This Minority Health Month, we’re spotlighting the women turning lived experience into leadership.
Meet the voices behind We Are ILL, founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite @picturethisvic and Director of Communications Ashley Ratcliff Lundy, @ashleyadores who are using their journeys with MS to reshape how care is delivered and experienced.
Through advocacy, storytelling, and direct engagement with healthcare providers, they are helping advance more culturally competent care and ensuring Black women are seen, heard, and understood in clinical spaces.
This is what it looks like to move from experience to impact.
https://bwhi.org/2026/04/03/behind-the-diagnosis-seen-heard-and-still-fighting-the-black-patient-experience-with-ms/
Across the country, men are stepping up.� That’s what the Her Health Challenge is about.
We’re inviting men to lead publicly, to lend their voice, share why Black women’s health matters to them, and make a leadership commitment to this work.
This campaign is about love, responsibility, and action. Men �honoring the women who raised them and standing beside the women they love by investing in the organization that continues to show up for Black women with integrity and impact.
Our goal? A national wave of men across cities and communities is joining the Her Health Challenge and putting real support behind their words.
If Black women’s health has touched your life, this is your moment to show it.
Join us. Carry the legacy forward. �herhealth.bwhi.org/� (Link in our bio)
April is National Minority Health Month, a time to center equity, access, and justice in healthcare. Black women continue to face disparities in maternal health, chronic disease, and mental health outcomes. This month, we amplify solutions rooted in community, policy, and prevention. #MinorityHealthMonth #BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Thank you @EnergyCommerce for elevating health care affordability. Rising hospital costs are deepening disparities for Black women, while many hospitals benefit from billions in 340B savings without clear patient benefit.
Major win for WNBA players!
In their new collective bargaining agreement, teams must now obtain consent from pregnant players before trading them, a long-overdue protection that follows the controversy surrounding Dearica Hamby’s 2023 trade while pregnant.
The agreement also includes salary cap exceptions for injured or pregnant players, expanded family planning benefits, and a historic revenue-sharing model expected to generate more than $1 billion in player salaries and benefits over seven years.
More than 90% of players participated in the unanimous vote.
Pregnancy should never be a penalty. Whether on the court, in the office, or anywhere else. Women deserve protections that honor both their labor and their lives.
#BWHI #HealthEquity #WomensHealth #TheImperative
BWHI is still inviting vendors to partner with us in advancing health equity through our programs, events, and special initiatives. If you’re passionate about purpose-driven work and ready to contribute your expertise to a mission that centers Black women’s health, we’d love to hear from you.
🔗 Submit your vendor interest: bwhi.org/bid-information (Link in bio)
Join us in creating meaningful impact and supporting a future where Black women thrive.
#BWHI #VendorsWanted #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Cherise Doyley, a mother of three, was in labor when her autonomy was put on trial.
From a hospital bed in Florida, she was handed a tablet. On the screen: a judge, lawyers, doctors, hospital staff. While in active labor, she was pulled into a Zoom court hearing about her own body.
Cherise wanted a vaginal birth. The hospital pushed for a C-section.
As a professional doula with three prior C-sections including one complicated by hemorrhage, she understood the risks. She hoped to avoid another major surgery and the recovery that comes with it.
But during that hearing, she had no lawyer. No advocate. No one explaining what was happening.
After three hours of testimony, the judge ruled she could continue laboring unless an emergency arose.
Overnight, she was wheeled into surgery. Her baby was delivered by C-section.
This is not just a birth story. It is a story about bodily autonomy, informed consent, and what happens when systems override Black women’s voices, even in their most vulnerable moments.
Video and background credit: @propublica
As Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we honor @amberjmike.
When Amber went in for a myomectomy, she expected recovery, rest, and a return to normal life. Cancer was not on her mind. But just one month later, an unexpected symptom changed everything.
What followed:
12 rounds of chemotherapy.
3 rounds of radiation.
2 major surgeries.
And a powerful lesson in surrender, resilience, and trusting her body in ways she never imagined.
Amber’s story reminds us that cancer doesn’t always come with warning signs and that early attention to symptoms can save lives. It also reminds us that behind every diagnosis is a whole person navigating fear, faith, strength, and uncertainty.
Read Amber’s full story in our latest Behind the Diagnosis blog and join us in amplifying survivor voices.
Because awareness is not just about statistics. It’s about stories. #BehindTheDiagnosis #BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Black women’s health work has always been about protecting our whole community. That includes transgender women.
We cannot talk about health equity and quietly carve people out.
Trans Black women deserve providers who listen without judgment, care that is free from discrimination, mental health support that honors both their trauma and resilience, access to HIV prevention and treatment, and policies that protect their lives rather than put them at risk.
Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, we affirm that dignity, access, and protection belong to everyone.
#BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Today we celebrate National Doctors’ Day, and we honor the physicians who show up for our communities every single day.
For Black women in particular, compassionate and culturally responsive care can be life-saving. Representation matters. Respect matters. Research matters. And the partnership between patient and provider matters.
To every doctor committed to advancing health justice and improving care for Black women and families, thank you for your dedication, your advocacy, and your service.
And to our community: build relationships with providers who honor your voice. You deserve care that feels safe, informed, and empowering.
#NationalDoctorsDay #BWHI #HealthEquity #BlackWomensHealth
Community is healthcare.
Not just prescriptions.
Not just appointments.
But the text that says, “Did you eat?”
The call that says, “Go to the doctor.”
The friend who forwards the resource.
The sister who tells you to log off.
Black women have always cared for each other, sometimes before the system ever did.
Tag someone who:
💜 Sent you a reminder
💜 Checked on you
💜 Shared a resource
💜 Helped you rest
Let’s normalize giving flowers to the people who protect our health in quiet ways.
#Village #BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Your nervous system wasn’t designed for nonstop stress.
For always being “on.”
For carrying everything, all the time.
Especially for Black women, whose stress is often layered in caregiving, work, discrimination, and financial strain. Survival mode can feel normal.
But normal doesn’t mean healthy.
#BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
TODAY!!! Join BWHI, @theSJcenter, and @blackbooksexed for a 2-part webinar featuring an in-depth, vulnerable discussion about the trauma-informed care needed to support metropolitan and Southern communities that urgently need reproductive health advocacy.
Reproductive health is not just clinical, it is deeply connected to lived experience, systemic barriers, cultural context, and historical harm. Trauma-informed care acknowledges that reality and centers dignity, safety, and trust.
📅 Saturday, March 28
🕒 3:00 PM CT / 4:00 PM ET
If you care about equitable reproductive healthcare, community-centered advocacy, and advancing systems that truly serve Black women and families, this conversation is for you.
Join us. The work requires all of us. 🖤
RSVP now, link in our bio
That Friday feelin!
This is what it looks like to choose joy on purpose.
To laugh loud.
To dance without apology.
To release the week from your shoulders.
If this isn’t your reminder to turn the music up tonight, consider it delivered.
📷 @goodiee
#BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
For too long, Black women have been told to shrink, restrict, and discipline our bodies into health.
But real prevention doesn’t start with shame.
It starts with nourishment.
Balanced meals help:
Stabilize blood sugar
Reduce insulin spikes
Support metabolism
Protect heart health
Lower diabetes risk
Skipping meals. Crash dieting. “Earning” food.
Those cycles stress the body, and stress impacts blood sugar too.
Prevention isn’t punishment. It’s protection.
That’s why our CYL2 program centers realistic nutrition, movement, and education that actually respects your life and your culture. No extremes. No guilt. Just sustainable tools that support long-term health.
Your body deserves fuel that protects your future.
Tap in with CYL2 and learn how to nourish your body in ways that reduce diabetes risk and build lasting wellness.
👉🏾 bwhi.org/cyl2 (link in our bio)
And Always consult your healthcare provider for medical advice tailored to your individual needs.
#CYL2 #NationalNutritionMonth #BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
Equal Pay Day marks how far into the new year women must work to earn what men made in the previous year.
For Black women, the gap is even wider. On average, Black women are paid significantly less than white and non-Hispanic men, not because of a lack of education, skill, or ambition, but because of systemic inequities that show up in hiring, promotion, compensation, and workplace culture.
And pay gaps aren’t just economic issues. They are health issues.
Lower wages mean:
Less access to quality healthcare
Greater financial stress
Fewer opportunities to build generational wealth
Harder choices between essentials
Closing the wage gap isn’t a favor. It’s fairness.
#BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
We are deeply grateful to John Gordon @jmgjazz8 for his consistent support of the Black Women’s Health Imperative and for honoring Margo’s story in such a meaningful way.
John lost his beloved wife, Margo, in 2024 to a rare cancer. She was only 59. She was the heart of her family, a partner, a friend, and a force. And while he has since remarried, he carries her with him every single day.
Before she passed, they made a decision together: advancing health equity for Black women, one of the central issues of our time. Because no family should have to wonder whether the healthcare system truly showed up for the woman they love.
In Margo’s memory, John and his wife made a donation to BWHI and joined the #HerHealthChallenge for Women’s History Month, dedicating their support to ensuring no other family experiences this kind of loss without advocacy, research, and community behind them.
He reminds us: Top healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Black women deserve care, research, and resources that reflect their lived realities.
Thank you, John, for investing in Black women’s health, for sharing Margo’s legacy, and for continuing the fight in her honor.
If you feel moved, join him. Honor a Black woman in your life. Share her story. Support the work.
Donate at herhealth.bwhi.org
#HerHealthChallenge
#BWHI
#BlackWomensHealth
#WomensHistoryMonth
Access to HIV medication should never be a question mark.
This week, the Governor of Florida signed a bill restoring access to Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), giving low-income Floridians three more months of access to life-saving HIV medication.
Just weeks ago, more than 10,000 people living with HIV were at risk of losing their medications after state policy changes cut eligibility. The decision sparked national concern and advocacy, highlighting what’s at stake when public health programs are underfunded.
The newly signed bill allocates nearly $31 million to fund ADAP through June 30 and restores eligibility for individuals living at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.
This is relief. But it is temporary.
ADAP programs across the country are strained due to stagnant federal funding and rising healthcare costs. For communities already disproportionately impacted by HIV, including Black women. Interruptions in care are not just administrative issues. They are life-threatening.
#HIVAwareness #HealthEquity #PublicHealth #BWHI
Join us for a national convening of thought leaders committed to realigning investments and partnerships to confront the persistent underfunding of Black women’s health.
Black women continue to face disproportionate health inequities driven by systemic racism, chronic underinvestment, and policy gaps. The urgency is clear, and the scale of funding has not matched the scale of need.
This convening is about changing that.
Our goal is clear:
Increased awareness.
Stronger alignment.
Expanded cross-sector partnerships.
A shared call to action rooted in accountability and sustained impact.
The disparities are rising. The investments must rise with them.
Register now: risingdisparities.BWHI.org (Link in our bio)
#BWHI #BlackWomensHealth #TheImperative
If sleep feels inconsistent…
If stress feels heavier…
If your body is changing in ways you didn’t expect…
You are not doing anything wrong.
Midlife requires different strategies. Different support. Different conversations.
BWHI’s Lifestyle Management Support Program was created specifically for women who are:
• Diagnosed as pre-diabetic
• Navigating perimenopause or menopause
• Using a GLP-1 and ready to build sustainable habits
You’ll be paired with a trained Lifestyle Coach at no cost and join a community of women who truly understand this chapter.
We’ve supported thousands of women and we’re welcoming more.
Don’t wait for “the right time.”
Start now.
Visit bwhi.org/cyl2 to learn more and take the first step.