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

Michaela-Joyce Moshe is a 2024 Howard University graduate with a degree in Bioethics and minors in chemistry and political science. She is passionate about interdisciplinary medical research efforts, especially in terms of ethics, policy, and integrative medicine. She was able to explore these interests further during her time as a 2024 UC SMART Scholar. During her gap years, she is focused on working in community and mental health spaces while continuing to hone her qualitative research skills. Supporting the Collaboratory for Black Feminist Health and Healing, Michaela aims to continue to expand her healthcare knowledge and contribute to improving the healthcare experience of Black women. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, playing Sudoku, and baking. In the summertime, you can catch her paddleboarding the hot summer days away. 

COMMUNITY BUILDING COORDINATOR

Heather Amoako is a May 2024 graduate from Howard University with a B.S in Health Sciences and a minor in chemistry. Currently, setting her sights on becoming a Physician, her gap years have been filled with medical anthropology research (UC-SMART), clinical experiences, and time with her family. During her freshman year, she translated and transcribed interviews from her native language, TWI, into English as part of a Ghana Prep Study. The study examined the impact providers' perceptions of PrEP had on how they treated and educated their patients. Her participation in the research, sparked her passion for addressing maternal disparities and the systems they exist in. Heather has served her community in different healthcare roles, exploring the intersection of culture and political structures in the prevalence of health disparities. She hopes to utilize her experience in this lab to ensure Black women across the diaspora receive adequate medical care and liberation while navigating healthcare.

DaShané Fugate is a writer, yogi, and lifetime learner. She is passionate about mindful movement practices such as yoga, dancing, and hiking, understanding these rituals of self-collective care as a spiritual-political commitment towards the unfinished project of decolonization. DaShané is a third-year PhD student at the University of California, Irvine, interested in black feminist intergenerational and ancestral notions of health, healing, and "wellness". She is her Nana's child.

Ma’Sha Summerville is a senior at Howard University with plans to pursue her Ph.D. in Anthropology after obtaining her master’s degree. She was a 2025 participant in the UC-SMART Program at UC Davis, where she completed “Kitchen Remedies: Black Abortion Practices, Politics, and Holistic Care” under the mentorship of Dr. Adeola Oni-Orisan. The project examined how political and social forces have historically shaped abortion in Black communities and documented holistic abortion remedies and reproductive care practices within these communities.  Her broader research interests include underground economies and Black sovereignty, specifically how Black communities build and sustain systems of care outside of state institutions. She is particularly interested in Black street organizations as a form of marronage. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Radical Readers Children’s Literacy Program, a community-based literacy and political education initiative that increases access to radical Black literature & history lessons for Black youth. 

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.

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.