doula Services
the BHS doula services program is designed to implement a comprehensive doula services model that adheres to the recommendations in the report “ADVANCING BIRTH JUSTICE: Community-Based Doula Models as a Standard of Care for Ending Racial Disparities”. With this model doulas will be integrated into center-based (or virtual) group health education and support services offered by BHS, such as breastfeeding education and support and Belly Buddies™ prenatal group education, social support, and stressreduction activities.
WELCOME
I am thrilled to welcome you to Baltimore Healthy Start’s 2nd Annual Leaders in Black Maternal Health Awards Luncheon! We know all too well that disparities in maternal health are rooted in economic, racial and social discrimination that prevent women from accessible healthcare resulting in excessive preventable deaths. Black Mamas Matter created Black Maternal Health Week to address the social, political and economic constraints that create barriers to quality maternal care for Black women and to inspire activism in support of Black-led maternal health initiatives. The unfortunate losses of women like Kira Johnson and Krystal Anderson remind us there is so much work to do to put an end to the maternal mortality crisis in the United States. We appreciate the work of so many who tirelessly fight to ensure that all women have equitable access to services, care and support in their birthing journey. We take great pleasure in the opportunity to recognize exceptional leaders in the field of Black Maternal Health. Thanks to our event partner, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History, our Board of Directors, Staff, Sponsors, Guests, Talent, Planning Committee and all who have supported this event. We hope that you enjoy yourself and that you remain or become invigorated to join us in our mission to reduce infant and maternal morbidity and mortality.
BHS BOARD MEMBERS
Regina Webb, Board President
Lashelle Stewart, MBA Executive Director Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc.
Black Mamas Matter created Black Maternal Health Week in 2018. The week is recognized from April 11-17 annually. According to the Black Mamas Matter Website, Black Maternal Health Week was created “to amplify the voices of Black Mamas and center the values and traditions of the reproductive and birth justice movements. Activities during BMHW are rooted in human rights, reproductive justice, and birth justice frameworks.”
Bridget Blount, Treasurer
Whitney Kamirah, Secretary
Francine Childs, Ex Officio Member
Terrance Lindsey Heather Ross
Jessica Jackson Sarah Wallace
Angela Burden
Robert Atlas
ASHLEY ETIENNE
Ashley Etienne is one of the nation’s top communicators having served as a trusted strategic advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Characterized by leading news outlets as the “queen of the war room” and “Obama’s bad-news fixer,” for more than 15 years, Ashley has specialized in facilitating high-stakes communications strategies to address the most pressing policy, economic and social issues facing the nation. Her mastery of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, expansive media relationships and access to power-players across industries and advocacy make her an asset in mission critical settings.
Ashley most recently served as Deputy Assistant to President Biden and Communications Director for Vice President Harris. Before returning to the White House, she served on the Presidential Transition Team as the Director of Communications for Vice President Elect Kamala Harris and as Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning for Biden for President in 2020.
From 2017 to 2020, Ashley served as Communications Director and Senior Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and person of color to hold the position. There she led the integrated communications and legal strategy for the first impeachment and trial of President Trump and the communication strategy that resulted in the historic 2018 midterm victory for House Democrats and reelection of Pelosi as Speaker.
Ashley was appointed Special Assistant to President Obama and Communications Director for the U.S. Cabinet in 2014 and led strategic communications for the President’s signature My Brother’s Keeper initiative.
Prior to joining the Obama White House, Ashley held several positions in Congress including Deputy Communications Director for Leader Pelosi and Communications Director for the Oversight Committee under Ranking Member Elijah Cummings.
Ashley recently launched a strategic communications firm, Etienne & Saint and served as a Spring 2022 Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. She holds a Master of Arts in Political Communications from John Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Sam Houston State University.
MEMBER
REV. ANGELA T. BURDEN, MA,
BSN, RN
Rev. Angela Burden is a native Baltimorean, graduating from Western High School, the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and St. Mary’s Seminary & University – Ecumenical Institute of Theology. She has worked for more than 35-years as a Public Health Nurse Leader with the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD). During her tenure, she directed several maternal & child health programs and initiatives and served on various City-wide maternal and child health improvement boards.
CHARLES JOHNSON, 4Kira4moms
A Family’s Perspective
Charles Johnson has suffered an unimaginable tragedy that strikes too many families – and has made it his life’s mission to save others from the same fate.
After retirement in 2017 she began to focus on the intersection of faith and health – co-leading B’more for Healthy Babies’ Faith-based Initiative to assist faith communities in establishing and enhancing their MCH ministries. She also currently serves as a Contract Specialist engaged in eliminating health disparities in birth outcomes – serving as the Medical Records Abstractor for the Fetal & Infant Mortality Review Board and as a member of the Maternal Mortality Review Board, and the Citywide B’more for Healthy Babies core implementation team and their anti-racist work group.
She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Shepherd’s Clinic, Baltimore Healthy Start, and Journey Women’s Ministries. She is a published author, contributing to the book, 9-Weeks to Discovering, Becoming, & Being You. Rev. Burden has led several workshops and retreats on the topics of MCH, faith and health, and women’s empowerment.
Rev. Burden is married to Ronnie Burden, and they have two adult children, a special goddaughter, and two grandchildren.
In April 2016 Charles’ healthy and full-of--life wife, Kira, gave birth to their second beautiful child. But Kira immediately began struggling in ways that the hospital staff could not explain, even as Charles watched and implored the staff that something was horribly wrong. Kira died within hours.
Charles was understandably overcome by grief – grief that turned into outrage. He channeled his pain and his passion into founding a nonprofit, 4Kira4Moms, that is dedicated to changing systems to better prevent birth-related deaths. 4Kira4Moms advocates for improved maternal health policies and regulations; educates the public about the impact of maternal mortality in communities; provides peer support to victims’ family and friends; and promotes discussion of maternal mortality as a human rights issue.
Charles has shared his story and advocated for change through countless live events and media appearances all over the country, including at the March for Moms rally in Washington, D.C., last year. Last September he testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health about the need to pass the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act of 2017 – which, as you know, was indeed passed by Congress and signed into law.
When he is not advocating to improve maternal health practices, Charles is busy raising his two sons, Charles V and Langston.
SHEILA WASHINGTON, LILLIAN ARMSTRONG SERVICE AWARD
Sheila Washington is a respected pillar of her community holding many titles. She has led a successful career of over 30 years in community health work, health advocacy, and community organizing. Sheila is a member of the Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church since 2001.
Born and raised in the Sandtown community in Baltimore City. She spent most of her childhood here before moving, then years later returning back. Sheila graduated from Northwestern Highschool and attended several colleges including Baltimore City Community College and Coppin State.
Sheila’s journey with Baltimore Healthy Start began in 1993 when she started as a Neighborhood Health Advocate. Due to Sheila’s outstanding work ethic and extensive knowledge of the Baltimore community, she was promoted to Recruitment Supervisor in just 2 years. In Sheila’s role as Baltimore Healthy Start’s Recruitment Supervisor, she never missed a beat. Sheila continuously exceeded her expected quotas; she enrolled 45 pregnant women and girls in just one month!
In addition to her role as the Recruitment Supervisor, she oversaw the Teen Parenting group at Baltimore Healthy Start. She hosted parties and baby showers for her teens, and
planned group activities like out-of-state trips to Washington D.C and Philadelphia. Participants of the group loved and respected Ms. Sheila like a mother.
Even in her work outside of Baltimore Healthy Start, Sheila gives her all to her community. Sheila was recognized by the city of Baltimore for her contributions to the community with her work through the Mothers of Mosher Street (MOMS) community initiative. In 1996 she was featured in the Sandown Newspaper and in 2004 she was featured on the front page of Baltimore Sun for her outstanding work in health advocacy.
Mothers of Mosher Street (MOMS) is a community initiative created by women of the Mosher street community. Sheila along with members of MOMS have used the community group to donate funds for repasses, wedding receptions, neighborhood cookouts, and Father’s Day events. Sheila has been involved with Mothers of Mosher Street for over 20 years and continues to serve on the board.
For over 20 years, Sheila has hosted the Mothers of Mosher Street (M.O.M.S) “Back to School” Block Party that brings
out the Baltimore community and well-known politicians like President of the Baltimore Council, Nick Mosby, U.S Congressmen, Kwesi Mfume, former mayor of Baltimore City, Sheila Dixon, current Mayor of Baltimore City, Brandon Scott, and City Councilmen, John Bullock.
Sheila is proud to serve her community and those that she loves. Sheila was married with two sons, Josh and Jovarn but raised her bonus son, Maurice. In
2009, Sheila’s first-born son, Joshuan transitioned to heaven. Sheila thanks Baltimore Healthy Start for their support during her time of grievance, especially from the former director of Baltimore Healthy Start, Alma Roberts. Joshuan left too soon before his time but he made sure to bless Sheila with a grandson, Jauan who is the love of her life. With the love of God, her children, family, and friends, Sheila continues to keep moving.
DR. CAMARA JONES, CHAMPION AWARD
Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD is a family physician, epidemiologist, and Past President of the American Public Health Association whose work focuses on naming, measuring, and addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of our nation and the world. Her allegories on “race” and racism are celebrated for illuminating topics that are otherwise difficult for many Americans to understand or discuss: that racism exists, racism is a system, racism saps the strength of the whole society, and we can act to dismantle racism.
Dr. Jones taught six years as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, developing the school’s first course on “Race” and Racism, and served fourteen years as a Medical Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leading the development of the six-question Reactions to “Race” module for use on CDC’s surveillance systems.
As President of the American Public Health Association (2016), she launched the association on a National Campaign Against Racism that catalyzed the first of what are now 262 declarations by local jurisdictions across 41 US states and the District of Columbia that “Racism is a public health crisis.”
She has since shared her expertise on “race”, racism, and anti-racism in extended residencies as a Radcliffe Fellow, Harvard University (2019-2020), Presidential Visiting Fellow, Yale School of Medicine (2021), Presidential Chair, University of California, San Francisco (2021-2022), and Leverhulme Visiting Professor in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London (2022-2023), while continuing as an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a commissioner on the recently launched O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination, and Global Health.
Dr. Jones earned her BA in Molecular Biology from Wellesley College, her MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine, and both her Master of Public Health and her PhD in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also completed residency training in General Preventive Medicine (Johns Hopkins) and in Family Medicine (Montefiore Medical Center).
AWARD RECIPIENT
MARY-ANN ETIEBET, MD, MBA, AVP LEADERSHIP AWARD
Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet is a global health innovator with over two decades of experience working across public and private sectors to improve health care outcomes for underserved populations. She joined Merck in 2016, first serving as Executive Director and Lead of Merck for Mothers, a $650M global health initiative that has increased access to quality maternal health care for more than 20M women in over 65 countries, and then as the first AVP for Health Equity in the Social Business Innovation organization, successfully building a new team responsible for the development and execution of the company’s first enterprise-wide health equity strategy. She now serves as AVP, Health Equity & Partnerships, in the Human Health International organization, working to expand commercially sustainable access to the company’s innovative portfolio of medicines and vaccines in underserved populations, with a special focus on low and middle income countries.
Dr. Etiebet joined Merck from Premier Inc, where she was a Principal Consultant in the Population Health Management team. Previously, she served as Director of Ambulatory Care Strategies for New York City Health and Hospital. Her work in global health includes serving as the Senior Technical Advisor of the Institute of Human VirologyNigeria, a PEPFAR implementing partner, while she was Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Etiebet holds an MD and MBA from Yale University. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell and fellowship in Infectious Diseases Hospital System at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center, becoming Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She is a member of the Center for Global Development Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees of Vital Strategies, and the Advisory Committee for the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University. She has also served on the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Board and the Investors Group of the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility.
*Merck is also known as MSD outside the USA and Canada
REPRESENTATIVE LAUREN UNDERWOOD, ADVOCACY
AWARD
Congresswoman Lauren Underwood serves Illinois’ 14th Congressional District and was first sworn into Congress on January 3, 2019. She is the first woman, the first person of color, and the first millennial to represent her community in Congress.
Rep. Underwood is a registered nurse and co-founder and co-chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, which addresses America’s Black Maternal Health crisis in Congress and advances policy solutions to improve maternal health outcomes and end disparities. Rep. Underwood is Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee and serves on the House Committee on Appropriations.
Prior to her election to Congress, she served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), helping communities across the country prevent, prepare for, and respond to disasters, bioterror threats, and public health emergencies. As a career public servant at HHS, she also helped implement the Affordable Care Act, broadening access for those on Medicare, improving health care quality, and reforming private insurance. Rep. Underwood has taught future nurse practitioners through Georgetown University’s online master’s program and worked with a Medicaid plan in Chicago to ensure it provided high-quality, cost-efficient care.
She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University, and a lifelong Girl Scout. Rep. Underwood resides in Naperville, Illinois.
DR. FLEDA MASK-JACKSON, VISIONARY AWARD
A scholar, educator and activist, Dr. Fleda Mask Jackson is a leading authority on maternal mental and emotional health in African American woman. She has led groundbreaking research on racial and gendered stress and resilience resulting in the development of a unique stress measure (the Jackson, Hogue, Phillips Contextualized Stress Measure), a dissemination /intervention model and an advocacy approach for Black women’s health. Her expertise on the stress from gendered racism and its impact on pregnancy and birth has been published in numerous peer review articles, book chapters and presented at refereed and public presentations. Dr. Jackson’s work has also been cited in major newspapers, magazines and media outlets that include ProPublica, Vox, Ebony, Essence, Vogue, CNN and NPR. She has been featured in several documentaries which include When the Bough Breaks, an episode of the award-winning PBS series, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick, and in Crisis in the Crib and Death by Delivery, a documentary produced by Lightbox on Black maternal mortality in Georgia.
Rollins School of Public Health (Emory University) and a visiting scholar in the Psychology Department at Spelman College. Her collaborations include work with the Center for Excellence in Women’s Health at the Harvard Medical School (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), The Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the Southeast Regional Office of the Children’s Defense Fund. Dr. Jackson was a Commissioner for Georgia Children’s Trust Commission. She served as a member of the Advisory subcommittee on Health Disparities for the CDC Director and as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Service’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM), an appointment approved by the White House under President Barak Obama. As a member of SACIM Dr. Jackson was the chair of the Healthy Start subcommittee. Dr. Jackson was the chair and co-chair of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta’s Babies Born Healthy Initiative and recently served as a co-leader for the National March of Dimes’ Birth Equity initiative. Dr. Jackson is the recipient of the Spelman
DR. FLEDA MASK-JACKSON - BIO CONT.
College Alumnae Achievement Award in Health and Science, the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta’s Live United Award, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Torch Award for being an activist for mental and physical health, and the Center for Black Women’s Wellness Health Pioneer Award. In 2014, she received the Maternal and Child Health Award from the Georgia Public Health Association and was honored by Black Mamas Matter Alliance and the National March of Dimes
for her contributions to maternal and child health. The Black Mamas Matter Alliance established the Jackson, Rowley, Hogan Research Award in honor of the outstanding research and practice in the field of maternal and infant health by Dr. Jackson and her colleagues. In 2023, she was awarded the John C. MacQueen Lecture Award from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP).
ABOUT BALTIMORE HEALTHY START
Baltimore Healthy Start was established in 1991 as a501(c)3 nonprofit corporation to implement the original federal Healthy Start infant mortality reduction initiative. We promote health and wellness by providing expecting and new mothers and their families with the health care and resources they need to nurture their children during their first few years of life — and beyond.
ELIGIBILITY
To become a Healthy Start client, you must:
• Be Pregnant or have an infant 6 months or younger
• Live within one of the areas served by the East or West Healthy Start locations
• Be the mate of an eligible client SERVICES
• Case Management & Home Visiting
• Family Advocacy
• Fatherhood Services
• GED Prep Classes
• Health Screening & Referral
• Postpartum Care
• Pregnancy Testing
• Outreach & Recruitment
• STI Testing, Counseling, and Referral Management
