CO-FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Adeola Oni-Orisan is a medical anthropologist and family physician whose research engages critical race theory, Black feminist studies, and science and technology studies to examines how ideas about Blackness, gender, and health are reinforced, deployed and resisted in struggles for health and well-being. She has conducted research on issues related to reproductive health in Nigeria, Zambia, and the United States. Her book project, "To Be Delivered: Pregnant and Born Again in Nigeria" is an ethnographic and historical exploration of the lived experiences of pregnant Nigerians as they navigate intersecting yet competing systems of care proposed by state, church, and international development organizations in search of successful deliveries. 

CO-FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Ugo F. Edu is a medical anthropologist working at the intersection of medical anthropology, public health, black feminism, and science, technology, and society studies (STS). Using interdisciplinary approaches, her scholarship focuses on reproductive and sexual health, gender, race, aesthetics, body knowledge, and body modifications. Her book project: The "Family Planned": Racial Aesthetics, Sterilization, and Reproductive Fugitivity in Brazil, traces the influence of an economy of race, aesthetics, and sexuality on reproductive and sterilization practices of women in Brazil. She is working on a play, Securing Ties, which draws heavily on her book project as a means for critical public engagement and an incorporation of the arts in her scholarship. She is an Assistant Professor in the African American Studies Department at UCLA and leads the Black ASH Lab.

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Teleola Onipede is a recent graduate from Tufts University, and majored in Biopsychology. She is passionate about improving holistic medical care for underrepresented populations, especially Black people. She wants to pursue an MD in order to provide medical care that is highly accessible to communities of color and engage in research. She is very excited to deepen her knowledge of medical anthropology that is exclusively centered around the wellness of diverse populations, namely, Black women; through working with The Collaboratory for Black Feminist Health and Healing. Teleola is thrilled to gain exposure during her gap years, through working with passionate health-professionals that center their research around gender, health, and race.

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Brianna is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UC Riverside, and a plant ally bodyworker of Trinidadian descent from, but not of, Southern California. Her dissertation, Mothering Against Genocide: Antiblackness, Reproductive Freedom, and Black Invention, examines antiblackness, healthcare, motherhood, and mothering in Kenya.