Our Mission
Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a Black women-led cross-sectoral alliance. We center Black mamas to advocate, drive research, build power, and shift culture for Black maternal health, rights, and justice.
Our Vision
We envision a world where Black mamas have the rights, respect, and resources to thrive before, during, and after pregnancy.
Our Goals
- Change Policy: Introduce and advance policy grounded in the human rights framework that addresses Black maternal health inequity and improves Black maternal health outcomes
- Cultivate Research: Leverage the talent and knowledge that exists in Black communities and cultivate innovative research methods to inform the policy agenda to improve Black maternal health
- Advance Care for Black Mamas: Explore, introduce, and enhance holistic and comprehensive approaches to Black mamas’ care
- Shift Culture: Redirect and reframe the conversation on Black maternal health and amplify the voices of Black mamas
Our Story
The Black Mamas Matter Alliance was sparked by a partnership project between the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (SisterSong) that began in 2013. The two organizations collaborated on story collection on the obstacles that Southern Black women face in accessing maternal health care, leading to poor maternal health outcomes and persistent racial disparities. These findings were included in a joint report – “Reproductive Injustice: Gender and Racial Discrimination in U.S. Health Care” – submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Monica Simpson of SisterSong, Katrina Anderson of CRR, and Elizabeth Dawes Gay co-organized a convening in Atlanta in June 2015 that brought together experts, activists, and stakeholders from a variety of sectors who were concerned about Black maternal health. “Black Mamas Matter” was an outcome of this meeting, along with a call to action to produce toolkits for activists in the South working to improve maternal health. Over the course of the next year, CRR, in collaboration with members of BMM, created the Black Mamas Matter Toolkit.
A second convening was held in Atlanta in June 2016 to launch the toolkit and discuss how to implement it in Georgia, where some political momentum on this issue seemed to exist. At this meeting, members identified the myriad strategies needed to effectively tackle the crisis of maternal health (advocacy, culture shift, research, and service provision) and called for a Black women-led initiative to leverage these strategies.
Recognizing the need for the BMM project to become its own entity, CRR and SisterSong initiated a process to create a Steering Committee to guide BMM into its next phase. In November 2016, BMM hosted its first Steering Committee retreat. At this two-day meeting, the group decided on the “alliance” structure, and crafted a vision, mission, values, goals, and work plan for the upcoming year.
The founding Black Mamas Matter Alliance Steering Committee members include Angela Doyinsola Aina, Elizabeth Dawes Gay, Joia Crear-Perry, Kwajelyn Jackson, and Monica Simpson.
In June 2018, Angela Doyinsola Aina and Elizabeth Dawes Gay became co-directors of the Alliance; expanded the alliance to include over 18 Black women-led organizations; implemented the first ever Black Maternal Health Week National Campaign; and the first Black Maternal Health Conference and Training Institute, all in 2018. The rest is Herstory!!
BMMA Staff
Angela Doyinsola Aina, MPH
Angela Doyinsola Aina, MPH is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, where she works to convene Black Maternal Health professionals and community-based organizations to develop trainings, programs, quality improvement initiatives, research projects, and black feminist advocacy strategies to advance holistic maternity service provision, policy, and systems change in global public health. She has over 14 years of public health experience, working in different capacities on projects focused on: incorporating health equity strategies into reproductive and maternal health initiatives; strengthening strategic planning and community-based workforce development; and data collection. Ms. Aina has served as a Public Health Analyst, Health Communications Specialist, and a Public Health Prevention Service Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for over 5 years, working on Zika and Pregnancy, scientific program management, and 2014 Ebola response staffing. She holds a Master of Public Health degree in International and Women’s Health from Morehouse School of Medicine where she conducted a sequential mixed-method analysis of the reproductive health attitudes and behaviors of Nigerian-born immigrant women in the U.S., and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia State University in Psychology and African-American Studies. Angela’s expertise and perspectives on Black Maternal Health has been featured in media outlets, such as the Huffington Post, The Atlantic, the Root, and HLN/CNN. In March of 2020, she was recognized as a 2020 WebMD Health Hero and highlighted as an advocate for Black Maternal Health in Time Magazine. She is passionate about and 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. Angela enjoys all things diasporic Black cultural expressions in dance, music, art, fashion, theatre and film.
Rose Aka-James, MPH
Rose Aka-James is the National Membership Manager at Black Mamas Matter Alliance. In her role she manages relationships with BMMA partners and programming for Black Maternal Health Week, Black Maternal Health Conference along other organizational culture shift initiatives. Rose has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from St. John’s University and a Masters in Global Public Health from New York University. Her passion for health equity, social justice, and human rights has led her to a career working in the fields of HIV/AIDS research, Sexual/Reproductive Health education, and Maternal health programming domestically and abroad in Ghana, West Africa. In her spare time, Rose enjoys reading, listening to music, cooking and spending time with her family traveling.
Brandi Rawls, MBA
Brandi M. Rawls is the Operations & Grants Manager at Black Mamas Matter Alliance. In her role she manages the day to day operations of BMMA, board of directors and grant projects. Brandi is a proud alumna of The Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and minor in Pre-Law and has her MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago. In her free time Brandi enjoys spending time in her home state of Florida boating and jet skiing down the inter-coastal waterways with family and friends.
Renee F. Smith, MFALP
Renee F. Smith is the State Policy Manager with Black Mamas Matter Alliance. In her role, she works with decision makers, advocates, and partners to develop strategies to advance and improve Black Maternal Health on state and national levels. She brings years of experience in public administration, grants management, and project management. Her focus on policy engagement began in food movement spaces organizing for access to fresh produce from local growers into public school nutrition programs. Renee received her Master of Food and Agricultural Law and Policy from Vermont Law School and Bachelor of Science in Biology from Savannah State University. Apart from her work at BMMA, Renee can be found tending to her herb garden, listening to a city council meeting, or spending time with family.
Aniqua Acree, B.S.
Aniqua Acree is the Development and Engagement Manager with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Aniqua has served in leadership roles within the Atlanta healthcare field since 2011. Being born and raised in the heart of Atlanta, Aniqua developed a passion to not only see, but be a part of the improvement in quality and access to healthcare. This passion resulted in her earning a Bachelor of Science degree in healthcare management. When she is not fighting for fellow mamas like herself, she can be found enjoying the beach with her husband, their two daughters, and her sister.
Brooke Baker
Brooke Baker is the Communications Manager with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. She is an ever changing artist merging communications, art, education, and marketing to foster equity and inclusion. The Howard University graduate has advanced the movement to end gun violence, promote body positivity, birth justice, reproductive justice, racial and social justice through communications management, and through different mediums of artistic expression. She held leadership communications positions with advocacy organizations such as the New York Justice League, the Gathering for Justice, Youth Over Guns, and The Lifestyle Brand. In her spare time, she manages a clothing line.
Keba Jackson
Keba Jackson is the Administrative Specialist with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Keba’s professional background is in case management for at-risk children and families as well as program coordination for the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey. Her hobbies are interior design, crocheting and jewelry making.
Makina Table, MPH
Makina Table is a program consultant and collaborator with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Makina is a childbirth doula, public health practitioner, and educator with more than 7 years of experience in sexual and reproductive health, learning design and evaluation, and strategic programming, both nationally and globally. Most recently, she spent 2 years in rural southeastern Africa working and serving in adolescent sexual health, malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention. Makina earned a bachelor’s degree in African-American Studies and Chemistry from Howard University and a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University. In her spare time, Makina enjoys watching documentaries and home renovation shows, spending time with her family and working as a handmade artist and designer.
Marieh Scales, MPH
Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, Marieh Scales is the Projects Assistant Fellow at Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Marieh provides support to two projects–the first seeking to establish a holistic maternal care network for Black Mamas and the other interrogating the ways in which Maternal Mortality Review Committees engage with community. Marieh has worked on a variety of public health topics including reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention advocacy, and comprehensive sex education for all, among others. Marieh likes to play Spyro, paint, and read books about black feminism and reproductive justice.
Board of Directors
Breana Lipscomb, MPH
Breana Lipscomb is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee and currently resides in 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 15 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 and inequities through effective policy advocacy. She now serves as the Senior Manager of the U.S. Maternal Health & 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, the medical community, and advocates—to advance state and federal level policies that further reproductive rights as human rights. Breana actively serves on the Board of Directors for Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and she was recognized as the inaugural Kira Johnson Advocate of the Year by March for Moms in 2020.
Jessica Roach, MPH
Jessica M Roach, MPH is the CEO and Partner of Restoring Our Own Through Transformation, a Black Family Led Community Based Organization. Ms. Roach has over 20 years of clinical, research, nursing, home-birth midwife/assistant, full spectrum Doula, and public health experience. Ms. Roach’s focus on inter-generational and historical trauma has forged a uniquely powerful perspective as applied to public health policy and practice. Her advocacy work includes community-based initiatives addressing reproductive justice and infant mortality with a particular focus on African- American and similarly oppressed communities. She is the proud mother of three women, one of whom was a pre-term infant.
Aza Nedhari, LM, CPM, MS
Aza brings more than 18 years of experience in community organizing, reproductive justice, and program development. She is a licensed Certified Professional Midwife, Family Counselor, and the Founding Executive Director of Mamatoto Village. Aza is a fiercely dedicated woman who believes that by promoting a framework of justice, the reduction of barriers in maternal and child health begins to dissipate; giving rise to healthy individuals, healthy families, and healthy communities. Aza is pursuing her Doctorate in Human Services with a concentration in Organizational Leadership and Management with an eye towards the sustainability of people of color led-organizations and cultivating innovative models of perinatal care delivery in high needs communities. Aza is a mother to three spirited and gentle children.
Kwajelyn Jackson, MS
Kwajelyn Jackson currently serves as Executive Director at Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Atlanta, GA. She has the optimistic vision and pragmatism needed to lead an independent, non-profit, Feminist, multi-generational, multi-racial reproductive health, rights, and justice organization, providing compassionate abortion care in the South. Since 2013 she has led the expansion of FWHC’s statewide and national impact and deepened its community partnerships, leading the organization’s civic engagement, advocacy, education, and outreach teams, before becoming the organization’s first Black woman Executive Director.
A third generation graduate of Spelman College, Kwajelyn continues a family legacy of racial justice, anti-oppression and reproductive justice activism. She has a BA in economics and a MS in urban policy studies from the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University. 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. A respected voice on reproductive justice movement building, Kwajelyn is often sought after on the national level. She sits on the board of directors for All-Options, Abortion Care Network, and the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Kwajelyn is interested in opportunities to use a reproductive justice lens to spark dialogue, transform perspectives, develop leaders, and cultivate change.
Joia A. Crear-Perry, MD, FACOG
Joia A. Crear-Perry, MD, FACOG is a physician, policy expert, thought leader and advocate for transformational justice. As the founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), she identifies and challenges racism as a root cause of health inequities. She is a highly sought-after trainer and speaker who has been featured in national and international publications including Essence and Ms. Magazine. In 2020, Dr. Crear-Perry was honored by USA Today in its “Women of the Century” series and 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 and urge a human rights framework toward addressing 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. Dr. Crear-Perry currently serves as a Principal at Health Equity Cypher and on the Board of Trustees for Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Community Catalyst, National Clinical Training Center for Family Planning and the UCSF PTBi. She is an Adjunct Professor at Tulane School of Public Health. After completing undergraduate studies at Princeton University and Xavier University, Dr. Crear-Perry received her M.D. from Louisiana State University and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tulane University’s School of Medicine. She is married to Dr. Andre Perry and has three children: Jade, Carlos, and Robeson. Her love is her family; health equity is her passion; maternal and child health are her callings.
Monica Raye Simpson
Monica Raye Simpson is the Executive Director of SisterSong, Inc. and co-founder of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. She is a queer, black, NC native, has organized extensively against human rights abuse, the prison industry, racism, and systemic violence against Southern black women and LBGTQ people. A proud graduate of the historically black Johnson C. Smith University, she earned a bachelor’s in Communications and organized for LGBTQ rights on and off campus. She then became the Operations Director and the first person of color at the Charlotte Lesbian & Gay Community Center. Next, she trained black youth in activism, philanthropy, and fundraising as the Ujamaa Coordinator for Grassroots Leadership. In 2010, she moved to GA to be our Development Coordinator; she was promoted to Deputy Coordinator in 2011, Interim Executive Director in 2012, and Executive Director in 2013.
Monica is a nationally sought-after facilitator, speaker, and organizer, constantly called upon to travel the country for appearances. She is the only woman among the 4 founders of Charlotte, NC’s Black Gay Pride Celebration, the first in the Bible Belt, which received awards from the National Black Justice Coalition and the Human Rights Coalition for its incredible launch with 7,000 participants. She has been featured in many publications for her activism, and has written many articles on LGBTQ issues, RJ, over-policing of black/brown communities, philanthropy, and Southern activism. In 2014 she was named a New Civil Rights Leader by Essence Magazine, and in 2015 was chosen as a panelist for the Women of the World Summit. Also a full circle doula certified through the International Center for Traditional Childbirth, she serves on the boards of the Fund for Southern Communities and the legendary Highlander Center.
A singer and spoken word artist who infuses art into her activism, Monica has appeared in theatrical productions such as For the Love of Harlem, Words the Isms, Walk Like a Man, The Vagina Monologues, and For Colored Girls. She released her first solo album, Revolutionary Love, in 2015, and she has performed at events across the country, including singing the National Anthem and the National Black Anthem for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. march and rally in Atlanta, GA. Monica created Artists United for Reproductive Justice as a project of SisterSong in order to create a platform for artists to collaborate on replicable artwork that furthers the Reproductive Justice movement.
Monica R. McLemore PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
At the University of California, San Francisco, Monica McLemore is a tenured associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department, an affiliated scientist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, and a member of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She retired from clinical practice as a public health and staff nurse after a 28-year clinical nursing career. Her program of research is focused on understanding reproductive health and justice. To date, she has 69 peer reviewed articles, OpEds and commentaries and her research has been cited in the Huffington Post, Lavender Health, three amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States, and two National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine reports, and a data visualization project entitled How To Fix Maternal Mortality: The first step is to stop blaming women that was published in the 2019 Future of Medicine edition of Scientific American. Her work has appeared in publications such as Dame Magazine, Politico, ProPublica/NPR and she made a voice appearance in Terrance Nance’s HBO series Random Acts of Flyness. She is the recipient of numerous awards and currently serves as chair-elect for Sexual and Reproductive Health section of the American Public Health Association. She was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2019.
Jennie Joseph, LM
Jennie Joseph is a British-trained midwife who fights to ensure every person has their healthiest possible pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with dignity and support.Jennie created The JJ Way® which is an evidence-based, maternity care model delivering readily-accessible, patient-centered, culturally-congruent care to women in areas that she terms ‘materno-toxic zones’. Her focus and drive is to ensure that Black women and other marginalized people remain safe and empowered inside broken and inequitable maternity health systems that have become dangerous and all too often, lethal.She is the Executive Director of her own non-profit corporation Commonsense Childbirth Inc.which operates a training institute, health clinics and a birthing center in Orlando, Florida, and is also the founder of the National Perinatal Task Force, a grassroots organization whose mission is the elimination of racial disparities in maternal child health in the USA. In July 2020 her school, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery became the first and only privately-owned, nationally accredited midwifery school owned by a Black woman in the United States. Jennie is the founder and a proud member of The Council of Midwifery Elders, she serves on the Advisory Council for the Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus and is a Fellow of The Aspen Institute.
Jamila Taylor, PhD
Dr. Jamila K. Taylor is director of health care reform and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where she leads TCF’s work to build on the Affordable Care Act and develop the next generation of health reform to achieve high-quality, affordable, and universal coverage in America. A renowned health expert, Taylor also works on issues related to reproductive rights and justice, focusing on the structural barriers to access to health care, racial and gender disparities in health outcomes, and the intersections between health care and economic justice.
Throughout her 20+ year career, Taylor has championed the health and rights of women both in the U.S. and around the world, promoting policies that ensure access to reproductive and maternal health care, including building support for insurance coverage of abortion. Before TCF, Taylor served as senior fellow and director of Women’s Health and Rights at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where she led CAP’s efforts to advance policies that ensure that women have an equal opportunity to live healthy and economically secure lives. Prior to CAP, she was a senior advisor at Ipas, a global NGO dedicated to ending preventable deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion. She started her career as a congressional staffer in the office of Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), and has also worked for the Virginia General Assembly, the AIDS Institute, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
Taylor has published and presented extensively on topics related to reproductive health and rights and public policy. Her work has been seen in The Hill, RealClearPolicy, RealClearHealth, The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, Rewire, BillMoyers.com, Yale Journal of International Affairs, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, as well as a host of other publications. She has provided commentary on women’s health policy issues on NPR, Morning Consult, Women@Work—Powered by the Wharton School, “The Leslie Marshall Show,” C-SPAN, Fox News, and other media programs.
Taylor graduated with honors from Hampton University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. She also holds a master’s degree in public administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. in political science from Howard University. Taylor serves on the board of directors for Black Mamas Matter Alliance, March For Moms and Mamatoto Village (where she serves as chairwoman of the board). She also serves on the Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council Advocates Advisory Board of State Innovation Exchange (SiX).
Kay Matthews, LCHW
Kay Matthews lives in Houston Texas and is the Founder of The Shades of Blue Project. Graduating with a 2 year Degree in Early Childhood Development from North Harris College located in Houston Texas, and furthered her education in the Mental Health field by becoming a Licensed Community Health Worker. She has also received numerous awards from both her community and her peers, and sits on the Board and is Partners with several National organizations.
Along with writing her first Best Seller a Self-Help Journal: 365 Days To Recovery “Finding Your Way Out Of The Darkness” and Recovery State of Mind Daily Journal. Kay is actively teaching and speaking to women of all ages to help them to better understand how important it is to advocate for themselves before during and after childbirth. Helping them to realize that they have the ability to have a successful birth outcome and assuring that they know of the resources available in which it pertains to maternal mental health. To Kay this is the most important aspect of the work she does within the community and it is the motivation that she uses to continue to educate communities worldwide.