Black Women’s Leadership Development for Health Equity Acceleration in Wisconsin
Abstract: Black women’s health in Wisconsin is in a state of emergency. Wisconsin leads the nation in racialized health disparities despite Wisconsin’s high performance on national rankings for healthcare quality. African American residents are over-represented in all major categories of disease and illness – inequities that have persisted for many decades. The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, disrupts these persistent disparities by connecting and training Black women to lead change through the Well Black Woman® Institute (WBWI). The WBWI is a two-year, affinity-based health equity leadership program that positions Black women as drivers of system change and health equity in Wisconsin. This session will 1) cover the programmatic design of the institute, 2) describe the collaborative development of the evaluation approach, and 3) showcase key findings from two years of cohort evaluation.
Bios: Erin Bailey is the Director of Research and Evaluation of The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. Erin brings over 20 years of experience working with underserved communities, fostering programming and research in the fight against health disparities. She is a current PhD candidate at UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology in the Civil Society and Community Research program. For two decades she has worked for The Witness Project of Madison in several capacities, the most recent of which was Director of Programming. The Witness Project is an evidence-based breast and cervical cancer prevention and screening program for African American women. Erin previously served as the community-based researcher for the Cancer Health Disparities Program, a population science program at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.
Jasmia Hamilton serves as the Senior Program Manager of the Well Black Woman®️ Institute and Enterprise Grants Reporting at the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. A Chicago transplant to Madison, Jasmia has lived, learned, and worked in the community for a decade. For just shy of three years, Jasmia has partnered with internal teams and external collaborators to move the Well Black Woman® Institute (WBWI) from conception to implementation. The (WBWI) builds the knowledge, skills, and capacity of Black Women to become health equity advocates, leaders, and change agents. To date, the Well Black Woman® Institute has served more than 40 women from Dane, Milwaukee, and Rock counties.