About

Elizabeth Dawes Gay, MPH is the founder of Sisu Consulting, where she works with organizations and individuals to advance social, racial, and reproductive justice for women of color. Her life’s mission is to create a world where women of color have what they need to achieve their ideal health and well-being. Elizabeth is a recognized thought leader on women of color, reproductive and maternal health, and social justice who has been published in The Nation, Rewire, The Root, EBONY.com, and other outlets. She serves as Steering Committee Chair of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Elizabeth holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Angela Doyinsola Aina is a Public Health Consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has over 13 years experience working in different capacities on projects focused on: incorporating health equity strategies in reproductive and maternal health initiatives; strengthening workforce capacity for community-based organizations; and conducting research. She develops and provides content guidance as the Programming and Research Chair of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from Morehouse School of Medicine where she conducted a sequential mixed-method analysis of the reproductive health attitudes and behaviors of U.S. Nigerian-born immigrant women, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and African-American Studies from Georgia State University. Angela is committed to work that seek to achieve: the self-determination of women of African descent; the elimination of violence against women; the promotion of black and African women’s rights and leadership; and womanist solutions to social and economic injustices.

Dr. Crear-Perry is the Founder and President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative. Most recently, she addressed the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to urge a human rights framework to improve maternal mortality. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Birthing Project, Director of Women’s and Children’s Services at Jefferson Community Healthcare Center and as the Director of Clinical Services for the City of New Orleans Health Department where she was responsible for four facilities that provided health care for the homeless, pediatric, WIC, and gynecologic services within the New Orleans clinical service area. Dr. Crear-Perry continues to work to improve access and availability of affordable health care to New Orleans’ citizens post the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005. After receiving her bachelor’s trainings at Princeton University and Xavier University, Dr. Crear-Perry completed her medical degree at Louisiana State University and her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tulane University’s School of Medicine. She was also recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A proud recipient of the Congressional Black Caucus Healthcare Hero’s award, Dr. Crear-Perry currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance and on the Board of Trustees for Community Catalyst, National Medical Association, and the New Orleans African American Museum. She is married to Dr. Andre Perry and has three children: Jade 25, Carlos 21, and Robeson 7. Her love is her family; health equity is her passion; maternal and child health are her callings.

Kwajelyn Jackson currently serves as the Co-Director at Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Atlanta, GA, where she manages non-clinical operations, development & communications, volunteer engagement, leadership development, education programs, community outreach, and legislative advocacy work to improve reproductive health, rights and justice in Georgia. She began with FWHC in the summer of 2013, and has since committed to expanding FWHC’s statewide impact and deepening its community partnerships. Kwajelyn also sits on the board of directors for All-Options, Abortion Care Network, Soul Food Cypher, and ProGeorgia, and the steering committees for the Black Mamas Matter Alliance and the Mife Coalition. Prior to joining FWHC, she spent three years as the Program Manager for WonderRoot Community Arts Center and eight years as a Credit Risk Manager with Wachovia Bank’s Community Development Finance Group. She has a BA in economics from Spelman College and an MS in urban policy studies from the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University.

Monica Raye Simpson is the Executive Director of SisterSong, the National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Monica has organized extensively against human rights violations, the prison industrial complex, racism and intolerance, and the systematic physical and emotional violence inflicted upon African American women and the African American LBGT community in the South. She is also a singer, full circle Doula and was recently named a New Civil Rights Leader by Essence Magazine.​​ Monica lives by the Paul Robeson’s quote “If the artist does not create, the world suffers.” She has always used her talents of song and spoken word in the community. She has debuted in theatrical productions such as, “For the Love of Harlem,” “Words the Isms,” “Walk Like A Man, ” “The Vagina Monologues” and “For Colored Girls” and has sung for numerous events across the country which includes singing the national anthem and the national Black anthem for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. march and rally in Atlanta, GA. She is currently working on her first solo album and she will also launch Artists United for Reproductive Justice as a project of SisterSong to create a platform for artists to collaborate and create replicable tools to further the work of the Reproductive Justice movement.

Breana Lipscomb is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she received her Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Science in Biology and Spanish. She has over 13 years of public health research, advocacy, and program implementation & evaluation experience and has worked in Tennessee, Guatemala, and the State Departments of Health in both Iowa and South Carolina. Breana is an alumna of the Maternal and Child Health Public Health Leadership Institute at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has a special interest in addressing maternal health disparities through effective policy and advocacy. She now manages the U.S. Maternal Health & Human Rights Initiative for the Center for Reproductive Rights. In this role, Breana develops advocacy strategies to promote Black maternal health, particularly in the South, mobilizing a broad base of stakeholders—policymakers, reproductive justice community, public health professionals, medical community, and advocates—to advance state level policies that further reproductive rights as human rights.