Upcoming
Events
State Strategic Plan Launch Webinar Series
Each session will be held from 10 – 11:30 a.m. CT.
Live sessions will be recorded and shared with registrants. Recordings will be uploaded here following the live session. Please allow time for the recording to be processed and uploaded. Spanish language versions will also be made available on this platform.
Session 1:
February 6, 2026
The Current and Future Landscape of Doulas, CPMs, and Community Birth Options in Illinois.
Session Speakers:
Camille Williamson, DSW, LCSW
Karie E. Stewart, MPH, CNM, FACNM
Read Dr. Camille's Bio
Camille Williamson, DSW, LCSW
Dr. Camille Williamson is a seasoned social worker, researcher, and social justice activist with over 20 years of experience. Over the span of her career, she has built and sustained community-based programs for youth and young adults, stewarded emerging behavioral health practitioners to develop socially responsible practice, and provided trauma-informed therapy to women and children who have experienced domestic violence. Her most recent work centers on improving maternal-child health and evaluating the work experience of community-based birth workers.
Read Karie's Bio
Karie E. Stewart, MPH, CNM, FACNM
Karie Stewart serves as the principal investigator for ‘A Study on Expanding and Strengthening Community Birth Options in Illinois.’ She has recently been appointed as the Director of Family Health Services at CHOICES Carbondale Center for Reproductive Health and maintains part-time clinical practice as a Certified Nurse-Midwife at the University of Illinois Mile Square Health Center located in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. With nine years of experience as a midwife, she is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and currently holds the position of Vice-Chair on the Board of the National Black Midwives Alliance. Ms. Stewart earned her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Illinois Chicago, a Master’s degree in Public Health from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and is in the final year of her doctoral studies in Nursing at the University of Illinois Chicago.
As an experienced maternal health researcher, she is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on a $7 million funded PCORI grant titled “Melanated Group Midwifery Care,” and has successfully completed a $2 million funded HRSA grant titled “Community Maternal Health Care,” both focusing on the Black birthing community in Chicago. In 2019, she established Melanated Midwives, a nonprofit organization that offers financial support to BIPOC student midwives during their training, with the aim of diversifying the midwifery workforce.
Download presentation slides from our two speakers:
Download: Illinois Doula/CPM
Workforce Landscape – Presented by Dr. Camille Williamson, LCSW
While you’re there, we hope you’ll take a moment to fill out our involvement form to learn how you can support the birth justice movement in Illinois!
Session 2:
February 13, 2026
Barriers, Needs, and Opportunities for the Broader Birth Justice Workforce in Illinois.
Session Speakers:
Nora Kropp, CPM, MPH
Chastity Mays, M.S.Ed., CD(DONA)
Read Nora's Bio
Nora Kropp, CPM, MPH
Nora Kropp has over 30 years of experience as a perinatal health researcher and organizer. Nora trained as a midwife in Nepal and at Maternidad La Luz in El Paso, Texas. She has worked in a rural homebirth practice in North Carolina, in family planning and abortion services at Planned Parenthood in Chicago, and is currently a birth assistant at PCC Wellness Birth Center in Berwyn, Illinois. Nora has worked with perinatal health research teams in the US, Mexico, Asia, and South America. She lived in India for ten years, where she co-founded the Bangalore Birth Network and helped incubate a freestanding birth center. Nora currently does development, research, and advocacy work with the Black Midwifery Collective in Chicago.
Read Chastity's Bio
Chastity Mays, M.S.Ed., CD(DONA)
Chastity Mays is co-administrator for The Little Resource Center Carbondale and has held formal doula certification for 6 years. She has worked in family service and peer-support spaces for over 15 years and has served clients in Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel area, and Paducah, Kentucky. She stands with and advocates for families who are underrepresented and, in many cases, simply not heard at all.
Chastity serves on the Carbondale Public Library Board, the Birth Equity Committee for the Southern Illinois Healthcare Labor and Delivery Unit at Carbondale Memorial Hospital, and the Promoting Vaginal Birth Committee with Southern Illinois Healthcare. She is routinely involved in state and regional political efforts around Black Maternal Health and frequently presents her expertise and experience in public forums, conferences, and legislative testimony.
Download presentation slides from our two speakers:
While you’re there, we hope you’ll take a moment to fill out our involvement form to learn how you can support the birth justice movement in Illinois!
Session 3:
February 20, 2026
Racism, Discrimination, and Their Impact on Black Birthing People.
Session Speakers:
Nicollette V. Moore, MPH
Star August Ali, CPM, LM, ASM, CD
Read Nicollete's Bio
Nicollette V. Moore, MPH
Nicollette Moore has a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in maternal and child health and program evaluation. She has eight years of experience leading and supporting projects advancing maternal and reproductive health equity. Nicollette currently works at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, overseeing the daily operations of community-centered maternal health equity projects at the Social Environment and Health Lab.
Read Star's Bio
Star August Ali, CPM, LM, ASM, CD
Star August Ali—known affectionately as Sister Star—is a Black midwife, mother of four, and nationally recognized leader in birth justice with deep roots in ancestral Black midwifery traditions. A descendant of a Grand Midwife who practiced in the 1940s, Star brings generations of wisdom into modern midwifery practice. She is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and Licensed Midwife (LM) in Illinois and is currently one of only four Black CPMs licensed in the state. Prior to licensure, she practiced for three years under Illinois’ former restrictive laws—at great personal risk—so Black families could access safe, out-of-hospital care aligned with their values and lived experiences.
Star is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Midwifery Collective, a Black-led nonprofit based on Chicago’s South Side dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes and rebuilding the Black midwifery workforce, and Chair of the inaugural Illinois Midwifery Board.
Download presentation slides from our two speakers:
While you’re there, we hope you’ll take a moment to fill out our involvement form to learn how you can support the birth justice movement in Illinois!
Session 4:
February 27, 2026
Introducing the Illinois Community-Based Birth Justice Strategic Plan.
Session Panelists:
Mekazin Alexander (Moderator)
Chastity Mays, M.S.Ed., CD(DONA)
Camille Williamson, DSW, LCSW
Star August Ali, CPM, LM, ASM, CD
Karie E. Stewart, MPH, CNM, FACNM
Kiarri Kershaw, PhD, MPH
Session Presenters:
Nora Kropp, CPM, MPH
Anna Yankelev, MPH, MBA
Read Mekazin's Bio
Mekazin Alexander (Moderator)
Mekazin Alexander has been dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for Chicago residents by providing equitable services, particularly in housing, health care, economic stability, and inclusion, for over two decades. Her career has included leadership roles as a director, manager, and supervisor, working with individuals of all ages from conception through adulthood.
A recognized visionary, Mekazin has developed and implemented programs to bridge the digital divide, provide job training, facilitate personal development, and support individuals with developmental disabilities. As the co-founder and Executive Director of BA NIA Inc., she brings extensive experience as one of Chicago’s first traditional spiritual midwives. Her expertise includes being a perinatal educator, doula, and motivational speaker, and she holds certifications in infant massage, childbirth education, full-spectrum doula, prenatal and postpartum yoga, breastfeeding, and nutritional counseling.
Read Chastity's Bio
Chastity Mays, M.S.Ed., CD(DONA)
Chastity Mays is co-administrator for The Little Resource Center Carbondale and has held formal doula certification for 6 years. She has worked in family service and peer-support spaces for over 15 years and has served clients in Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel area, and Paducah, Kentucky. She stands with and advocates for families who are underrepresented and, in many cases, simply not heard at all.
Chastity serves on the Carbondale Public Library Board, the Birth Equity Committee for the Southern Illinois Healthcare Labor and Delivery Unit at Carbondale Memorial Hospital, and the Promoting Vaginal Birth Committee with Southern Illinois Healthcare. She is routinely involved in state and regional political efforts around Black Maternal Health and frequently presents her expertise and experience in public forums, conferences, and legislative testimony.
Read Dr. Camille's Bio
Camille Williamson, DSW, LCSW
Dr. Camille Williamson is a seasoned social worker, researcher, and social justice activist with over 20 years of experience. Over the span of her career, she has built and sustained community-based programs for youth and young adults, stewarded emerging behavioral health practitioners to develop socially responsible practice, and provided trauma-informed therapy to women and children who have experienced domestic violence. Her most recent work centers on improving maternal-child health and evaluating the work experience of community-based birth workers.
Read Star's Bio
Star August Ali, CPM, LM, ASM, CD
Star August Ali—known affectionately as Sister Star—is a Black midwife, mother of four, and nationally recognized leader in birth justice with deep roots in ancestral Black midwifery traditions. A descendant of a Grand Midwife who practiced in the 1940s, Star brings generations of wisdom into modern midwifery practice. She is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and Licensed Midwife (LM) in Illinois and is currently one of only four Black CPMs licensed in the state. Prior to licensure, she practiced for three years under Illinois’ former restrictive laws—at great personal risk—so Black families could access safe, out-of-hospital care aligned with their values and lived experiences.
Star is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Midwifery Collective, a Black-led nonprofit based on Chicago’s South Side dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes and rebuilding the Black midwifery workforce, and Chair of the inaugural Illinois Midwifery Board.
Read Karie's Bio
Karie E. Stewart, MPH, CNM, FACNM
Karie Stewart serves as the principal investigator for ‘A Study on Expanding and Strengthening Community Birth Options in Illinois.’ She has recently been appointed as the Director of Family Health Services at CHOICES Carbondale Center for Reproductive Health and maintains part-time clinical practice as a Certified Nurse-Midwife at the University of Illinois Mile Square Health Center located in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. With nine years of experience as a midwife, she is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and currently holds the position of Vice-Chair on the Board of the National Black Midwives Alliance. Ms. Stewart earned her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Illinois Chicago, a Master’s degree in Public Health from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and is in the final year of her doctoral studies in Nursing at the University of Illinois Chicago.
As an experienced maternal health researcher, she is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on a $7 million funded PCORI grant titled “Melanated Group Midwifery Care,” and has successfully completed a $2 million funded HRSA grant titled “Community Maternal Health Care,” both focusing on the Black birthing community in Chicago. In 2019, she established Melanated Midwives, a nonprofit organization that offers financial support to BIPOC student midwives during their training, with the aim of diversifying the midwifery workforce.
Read Dr. Kiarri's Bio
Kiarri Kershaw, PhD, MPH
Dr. Kiarri Kershaw is a social epidemiologist who seeks to inform multilevel strategies to address persistent racial and ethnic health inequities across most health outcomes. Her research focuses on assessing the contributions of various aspects of the social environment on health, including social relationships, psychosocial stressors, and neighborhood conditions and resources. Dr. Kershaw serves as the principal investigator for the Dismantling Structural Racism to Promote EquitAble Maternal Health Outcomes) (DREAM) study, which seeks to better understand how structural racism influences perinatal health and to identify long-lasting solutions for reducing the negative effects of structural racism on birthing journeys.
Read Nora's Bio
Nora Kropp, CPM, MPH
Nora Kropp has over 30 years of experience as a perinatal health researcher and organizer. Nora trained as a midwife in Nepal and at Maternidad La Luz in El Paso, Texas. She has worked in a rural homebirth practice in North Carolina, in family planning and abortion services at Planned Parenthood in Chicago, and is currently a birth assistant at PCC Wellness Birth Center in Berwyn, Illinois. Nora has worked with perinatal health research teams in the US, Mexico, Asia, and South America. She lived in India for ten years, where she co-founded the Bangalore Birth Network and helped incubate a freestanding birth center. Nora currently does development, research, and advocacy work with the Black Midwifery Collective in Chicago.
Read Anna's Bio
Anna Yankelev, MPH, MBA
Anna joined Health and Medicine Policy Research Group in January 2023 and is responsible for overseeing efforts related to building a sustainable, equitable health workforce, especially for community health workers, doulas, and midwives. Her work sits at the intersection of community organizing, strategic planning, workforce development, and policy implementation. While earning her M.P.H. and M.B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Anna also served as a facilitator for Radical Public Health and helped create its flagship course, Epidemics of Injustice. Anna has also worked as a researcher for the UIC Center for Healthy Work and as a strategic planner for the Lake County Health Department.
Download presentation slides:
Download: Introducing the Illinois Community-Based Birth Justice Strategic Plan Presentation.
While you’re there, we hope you’ll take a moment to fill out our involvement form to learn how you can support the birth justice movement in Illinois!