- today
Allyson Felix, Kendall Toole, Dázon Dixon Diallo and Deborah Wafer participate in the "Who Runs the World? Trailblazers in Women's Health and Wellness" panel moderated by Elaine Welteroth at THR's Social Impact Summit. The panel explores themes including wellness, mental health, sexual health and Black maternal health.
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00:00this panel is called who runs the world for good reason we are talking to trailblazers
00:10in women's health and wellness so please join me in welcoming to the stage deborah dazon kendall
00:17and allison this panel is focusing on advancing women's health and wellness at a time when
00:28conditions for women couldn't possibly be worse unfortunately the congressional budget office has
00:37released a statement that about 16 million people will be uninsured by 2034
00:437.8 million are expected to lose medicaid and roughly 24 million women are currently relying
00:51on medicaid for essential services including maternal health care cancer screenings mental
00:57health support vaccinations we can go on so deborah i want to start with deborah and dazon i want to
01:03start with you both between your decades of work uh you both helped shape the national response to
01:09some of the most urgent health crisis of our time and um your organization sister love has been a
01:16lifeline to women at the margins for over 30 years so with all that you both have witnessed what are
01:22some of the most persistent structural barriers women still face when it comes to accessing
01:28comprehensive care and why isn't medicine alone enough to close those gaps i'm gonna let you go
01:35first since you called your name well thank you so much and uh it's an absolute pleasure to be in this
01:44conversation and to continue to bring the particular stories around women and i would be remiss if i didn't
01:50say black women especially um into this conversation with sister love for example for the last 30 plus
01:57years we have worked intentionally at making sure that we're recognizing because all those numbers that
02:03you just call that are all stories every single one of them is a story of a woman whose life is connected
02:10to other lives and the ripple effect of that is also untold so far and what we know though is focusing in
02:18on the intersections of their lives and how all of those things fit together so our work is in the
02:25intersection of sexual reproductive and maternal health rights and justice which means we have to
02:32work focus on equity some of the key structural challenges you were talking about at the national
02:37level in the state of georgia where i live work where i'm from born and raised we have 95 percent
02:45of our counties do not have access to the full scale of reproductive choices 50 percent of the
02:52counties in the state of georgia do not have an ob-gyn 40 percent of the counties in the state of georgia
03:00do not have a pediatrician so when we look at the fact that health care isn't even accessible
03:07and if you come into the inner cities where the health care is located in certain parts of town which
03:14means it makes it very difficult transportation child care leaving work all of the standard things
03:20that we find every day and then having women who are responsible for themselves and everybody else
03:27the other structural thing is we're socialized to take care of everybody else before ourselves
03:32and we haven't turned that around but i also think that the structural
03:36inability to center women's lives in the health care response is the biggest part of the problem
03:45and i love my men i love my brothers but what we do know is that when you take care of the man you take
03:53care of the man when you take care of the woman you're taking now care of the family the community
03:58and all of the other things that she is the backbone for and upholding without the credit and without the
04:04resources and without of course understanding the value that we bring so centering women in the
04:13responses means you will eventually if not inevitably get everyone involved in one way shape or another
04:20because the women will do that so well said yeah i'll just add to that i am a nurse practitioner
04:27and a physician's assistant by training and i started my training in women's health and i started that
04:34because of not of trying to learn about health for my community and i think one of the things that's
04:42structurally a problem and it's going to be a bigger problem is this whole issue around dei and medical
04:48schools and so when we think about who's taking care of the patients are they trusted voices you know
04:56there is some systemic problems that are happening in the health care system that are i think bubbling
05:02back up quite frankly and as they bubble back up will there be health care providers who know how to
05:08take care of women and particularly black women you know there was a time there were more women in
05:14medical school but with dei let's see what happens with that will women be in medical schools will they
05:20be learning about women's issues i mean i'm you we're just now learning things like heart disease is
05:28different in women than it is in men and that's because women went to medical school or went you know became
05:34nurses and those are some of the structural problems i think we have to think about in addition to what
05:41dei zon talked about because when people get to the health care system who's taking care of them and that's gonna
05:48that's a structural issue i think that needs to be dealt with and particularly around hiv in black women and so we can talk
05:55we can talk about that a little more let somebody else talk a little bit
05:59okay kendall i'll kick it over to you you have built a massive global community not just as a peloton
06:07instructor but as a mental health advocate um who speaks very candidly about depression about anxiety
06:14about resilience um and you've also been an advocate for black maternal health um and dei zon you were
06:22calling out reproductive injustices decades before it was part of the zeitgeist um thank you so in both
06:29of your views what's still missing from the national conversation about women's health especially for
06:36communities who have historically been ignored or harmed by the system absolutely and i think what's
06:42operative and what what you both brought up that's so key is that we need to have people in health care
06:48who can relate to their patients there has to be representation because if someone at their most
06:54vulnerable particularly in a state of mental health or a mental health issue is trying to find a provider
07:00a mental health care provider and this particular provider doesn't have a shared cultural experience
07:05or representation how are you going to feel safe in your most vulnerable state to continue to grow
07:10evolve and seek help and support and that's something that we have to make sure we are putting a priority
07:17to help not only imbue more of this talent into the health care system but also protect these jobs
07:24protect these individuals because if you're not represented how are you going to be able to seek
07:29that help and really thrive and it's exactly it if the women are taken care of and if they feel seen and if
07:35they feel heard that trickle effect of all the people they touch and connect really changes and we need
07:41to see that representation shift within mental health in particular is the area that i'm most focused on
07:46and it's very heartbreaking for me to have conversations with friends and other folk and
07:50realize i try to find someone will say to me i try to find a provider and i just don't see myself
07:55in what's offered to me and this is a very significant issue we need to really focus on changing
08:01i talked about dating doctors dating therapists yes just as difficult and just as important yes trying
08:08to find a great therapist that you connect with is already challenging so absolutely absolutely
08:13i think the other part that goes along with that is that we fail especially at the national
08:18conversation to realize and value community solutions that every single day where whether
08:27it's our government whether it's our local policy makers or deciders or even those organizations
08:33and institutions that have a responsibility to make these services available to make sure the folks
08:39are trained and competent to respond to these lived experiences there are folks resolving some of these
08:47issues every single day by any means and we don't collect that information we don't listen and turn what i call
08:54lived experience as data into something actionable and so being able to really dive deep and level out
09:03what we know that's happening in community what are women already doing and how are they already doing
09:09it and what is it that we need to do to figure out how we can generalize that how do we replicate that
09:16how do we make sure that they're able to share that and not in only in those ways that are isolated and
09:22independent like in social media but actually in structural and competent ways that sharing that information
09:29would allow other communities to build and thrive as well we already know that communities
09:36community-based organizations community groups civil society we do the heavy lifting we do the really
09:44the down and dirty as my nana would say the the real nitty-gritty parts of the work but don't have
09:51that same level of equity in terms of who decides who gets to prioritize this work and then make sure that
09:58the investments in that work are equitable and also educating people about the fact that they even exist
10:05because that's the other part is people don't know where to go and how to get those resources to do
10:10what they're already doing and then being told that well the science over here has told us that this is the way
10:16to do it when you haven't been in my neighborhood so how do you know when my neighbors are figuring this out
10:22already why don't you bring that into your science yeah i think the other piece of that
10:27especially around mental health is stigma you know and i think you know hard to find um a person who
10:34can handle the mental health but also the stigma that comes along with it that people don't talk about
10:41mental health or they don't have the right names for what's happening with people and so you see people
10:49who don't get treated don't know how to talk about it and we need words to explain some of these things
10:57that are happening and so stigma is a big piece of the mental health issue for women you know you
11:04got to be strong and you can't you know show any weakness and those kinds of things when you might
11:10just be depressed and i think we've learned a lot about postpartum depression and that's something
11:15that's just starting to hit the news but i think stigma is a big issue too that we have to deal with
11:23in our communities and be able to support people and talk about it and not sweep it under the rug
11:29absolutely i mean you queued up my next conversation my next question which is about stigma and and you
11:34mentioned um investments i know deborah under your leadership at gilead we've seen investments
11:40and initiatives like the compass initiative um or in radian the radian program which go beyond
11:46medicine to address stigma um education and community engagement particularly in the south
11:54and among women of color so i'm curious looking ahead uh where do you see the most urgent and the
11:59most promising opportunities to close gaps in care for women i think some of the things that we talked
12:06about up here which are asking women what they want first of all going to wear and listening and
12:16going to where the problem exists and talking to people and asking them what would they like to do
12:24what have they seen work gilead is a biotech uh company and you know we make medications uh for
12:32hiv hepatitis and oncology medications and as you said like just in the last couple of years we've
12:39invested like 13 million dollars in organizations that are in the community that are community based
12:46and are working with women around education of hiv stigma and getting people to understand
12:53several things first of all that hiv can be treated eight people can live a long life and also that hiv
13:00can be prevented and even i'm sure somebody just heard that for the first time in their life in
13:05this audience that hiv can be prevented and hiv can be treated and people can live a long life so
13:11investing in those communities who are doing the work who know what needs to be done and listening to
13:18them i think those are the things that gilead is trying to do with where the need is so that's the
13:25other thing yeah this is so well said i have to get you in the conversation allison you know i know
13:30you have a lot to say um and by the way allison has a brand new film about her life that just debuted
13:37at tribeca um which i'd love to hear you share about i was i had the opportunity to be there um and to
13:44watch you watch the film and it was even more powerful the film is incredible so um allison i want to
13:50bring you into this conversation you um have leveraged your platform to elevate the issue of
13:57black maternal health and um you've done it as somebody who had a lot on the line you've walked
14:04out on your nike contract and you've started your own you know shoe collection um seish if you if you
14:12haven't looked up seish you guys you need to google it today and support this woman's work um and it's not
14:18just about supporting the work the the work is good okay um i learned from your film that actually
14:24nike and no other no other footwear line actually create shoes for women they're actually like we're
14:31just like treated like little men like little men's feet when we know we got we have our own
14:35specialized needs as women so i wanted to kick it over to you to talk about what impact um do high
14:42profile voices have in disrupting stigmas and advancing health equity um and where have you
14:49seen that power in action yeah i i feel like you know we really have the power to share our story
14:57and to create change and to to make people aware and feel less and less alone i know when i was going
15:06through my own issues you know around maternal health and it gave birth to my daughter two months early
15:11and she spent a month in the nicu i had a severe case of preeclampsia and i had no idea about the
15:17crisis that we were facing in america and what was going on and when i was doing my research and trying
15:23to learn and when i when i saw that it did not discriminate it didn't matter that i was in an
15:30olympian it didn't matter that i was in the best shape of my life i still found myself in a hospital
15:35fighting for my life in my child fighting for hers and i think that that just shows you know what a
15:43huge issue this is but i will say that sharing my story i think it has really shown that it doesn't
15:50discriminate and it shows that you know even the strongest you know even those who are privileged
15:55who have great medical care also fall in these same circles and i think we need more people to speak
16:01out you know we need to raise the awareness but also to hold those accountable and to have urgency
16:08around it as well i mean this problem is has only grown i think it's it's shocking that for me to give
16:15birth is more dangerous than it was for my mother to give birth i mean which way are we trending it's it's
16:21just alarming the statistics that we know to be true and so i think we have to continue pushing this
16:27conversation and pushing for change um at every level uh in order to see better outcomes absolutely
16:35kendall i'd love to hear you chime in on this as well you do have a public profile and you know
16:41ostensibly a lot to lose for standing up for what you believe in depending on what you believe in
16:46and it's in times like these so can you talk about the impact um both the impact of using your voice
16:53in this moment um but also the fear factor that comes with that absolutely i think anybody and i'm
17:02sure allison without speaking for you the the pressure is very real and it's interesting when
17:06you go about something from more of an athletic perspective it's a controlled pressure that you
17:11almost get used to you train for it it's a different pressure when you're speaking publicly i'm
17:15sure elaine you also probably feel this as well anybody with a public platform today it's very easy
17:21for someone with a nameless faceless account to spam create rhetoric create drama create a narrative
17:29that is just not true to your values and it also in a in a in almost a positive way their negativity
17:36asks you to stand up and asks you to stand prouder and asks you to speak louder and yes is it uh
17:44it's very scary sometimes and sometimes people can say some things that can hurt but when you
17:49recognize the why when you're aligned with what the mission is the mission of helping other women
17:53the mission you know for me is destigmatizing mental health helping provide support helping
17:58make a change making sure that people have access to the needs of of you know their mental health
18:03it's worth it it's not always easy but i don't think there's a choice now yeah you have to speak
18:10and if you don't candidly why do you have the platform
18:13as the kids say a little mic drop moment there um thank you for that i think we all need reminders
18:23of that uh especially in this time all of you live and work at very interesting intersections
18:30talk about what happens when we truly collaborate across sectors and how we can build more bridges
18:38to really accelerate the impact that we each want to have in maternal health and that's kind of open to
18:43the group so i really want to dive in because especially off allison and kendall um and thank
18:51you all for standing up and for putting your neck on the line if you will um because there are those
18:58of us who will you know i'm an old act upper so there are those of us who have literally laid down
19:02in the streets um and have had to answer for that locally but not in that same public sphere
19:08but the the the idea that we're not going to get through this without collaborating across all the
19:14intersections is a dead idea we have to right and i'm going to give two very concrete examples about
19:21how that works in two very different ways and why that's so important especially for organizations
19:26like sister love first of all our intersectionality is not just about the topics like how we bridge
19:32sexual reproductive and maternal health but our intersectionality is also in the response
19:37we're not only a service provider we're also a policy and advocacy group we're actually stemming
19:43extending ourselves into doing justice and law work now and we're also a community researcher so we put
19:49all of those things in the same place to deal with all of those issues and a good example i will call
19:55their names amber thurman candace miller and adriana smith three georgia women who in the last three
20:03years all had maternal health problems maternal health issues that had an abortion question
20:12and in each one of those situations because the law is confusing or the law is restricting or the
20:18medical practitioners weren't trained or weren't or were so confused about the law all three women
20:25died and they died because they didn't know the policy or their providers didn't understand the
20:31policy but they also died because someone else decided that they can take the choice away from
20:37those individual women and their families to decide what happens with their health amplified georgia is a
20:43collaborative of women-led sexual reproductive and maternal organ maternal health organizations that have
20:50come together to support those families to educate people about the laws but to also deliver service
20:56and care in the way that every single woman deserves and should have another collaboration i'll talk about
21:02is that very new thing that we have to celebrate in hiv prevention we have fought for many many many
21:10years to find a way that women can prevent hiv without having to negotiate with someone else
21:16without having to tell somebody that that's what they're doing and to protect themselves and you
21:23had in this case women who are on the continent living in africa putting their bodies on the line
21:29and have demonstrated with can i use that word miracle but i think the scientists were miraculous
21:35people scientists but to really come up with a medicine that these women for the first time showed
21:42can prevent hiv and actually at a hundred percent wow right these were all black women who have shown that
21:50efficacy right and so but that collaboration started when the scientists at gilead came into community and sat with
21:57us first and said what does this need to look like how should this study roll and not only that when we put
22:03together this study we want to make sure that we have a global community of not just advisors but
22:09accountability holders who are going to walk with us through this whole process and now we are at the
22:15at the next level of saying how do we now make sure that there's an equitable way to that not only those
22:20women in africa who put their bodies on the line to demonstrate the success get access but every woman who
22:27needs and deserves to prevent hiv and to prevent the maternal health problems or potential challenges
22:35how they can get access to these medications and the education that these medications exist
22:41these are the stories i want to hear yeah well you know let me just add to that because this is just
22:47tells you how long how far we have come when i first started as a nurse practitioner i was working
22:53in research where we were looking at transmission of the virus from mother to baby and we knew that if you
23:00treated the mother then there was uh no virus for the mother to transmit and i always say that was
23:06our first prevention study but it was women and children so it didn't get a whole lot of
23:12a whole lot of uh press if you will but it did change the guidelines so that now all pregnant women are
23:20screened for hiv before they have a baby because we know that we can prevent transmission and i think it
23:28really when you when we think about maternal child health it is something that is about community
23:34too to your point i think you know it's the woman who may be pregnant and she's going to deliver a
23:40child but you need the support of the community and i think some of the things that have gone away
23:45are things like people are not fighting for sex education in classrooms how many young girls don't
23:50even know how their bodies work and you know i'm i'm old school i had my our bodies ourselves and some
23:57people will know what that is and some people will not but it was a book that i made sure all the
24:04young girls in my family got because you need to know your body to know how to advocate for what you
24:10want and a lot of times sometimes it's just the language is different and people use different
24:15languages to describe different body parts and if it's a cultural barrier then you don't get the same
24:22kind of outcome so i think you know we need to advocate for more education for our children
24:28around this as well because everybody in this audience is here because somebody had sex
24:33but nobody wants to talk about it nobody wants to talk about it but we are
24:39i do i do i do because somebody not my mom and dad no
24:49right well they got down at some point you know so
24:54so uh that is i think those are how we normalize some of that i'm not saying we have to talk about
25:01at the dinner table and all that kind of stuff but it is something that i think you know it's around
25:07stigma again you know and stigma is what's hurting us more than anything absolutely thank you for the
25:13levity by the way we all needed that laugh i don't know about you guys um allison as somebody who
25:21or not to bring it back down but as somebody who almost lost your life in childbirth um i'd love to
25:29hear you speak to how you see storytelling as a way of rebuilding systems that better support women
25:37and babies um you've done it so beautifully we'd love to hear you speak to that i think it's it's
25:42critical i mean elaine we've had this conversation before but i think we have this idea in society of
25:49what birth looks like in the stories that we have been told around birthing is that it's the most painful
25:56thing it is an awful experience we always hear the trauma stories and so i think you get better
26:03outcomes when you start to reframe the conversation completely i mean i did have a traumatic experience
26:09with my daughter but i learned so much that when i had my son the care that i got looked completely
26:16different because i knew what to look for i knew what to ask for i had a doctor who looked like me i had
26:22a black doula i had a black midwife and all of that contributed to a better outcome i was able to
26:30have a v-back the the natural unmedicated v-back that i i wanted to fight for and i had people who
26:37supported me through that and i think because of that you know i was able to have a much healthier
26:42situation and so we need to think and be so intentional about the stories that we tell around
26:50birthing and what it even means to what does a doula mean what does a midwife mean and who you know
26:56how can you have um those services and back to how are we supporting families i mean the work that
27:02birth fund is doing to support families around these very issues is incredible and so needed and so um
27:11i think when we start to really begin with the community and at the grassroots level and what our
27:18villages look like and what the support looks like and really go back to things how they used to be
27:23done you know in a much healthier way i think then we really begin to change um you know just women
27:31black women dying when they're giving birth absolutely absolutely so well said i think this is why i will not
27:39shut up about my birth stories because they were positive they were more transformative and sacred and
27:47beautiful than i ever even knew to dream of and i think it's important to not just be told what to
27:54fear but what to hope for and that's the power of positive birth stories and storytelling in general um
28:02and i also just want to thank you allison because you are someone who has put funding behind the values
28:09that you are up here talking about you are someone who isn't just telling your story but you are actually
28:15funding solutions and through allison's pivotal ventures fund birth fund has been funded we
28:21haven't formally announced it but here we are at the hollywood reporter social impact summit announcing
28:28um that allison has come on as a front-facing funder and we just are so grateful for your your
28:33contribution to the community grassroots effort that we need to see more of right now we have to stand in the gaps to save these
28:40families um we can't wait for someone else to do it while we are working on changing policy while we are
28:46working on rebuilding these systems we have to save the people who are falling through the gaps now and
28:51allison is doing that so thank you and um kind of building on what what you were sharing i think too often
29:00we are not addressing problems until they become crises and so how do we move from a culture of crisis response
29:08uh to a culture of prevention and what does that even look like uh you know what does early cultural
29:17competent intervention look like in each of your work well i think well in my work um i work in hiv mostly
29:27and i do some oncology but in that work it really is education you know it is education and taking stigma
29:35out of like i said talking about sex talking about hiv you know it's the hiv is a virus it's not about
29:44the person and i think that's one of the you know the language that we use is very important
29:49a lot of times you know like someone gave somebody hiv no the virus was transmitted from one person to
29:56another i mean that's a whole nother way of saying that when i work with women who are hiv positive
30:02and pregnant you know you would hear nurses say well you don't want to give your baby aids
30:06well no that's not who wants to do that but i want to prevent the transmission of the virus
30:12from me to the baby and so language is key and i think that's part of being culturally competent
30:19but also just knowing how to use your words is important and then also having some compassion about
30:26people in the situations that they're in because i think when it comes to health people feel vulnerable
30:31sometimes when they show up at clinics and you don't know necessarily what it took for them to
30:35get there and there's a lot a lot that goes into people showing up in front of someone for their
30:41medical issue and i think those are some of the things that need to be taken into consideration
30:47but right now you know people have like 10 minutes with the doctor and it takes six months to get an
30:52appointment and so i think that's where education comes in where people need to learn some things for
30:59themselves so that they're not just totally dependent upon the healthcare system i think that's one way
31:06to get started but i'll let everybody else comment just so i wanted to make a quick update for you two
31:11on our bodies ourselves just in case this is news for folks uh as someone who is a co-author and some of
31:17that obos today is alive and well so our bodies ourselves is now a living changing document that's online
31:25that you can access any day it's got peer review articles it also has resources so our bodies ourselves
31:32is still a resource wait for the gen z's in the room exactly break that down what is this what is our
31:38bodies our bodies ourselves is the text that deborah talked about which basically was the women's
31:43gynecological bible for so long in the 70s 80s 90s um and in the late 2000s it has switched to becoming an
31:54online um and a living document there are so many different groups of us who are constantly reviewing
32:01and adding articles to that space stories lived experiences as well as resources and organizational
32:08practices i think there's a couple other things i would say that we're engaging in that i think is
32:12different i honestly i don't trust the schools to do proper sexual health education uh because they're
32:19so localized one two because it's so disparate in terms of what state by state will do and because
32:27not everybody who is even in the responsibility of teaching it got that education and so i think
32:33community level sexual health education which will include the historical context of where we come from
32:42to where we are in understanding the role that doulas midwives community health educators traditional
32:49birth attendants as well as those gogos or those nanas those elders in the community who will tell
32:55you those those little bits and pieces about that knowledge of what they knew how they prevented a
33:02pregnancy before there was a contraception all of those things matter in the conversation of what kinds
33:08of choices people have today i also think that in addition to understanding where people are
33:15it's understanding where not just where people are but where people want to be met and i truly believe
33:21that the work we do has to be a lot more mobile people should not have to be mobile to find health
33:27care health care should be mobile to find the people it shouldn't you shouldn't have to go more than
33:33two miles to access the health care that you need the health information the health education and so the more
33:40mobile we can bring health to communities especially those that are in health and food deserts the better
33:47outcomes we're going to have and so i'm on the mission to build as big a fleet of sexual reproductive
33:52health clinics that are mobile as possible so that folks know when there's a service available to them
34:00that they can go to and they don't have to leave their homes they don't have to figure out child care
34:05and then have to figure out how to pay for it or transportation which may or may not be public and
34:11or friendly to them yeah i mean a big ups to the brand new news that uber is now allowing
34:16women drivers and women riders right to connect with each other right i want to finally i want to
34:22acknowledge that that is what centering women's lived experiences looks like and if we could do the
34:29better job of that in health care oh my that sounds like a movement it's what i do i want to get on board
34:40i want to get on board on that fleet i couldn't agree more and with that fleet perspective as well
34:45i've said i have to be honest our bodies ourselves i think was a little bit before my time um i'm very
34:52excited to read this online version of it actually i think i can't wait to share it with my friends but with
34:57that as somebody who grew up a little bit more as a digital native i see a really big opportunity and
35:02a very large gap in fact in this information so it's interesting what you speak about about physical
35:07communities the importance of that and for me and someone who comes from more of a digital space and
35:12has a digital reach in a digital community how do we bring both of those elements together so for
35:17example i know i was researching you know something about an interuterine device and we were talking
35:22about this before and i went on to tick tock and i about had a panic attack with all of these stories
35:29and you know you hear the worst it's exactly what you were saying allison we hear the worst of these
35:33stories and it deters us from making decisions that are educated for our body and i have the privilege of
35:38having my boyfriend's family as all obgyns and i was very lucky to be able to have this experience of
35:45speaking to his older sister who's in residency right now she just gave birth to twins so she knows it
35:49from all the angles but i asked her questions for an hour and over text really quick and i remember
35:55getting off of that conversation and thinking gosh every woman should have this every woman should be
36:00able to have access to answer those questions in a way that she feels comfortable to make these
36:04decisions so what gets me really excited and where i think the opportunity actually lies is in bringing
36:11those local communities together with conversation that was spurred in the digital space how can we create
36:16these digital environments where you could potentially not have to share your your public information
36:22and you can find kinship you can find community with people with shared experiences on the internet
36:26and then be able to bring that knowledge bring that community and bring the digital side of support
36:31into these community spaces and hopefully even you know it'd be great sharing you know the elders
36:36perspectives please someone on go on tick tock i will tell you you want to blow up on tick tock right now
36:40be over the age of 25 and just tell us what to do please i think there's there should actually
36:47be a whole what do they call those where there's you know uh tick tock spaces like there's black tick
36:52tock there needs to be that tick tock that's just like who told you that oh right okay i think we
36:57just started now we just started a new series everyone please and and then read me for felt if i have
37:02it wrong we just yeah we need we need someone to kind of check us and guide us and be that because lived
37:08experience is so powerful and we have more access to information than ever we're more connected than
37:12ever but we are deeply isolated simultaneously so how do we take our digital world bring it in with
37:20the strength and the experience of the elders and the people in our community and these these
37:25intelligent people in our communities and affect change so that people are empowered to have access
37:30to choice and are educated to be able to have that proper choice for their bodies and make an impact
37:36kendall i think a public service would be getting these two women on tick tock today i'm about to
37:40get them to sign up to an account immediately because the bars that have been dropped that's what
37:45i'm saying it'll go viral so this would go viral 10 times over just based on what you said today
37:50we'll talk about this backstage allison let's take it to you um i see it the same way in maternal
37:55health as well i think what you're talking about is storytelling and really getting the message
38:00out and i think about um preeclampsia and and one of the things that we know that can prevent in your
38:06second uh pregnancy is a low dose aspirin but how many women are familiar with that and so it's this
38:13education it's being able to talk to your doctor and have your doctor actually give you that information
38:19that you need you know you were talking about 10 minutes with your doctor and that's what is normal
38:24that's that's absurd you know especially when you're dealing with these issues that are life
38:30threatening and um with preeclampsia there are things that you can look look for that um when
38:36you're at risk you know whether it's um swollen feet and um headaches and changes in your vision and
38:42so all of these things you have to be educated on in order to know what to look for and so there's so
38:48much work to be done but i think what makes me most hopeful is knowing that so many of the deaths
38:56and complications that black women face around maternal health i think the statistic is something
39:00like 80 percent are preventable yes and that's heartbreaking but that's also there's hope there
39:07because we can do something about it and it's going to take everybody coming together to change those
39:12outcomes and i think everyone in this room is really energized around that and we've got to do that
39:17work i had a very unique experience because i went through a hardship you know as an athlete who
39:24wanted to start a family and not being supported and so i was absolutely devastated by the way that
39:30i was treated and because then i went on to start my own business i had learned so much from my personal
39:36experience and i also had this outpouring of other women who had experienced something similar and so
39:43because i had that lived experience i was like there's there's absolutely no way that i want
39:48anybody else to to walk this path and it was like if i get to build the thing i'm going to build it in
39:54this way and i think it starts with what we talked about earlier deep listening understanding how can we
40:00support women how can they show up how do you have maternity leave how do you come back and how are you
40:07building companies that do that from the ground up and so i think it is taking some of those practices
40:12you know from real life and saying from a from a humanity aspect of this is a real person yes we work
40:20for a company and we we do work that we're passionate about but at the end of the day we all want to go
40:26home to families that we love how can we support um in a better way and i think when you do that from
40:32the ground up and you are able to model that and really be transparent about it um you can hold
40:38other people accountable and say do you want to come alongside and and do this this way as well and
40:44really be leaders in the space what did i say about the power of a pissed off mother
40:51as we wrap up i would like to pose one final question to each of you um we are here talking about
40:58building a future where every woman no matter her zip code or language sexuality income they receive
41:05the care that they need and deserve um it's going to take bold vision it's going to take collaboration
41:12across sector and so i'd love to end on possibility right we need more of that in our conversations and
41:19in our spirits so i'd like to ask each of you to share one commitment personal or professional that
41:25you're making to help move us closer to that goal my my commitment i was speaking to somebody about
41:33this earlier is i am trying to get more young women to go into health care um i think that it's a
41:42profession i mean i went into health care because i was like i'll never have to worry about getting a
41:48job because people can always get sick right so i think that one of the things i think more people
41:55going into health care and going back into the communities that they work in that's one of the
42:01commitments that i'm working on because i think that is very important for some of the communities where
42:07there is lack of health care providers that are trusted because mistrust distrust either one of them
42:16are big issues right now in the health care system so i'm always trying to advocate you know not
42:22necessarily even to be a nurse but to do something in health care because there's so many opportunities
42:28there and they're not enough people who look like me in the places that i go so that's my commitment
42:34that's fantastic yes all right we'll go down the line
42:38well one of my commitments that i express here now and will continue to work on is continuing to build
42:44solidarity building the solidarity across these different stories whether they are maternal health
42:50stories or stories of sexual health like around hiv or reproductive health stories around abortion birth
42:57control contraception and family planning that the commitment is making sure that we're in constant
43:04conversations for example we rarely have conversations about fertility assistance as an equitable
43:11service or health care it is not a luxury for those who can just afford ivf there's no public support
43:18for people who can't afford it who want to build families so building that solidarity in those stories
43:24but the the other part that we're really working hard on at least with sister love and what my commitment
43:28is is to really closing this false division closing this gap between community and corporate and public
43:37service right that there's this this disparity that's existing uh people the minute you say oh i'm
43:45a non-profit that changes how people even look at you right but we're small businesses we hire people we pay
43:52taxes we have services we have products we have things and i know that there are um for example you have
44:00corporates you have big private companies that have non-profit sectors that are foundational
44:06non-profits can also have profit sectors that are educational that are community-based that continue
44:13to deliver services some for those who pay and some for those who still need it without pay that's the
44:19divide i think that that us and them mentality has to be erased and that's my commitment is working
44:26towards that erasure thank you yes absolutely
44:30with what we're doing very early stage at nko fund with what i continue to do in health and wellness
44:38fitness in particular destigmatization of mental health is absolutely massive being able to talk
44:43about it be that storyteller show the vulnerability and create space for people to share their stories is
44:49absolutely operative with that a goal for us for the end of 2026 is to launch a scholarship fund for
44:56bipoc students who want to get into the mental health field because we need to have representation
45:02for all communities to be able to go and do that internal work and at their most vulnerable to feel
45:06safe to feel heard and to be able to thrive through that process fantastic allison yeah um my commitment is
45:15really to come alongside organizations who have been doing important work in this space and provide
45:22funding and a lot of the organizations that are doing work on the community level i think it's uh we have
45:28to support those organizations they are the ones who are on the ground and who are really changing
45:34outcomes and it might seem to be a little bit at a time but really committed to to furthering that work
45:40amplifying it um and yeah all coming together to uh create better solutions well i will i will answer the
45:50question that i posed as well um in two ways one is a funny answer um but one is serious at birth fund
45:58one of the things that we're focused on is expanding our programmatic work to start a scholarship program
46:05for midwives in training because we know that there are so many structural challenges that midwives and
46:11community birth workers face to just getting into the industry to just getting into practice let alone
46:17staying in practice right so that is something that we are currently raising money for for anyone in
46:22the room if you'd like to talk after uh shameless plug um but the other thing i want to say is i think
46:28our contribution to the digital community um at large is getting these ladies on tick tock today
46:35um so that is our commitment kendall let's go okay i've already i'm gonna get the phone out we'll
46:40get the accounts going let's do it i need a good name too i'm ready it's gonna be good do you already have
46:44one no okay but it'll gestate yeah matcha and we'll get there we'll get there um thank you
46:49so much what an incredible group of trailblazers of powerful leaders i feel fueled by this conversation
46:56thank you so much and thank you for everyone for being here
47:07you
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