Kimberly Seals Allers and Sheridan Blackwell
Kimberly Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist, five-time author, international speaker, strategist, and advocate for maternal and infant health. A former senior editor at ESSENCE and writer at FORTUNE magazine, Kimberly is a leading voice on the racial and socio-cultural complexities of birth, breastfeeding, and motherhood. She is the founder of IRTH a new “yelp-like” app for Black and Brown parents to address bias and racism in maternity and infant care. Kimberly also created BIRTHRIGHT, a podcast about joy and healing in Black birth that centers on positive Black birth stories as a tool in the fight for birth justice and reverses the narrative of negative statistics common in mainstream media coverage of Black maternal health. Learn more at KimberlySealsAllers.com Follow her @iamKSealsAllers on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram.
Sheridan Blackwell assumed the role of Head of Systems Change, Hospitals, and Partnerships in November 2022. Ms. Blackwell is a seasoned healthcare professional with 10 years of experience. Sheridan began her career as an administrative fellow and quickly rose to managerial positions holding various roles of increasing responsibility across program management, ambulatory operations and special IT projects. Most recently, she served as Administrative Director of Women’s Health at Jersey City Medical Center – RWJBarnabas Health. Sheridan oversaw a team of over 50 employees, responsible for administrative and financial management, strategic planning, population health and community engagement, and operations of inpatient and ambulatory Women’s Health Services.
Ms. Blackwell holds a master’s degree in Health Administration from Seton Hall University and a bachelor’s degree in Health Administration from St. John’s University. Ms. Blackwell is passionate about improving maternal health outcomes with a strong emphasis on population health and improving health equity, reducing bias in care, and patient education.