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