Dc Maternal & Infant Health Summit 2022

Written By Afrika Kathuria

On Thursday, September 15, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives (MOWPI) hosted the fifth annual National Maternal & Infant Health Summit. The summit convened DC residents, elected officials, health and education experts, media personalities, entertainers, and community-based partners to collaborate and explore strategies to improve perinatal health and address racial disparities in birth outcomes. This year’s theme centered on three pillars: economic equity, health outcomes, and the culture of parenting. There were four panels, feature discussions, a special conversation with moms in media, community spaces, breakout sessions, live art from Positive Chalk DC, and movement breaks led by FIT DC powered by Aetna with music by DJ Farrah Flosscett. Below is a list of the special event guests:

  • Mayor Muriel Bowser

  • Rep. Lauren Underwood, (D-IL 14th District), Co-Chair, U.S. House of Representatives Black Maternal Health Caucus

  • Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH 11th District)

  • Dr. Dorothy Fink, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health and Director of the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

  • Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes, Director, DC Department of Employment Services (DOES)

  • Jackie Reyes-Yanes, Director, Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs

  • Tori Alamaze, Author and Artist

  • Monica Alba, NBC News

  • Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director, The Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice

  • Dr. Joanne Armstrong, Senior Medical Director, Aetna

  • Nicole Austin-Hillery, President and CEO, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.

  • Tamar Braxton, Singer and Television Personality

  • Robin Diggs Purdue, Deputy Director of Programs, Policy and Strategy, DC Health’s Community Health Administration

  • Jessica Foster, Life Coach and Mama Companion, Wolomi

  • Dr. Yolanda Hancock, Member of the Board of Directors, American Heart Association Greater Washington Region

  • Adrianna Hopkins, WJLA ABC 7

  • Dr. Erica Martin Richards, Chair and medical director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine

  • Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-Founder, Babyscripts

  • Lisa Price, Founder, Carol’s Daughter

  • Jeanette Reyes, FOX 5 DC

  • Sherenne Simon, Head of Health Equity, March Of Dimes

  • Milan A. Spencer, Associate Director of Workforce Development and Partnerships, Black Mamas Matter Alliance

  • Latham Thomas, Founder, Mama Glow

  • Julee Wilson, Beauty Editor-At-Large, Cosmopolitan

Afrika Kathuria
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