Meet the Team
Connected by the shared interest in telling the story of birth equity, our three co-investigators embarked on a journey to optimize the experience of pregnancy and childbirth. Along that journey came the concept for the Black Birth Equity Study. Ultimately, as more and more studies dive into the effects of obstetric racism in maternal healthcare, this study seeks to examine the positive effects on patient empowerment and decision-making that this increased awareness is causing. Below lies the names of each team member that make this study possible. To learn more about each person, please click on their name.
Principal Investigator & Associate Professor
Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine,
School of Medicine
Tufts University
Research Assistant
Study Coordinator
Former Research Coordinator
Cofounder, Birth By US
Dr. Vanessa Nicholson, DrPH, MPH
Former Project Manager & Assistant Professor
Research Assistant
Research Assistant
Research Assistant
Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha is the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Founder and Director of the Center of Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice, and of the Maternal Outcomes of Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab, Dr. Amutah-Onukagha’s research investigates maternal health disparities, infant mortality, reproductive health and social justice, and HIV/AIDS as experienced by Black women. She also serves as the Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the university’s Public Health and Professional Degree Programs.
A well-published author, Dr. Amutah-Onukagha’s work has been presented in over 45 manuscripts, 5 book chapters, a best-selling book on Amazon, and a textbook on culturally responsive evaluation. Her research has also been featured across a series of platforms, including, The Lancet, TedX, USA Today, and most recently broadcasted on MSNBC. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Women’s Health Issues.
Ndidiamaka is the Principal Investigator of two multi-year studies on maternal mortality and morbidity, an R01 funded by National Institutes of Health and an interdisciplinary grant on health equity funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha was an honoree of the 2020 Top 40 under 40 Minority Leaders in Healthcare, as presented by the National Minority Quality Forum. She is a member of the MA-COVID-19 Maternal Equity Coalition, as a board member for the Neighborhood Birth Center in Boston, and the National Women’s Health Network in Washington, D.C.. In 2019, Dr. Amutah Onukagha was honored with the American Public Health Association’s Maternal and Child Health Section’s Young Professional of the Year Award. She currently serves as co-chair of the section’s Perinatal and Women’s Health Committee.
Dr. Amutah-Onukagha received her Master of Public Health from The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services before completing her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Meadows is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist actively investigating strategies to prevent preterm birth and maternal morbidity and to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health and birth outcomes. Dr. Meadows currently leads the state perinatal quality improvement collaborative of Massachusetts and leads public health initiatives to implement programs in the clinical and community setting to improve birth outcomes.
Christina Gebel, MPH, LCCE, birth doula, is a maternal and child health consultant and researcher based in Durham, North Carolina where she lives with her husband and their cat. Christina is a co-founder of Accompany Doula Care and has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and one book chapter. Christina’s areas of expertise are the integration of doula care into healthcare and payer systems, doula care access legislation, and the intersection of faith, spirituality, and pregnancy.
Heather A. Olden, originally from Durham, N.C., is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in molecular biology from Hampton University, in Hampton, Va., and a Master of Public Health in international health epidemiology from the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. In her former role as an epidemiologist in Detroit, Heather specialized in patient and community engagement, strategic planning, program development and management, and qualitative data collection and analysis. She has presented at multiple national academic and patient advocacy conferences and consults with health systems across the country on how to effectively entrench patient engagement into complex organizational health systems. Her research interests are centered largely on the impact of social justice on maternal health, as well as on using patient engagement methodology to authentically translate research into clinical practice and policy. Heather works with the Justice-Involved Women Collaborative, a network of academic institutions working on research, policy, training issues, and topics at the intersection of incarceration and maternal child health and is a member of the Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (M.O.T.H.E.R.) Lab, where she leads the lab’s strategic planning and participates on the Community Engagement, Advocacy, and Policy committee. She is also a Research Assistant on an NIH funded R01 grant assessing the effectiveness of implementing maternal safety bundles and prenatal, birth, and postpartum support from community doulas to improve the level of maternal care for mothers of color and decrease disparities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Following completion of her doctoral degree, Heather plans to create a pipeline from maternal health research to clinical practice to policy development that is grounded in the voices of those with lived experiences.
Zulimah Sawab is a 2022 graduate of Amherst College with a BA in Black Studies. Prior to graduating she wrote a thesis about Black women’s self-advocacy and resistance efforts in pre-natal and post-partum healthcare being a reaction to the increased public awareness of obstetric racism. She has always had an interest in understanding the impacts of systemic racism on Black women’s health and reproductive rights. Currently, she is preparing for the 2023-2024 cycle of medical school applications and hopes of becoming an MD with an MPH/PhD in Public Health.
Mercy Oladipo is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Molecular Biology with a concentration in Spanish. Prior to her undergraduate years, she worked in her hometown, Chicago, IL on various research projects centered on the intersection of health and technology. Currently, she furthers this passion as the co-founder of an innovative digital health startup, Birth By Us, which seeks to empower expectant parents to shape their own birthing experience while giving providers the insights and data to best support their birth. In addition, she has worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the MIT Clinical Decision Group where she is working on identifying health disparities in the ICU affecting vulnerable populations such as racial minorities and incarcerated individuals. In the future, Mercy is excited to pursue an MD alongside an MPH/PhD in Public Health in order to continue the critical work at the intersection of these disciplines.
Grace Shin is a third-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine. She graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Medical Sciences and a minor in Psychology in 2020. Grace is interested in pursuing a career in obstetrics and is passionate about working with diverse patient populations. As she completed her clinical rotations both at Boston Medical Center and various hospitals in Massachusetts, she has witnessed firsthand how social disparities affect medical care and outcomes within certain communities. She believes that patient care shouldn’t be compromised due to the medical community’s lack of research or knowledge about these certain populations. A subject that exemplifies this includes maternal mortality rates within brown and black communities. By working in the MOTHER Lab, Grace hopes to fill these gaps within healthcare and further pursue her interests within this field. In doing so, she will gain the knowledge and resources to help shed light on the public health crisis of rising maternal mortality rates.
Raquel M Hyacinthe is a first-year medical student at Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed a Bachelor’s of Arts in Health Sciences at Rice University in 2021 where she was first exposed to maternal mortality through her studies. She further nurtured her interest and passion in Black maternal health outcomes through an Alternate Spring Break during her junior year of college. Through this opportunity,Raquelhopes to learn more about how healthcare shortcomings impact Black maternal health outcomes and what she could do as a future physician to circumvent them.
Jenniffer Koita is a senior at Barnard College studying Neuroscience and Behavior, particularly how maternal stress and environmental factors affect neurodevelopment. She has always had an interest in investigating the various ways racism negatively impacts the lives and health of Black people. Last summer, she had the opportunity to research the history of Black (granny) midwives in the US and the legacy of their systemic exclusion from maternal healthcare. She has recently been trained as a birth doula and is excited to be entering the birth-work space. Upon graduating, Jenniffer plans to apply to nursing school for midwifery. Her goals for the future include both birth-work and neuroscience research.