Beth spent 20 years living and working on the rural coast of Maine before returning to the city of her birth. While there, she was involved in the creation of a homeschool collective, a midwifery practice and a non-profit organization for migrant farmworkers. In 2019, Beth completed her Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a focus on structural competency and racialized health inequity. She currently serves as faculty in the FNP track at UMass Boston and works clinically as a primary care provider at Fenway Health. She birthed her two beautiful boys, Seamus Creek and Jacob Finn, at home into the loving hands of midwives.

Bethany N. Serota, Esq. is the Executive Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Beth Israel Lahey Health, South where she advances system wide and hospital centered efforts to transform care delivery by dismantling barriers to equitable health outcomes, and fostering a culture that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion for the organization’s patients, workforce, and communities served. Before joining Beth Israel Lahey Health, Bethany served as the Deputy Director of Workforce Equity and Inclusion for the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development for the City of Boston. Bethany received her B.A. from Temple University and J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Carleen is a Development Director at the American Heart Association.  In addition to fundraising she works to advocate for access to health solutions and racial equity. She also has over twenty years of managed health care and health insurance experience. Carleen previously served as a board member for Franklin Park Coalition.  Carleen has four children, including a set of twins. 

Chris is a white male racial justice consultant with 35 years of experience in leadership and change management in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. In working with clients, Chris compassionately supports organizations in reducing the gap between its stated desire for justice, equity and inclusion and its organizational reality. Having started his career at Planned Parenthood in 1982 and having worked for more than a decade as Practice Administrator for the midwifery practice that delivered his two sons, Chris has been a longtime advocate of reproductive justice. He has a B.A. in Social Work from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Boston College. Newly an empty-nester, Chris has more time to hike and camp.

D.J. Baker(they/them) is a trans-nonbinary advocate and birth and gender-affirming care doula. They have been a birth doula since 2019 and have advocated for trans and queer individuals and families through their work under Sir Doula, Better Birth Mississippi, and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition(MTPC). Education is at the heart of their work. It has shown up in the areas of food justice, birth justice, and trans equity. Outside of justice, advocacy, and education, D.J. loves fermentation, food gardening, foraging, playing music on vinyl, and kayaking. 

Dananai was born and raised in Zimbabwe. Prior to coming to the United States, she studied Law and Sociology in South Africa where her career in International Development was launched at the High Commissioner’s Office. Dananai brings an extensive background in fundraising and has worked for organizations such as CARE International in the United Kingdom, National Youth Development Council, Enroot, and First Teacher in Boston. In addition to her work with nonprofits, Dananai has worked in higher education at both MIT and Harvard. Dananai is the mother of two young boys, Zahir (7) and Aydin (4) and lives in Dorchester.

Ebere Oparaeke (she/her) is a birth worker and birth justice advocate. She became a birth doula 10 years ago while pursuing her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in Women's Studies and now provides a spectrum of support throughout the perinatal period. With a background in childcare and youth development, she has always felt connected to efforts that support children and parents. She graduated with a Master's degree in Public Health with a focus in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University in 2020. She has since engaged in community-based strategies and advocacy efforts for health equity, including interning for and promoting the opening of the Neighborhood Birth Center. She is passionate about reproductive and social justice efforts towards the liberation of oppressed peoples and believes that all people should be informed, supported, and validated in their birth and reproductive journeys.

Erline has more than 15 years of experience in public health, racial justice, program development, and strategic planning. As a consultant she provides training, lectures, and strategic planning focusing on racial justice practice. She served as Project Manager for the Center for Health Equity and Social Justice at the Boston Public Health Commission to support its priority to address racial health inequities. She supported the Commission to build internal capacity to approach complex race issues by shifting public health practice toward racial equity through staff and program development, evaluation, and practice. Her role in this work was built on the understanding that community is central to the process, addressing institutional and structural racism is key, collaborations is necessary, and it is crucial to go beyond social service towards systemic social and policy change. A mother of 3, Erline advocated for 2VBACs! es here

Glynn has been an innovator in transformative urban economic development for more than 30 years. ​He currently serves as the Executive Director of Nectar Community Investments, leading efforts to invest in small businesses and create innovative residential programs that advance environmental justice and stable housing.

Glynn was also the founder of City Fresh Foods, a nationally-renowned food service business. He is also a founder of the Urban Farming Institute (UFI), a community-led nonprofit supporting the development of the urban farming industry in Massachusetts, and helped establish the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), a coalition of black business, community, religious and labor leaders working together to improve economic indicators in the Black community.

Joanna is a white queer woman, systems-thinker and creative facilitator with abolition in her heart and a radical imagination. Her paid work is as an organizational consultant, supporting teams in embracing change and centering relationships, often through facilitated conversation, leadership coaching, and policy-change consulting. Her background is in youth development, sexuality education and public health and she is honored to put her core values of trans-inclusive feminism, body liberation, and reproductive justice to work at the Neighborhood Birth Center. She is a 2017 Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute for Community Health Leadership and a graduate of Northeastern University's Master's in Public Health program.

Jonah brings hands-on experience providing strategic planning, real estate consulting, and project management services. As the Head of DBI Projects’ Boston Office, Jonah has delivered impactful planning and project implementation solutions for diverse educational, social service, cultural, and religious organizations (and birth centers!) around the world. Jonah received his undergraduate degree in Art & Architecture History from Wesleyan University, and his Masters in City Planning from MIT. Jonah lives in Arlington with his wife, son, and daughter.

Kelly is the Vice President of Finance at the Community Care Cooperative (C3), an accountable care organization committed to the success of Federally Qualified Health Centers and the critical role they play in communities.  Kelly has over 15 years of experience in Public Finance and Administration in the public and non-profit sector.  Prior to joining C3 She served as the CFO of the Massachusetts Departments of Youth Services and Public Health and the Director of Government Payers at MassGeneral Brigham.

Kelly has a degree in economics from Boston College and a Master in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania.  She and her family live in Boston.

Kendra Lara is a first-generation Black Latina nonprofit executive and former Boston City Councilor with over a decade of experience leading justice-centered organizations. A strategic and visionary leader, Kendra’s work is grounded in a deep commitment to equity, collective liberation, and community-centered solutions.

Elected as the first person of color to represent District 6 on the Boston City Council, Kendra brought her experience and commitment to justice into local government. During her tenure, Kendra secured over $84 million in capital investments and millions more in programmatic funding for housing, youth services, and community development.

Kendra lives in Jamaica Plain with her son, Zaire, and her partner, RJ. In her free time, she hikes, dances, and keeps up with the world on TikTok

Marianne’s roots run deep in Boston, where she, her mother, and her children (caught by midwives and their dad) were born. In the wake of her mother’s death in 2018, she found new life in connecting to Nashira, this project, and this community. Marianne supports community and population health, well-being, and equity through her work at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She has worked at Our Bodies Ourselves, Ibis Reproductive Health, the National Institute for Children's Health Quality, and with an amazing circle of reproductive and social justice advocates, especially those with whom she has the honor to be in community for the Neighborhood Birth Center.

Meenakshi spent the last decades consulting with organizations to develop a racial justice agenda. As a person who racializes as Asian and is ethnically Indian, her life’s work is rooted in building solidarity with other people of color in a collective movement toward liberation. She brings nonprofit development organizational development and fundraising skills to the birth center project. Meenakshi is a mother of 3 and lives in Framingham, MA. 

Ndidireceived her PhD in Public Health with a focus on Maternal and Child Health at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health in 2010. She is a member of the American Public Health Association and is currently the co-chair of the Perinatal and Women’s Health committee in the Maternal and Child Health section. Additionally, she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Amutah-Onukagha is also the Principal Investigator of an R01 funded by NIH aimed at examining maternal safety bundles and the role of doulas in maternal health outcomes in Black women. 

She is the proud mother of a beautiful baby boy and lives in Dorchester, MA with her husband. 

Dr. Mehta is a board-certified, practicing obstetrician gynecologist, and Women’s Health Lead of Cityblock Health, the first tech-driven provider for communities with complex health and social needs.

Prior to Cityblock, Pooja served as Interim Chief Medical Officer and Chief Clinical Innovation Officer of Louisiana Medicaid, and Medical Director of the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative and Maternal Mortality Review.

She is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Community and Population Medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine and practices with a reproductive justice-informed focus on obstetrics, family planning, and reproductive infectious disease.