Dr. Linda Animashaun's story is one of faith, courage, and rediscovery. From growing up in a Ghanaian household shaped by discipline and service, to choosing public health over medicine, to leaving behind job security to build a consulting business aligned with her purpose—her journey reminds us that courage often begins with permission to want. In this episode, we talk about integrity in evaluation work, the power of saying both no and yes with intention, and the radical act of dreaming—especially when the world tells you not to.

Meet Dr. Linda Animashaun

Dr. Linda Animashaun is the founder and principal of Amammere Consulting, LLC, an equity-focused evaluation firm that advances public health through community-rooted insights and action. She has over 15 years of experience in health equity research and evaluation, working with federal agencies, nonprofits, foundations, and community-based organizations.

Her work centers on the social determinants of health, with a focus on chronic disease prevention and control, nutrition, and community engagement in historically marginalized communities. Dr. Animashaun specializes in designing and implementing qualitative and mixed-methods evaluations that reveal the stories behind the data, empowering organizations to understand, strengthen, and sustain the impact of their work.

Known for her collaborative, culturally responsive, and community-centered approach, Dr. Animashaun has developed data collection instruments, led interviews and focus groups, and produced accessible case studies, training materials, and findings reports for both technical and public audiences. She also supports organizations through facilitation and strategic planning, helping to align their efforts with equity goals and community priorities.

Deeply committed to uplifting community voices, she views evaluation not just as a learning tool but as a vehicle for equity and lasting change.

Dr. Animashaun holds a BA in African American Studies from Columbia University, an MPH in Behavioral Sciences and Health Education from Emory University, and a DrPH in Community Health Behavior and Education from Georgia Southern University.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Courage as Integrity: Dr. Animashaun shares how, as an evaluator, she insists on reflecting the community's truth—resisting pressure to "massage" data for funders or optics.
• The Courage to Want: She talks about learning to dream beyond expectations, to "want" without guilt or limits, and how entrepreneurship helped her claim that freedom.
• Saying No, Saying Yes: She and Dr. McClamroch explore how both no and yes can be powerful when chosen with clarity and conviction.
• Faith and Hope in Uncertain Times: Even in a shifting political landscape, Dr. Animashaun holds onto hope that the work of public health—and health equity—transcends administrations.
• Redefining Success: From stability to self-determination, she shares what it means to build a business, a vision, and a life rooted in courage and authenticity.

"We can't stop doing the work just because the administration changes. Health equity is bigger than any presidency."— Dr. Linda Animashaun

Stay In Touch:

Dr. Linda Animashaun on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-a-animashaun-drph-mph-ches-0b5b5416/

Amammere Consulting - https://amammereconsulting.com/

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals. We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

CPH 30 - Purple, Perspective, and Public Health: A Conversation with Natasha Knight

Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health strategist whose "purple philosophy"—bold and creative, steady and calm—guides how she shows up for equity. In this episode, she talks about the courage it took to leave a dream role at the National Institutes of Health and step into corporate citizenship at Altria, where she leads strategy for underage prevention and cessation support. We get into owning your choices, "baking equity into the batter" instead of icing it on top, moving home to North Carolina, surviving a ground-up home build, and a new vision: trauma-informed, accessible interior design rooted in public health.

Meet Dr. Natasha Knight

Dr. Natasha Knight is a public health leader and proud purple enthusiast. For her, purple is more than a favorite color. It represents courage, creativity, and balance. It blends the calm of blue with the boldness of red, and that's how she has approached her 15+ year career: grounding herself in evidence and empathy while pushing boldly for equity and change.

Dr. Knight currently serves as Manager of Underage Prevention and Cessation Support at Altria Client Services, where she leads equity-informed strategies to prevent underage tobacco use and support people on their quit journeys. Trained as a behavioral scientist with a PhD, MPH, and MBA, her path has also included roles at the National Cancer Institute and UNC Greensboro, where she focused on health disparities, community engagement, and mentoring the next generation of public health leaders.

At her core, she is passionate about using data, strategy, and empathy to create solutions that make health more equitable and accessible. And in her spare time, she is a budding interior stylist, exploring how to bring well-being and equity into the spaces where people live and work. For Dr. Knight, courage in public health -- and in design -- means standing firm in spaces where equity isn't always the default, and helping communities not just survive, but thrive.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Owning the pivot: Why Dr. Knight left a coveted NIH role to pursue impact in corporate citizenship—and what it means to align work with values.
• Public health on the inside: Leading underage prevention and cessation support strategy at Altria; bringing evidence and ethics to a complex space.
• The purple philosophy: Creative + calm as a leadership stance; standing up when it matters, without posturing.
• Equity isn't icing: Her on-the-spot metaphor for building systems—equity has to be mixed into the recipe, not smeared on at the end.
• Home as health: The cross-country move, a long home build, learning to trust the process, and speaking up when something isn't right.
• Design for well-being: Dr, Knight's vision for trauma-informed, accessible interior design so everyday spaces help people feel safe, centered, and well.
• Collective courage: Black women shouldn't have to carry equity work alone; "strength in numbers" matters when we're united.

"There's no way that equity can truly be baked in that way, if you're putting it as the icing as opposed to mixing it in with the eggs and the sugar and the flour."— Dr. Natasha Knight

Stay In Touch:

Dr. Natasha Knight on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/naknightphd/

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals. We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

Eboni Washington has spent two decades serving children, youth, and families—first in public service and now as Director of Government and Community Relations for Action for Child Protection. In this episode, she shares what it meant to leave a secure 19-year career in county government to take a leap of faith into a new chapter—and how trusting herself, even when others doubted her decision, became an act of courage. We talk about claiming space in rooms where you might be the only one like you, seeing public health through the lens of child welfare and juvenile justice, and finding peace and purpose in the work of helping communities thrive.

Meet Eboni Washington, MPA

Eboni Washington, MPA is the Director of Government and Community Relations for Action for Child Protection, a non-profit organization that provides technical assistance to child welfare agencies around the country. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing legislative and regulatory changes, empowering leaders, managing government contracts, and partnering to shape Action's public policy strategies.

Eboni is an experienced Human Services leader with over two decades of non-profit and local government experience. During her 18+ year career at Clark County, she worked at the Departments of Juvenile Justice Services and Family Services in Las Vegas, Nevada; most recently as Deputy Director. During her time at Clark County, she served in various roles centered on community-based justice and child welfare programs. Most notably, Eboni oversaw expansion of Clark County's juvenile assessment center, implementation of an analytics solution and development of an agency-wide performance measurement initiative designed to improve the quality of child welfare services provided to children and families in Southern Nevada.

Eboni is a passionate collaborator, advocate, and strategist driven to create and implement solutions designed to build thriving communities and advance outcomes for underserved populations. In doing so, she is committed to fostering collaboration and accessibility when engaging those responsible for serving children, youth and families.

Eboni Washington earned a bachelor's degree in health Ecology from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is also a member of the American Public Human Services Association Governing Board of Directors.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Leaping Toward Change: Leaving a 19-year public-sector career in Las Vegas to "bet on herself" and pursue new purpose in nonprofit leadership.
• Trusting Intuition Over Fear: Making a bold career move despite loved ones saying she was "crazy" to leave a secure, well-paid job.
• Claiming a Seat Without a Badge: How working in juvenile justice—without the authority or title others had—taught her to show up confident in her expertise and mission.
• Courage in Community: The power of mentorship, especially from women like Dannette Smith, in fueling courage and confidence.
• Redefining Public Health: Eboni reminds us that supporting children, youth, and families through systems like child welfare is public health.
• Vision for the Future: Thriving communities where children are healthy, supported, and free to be themselves—and where leaders sustain their own peace while doing the work.

"I made that decision, and it was courageous, I think, just to take the step in deciding to bet on myself." — Eboni Washington, MPA

Stay In Touch:

Eboni Washington on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eboni-j-washington/

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

Mully Chea, MSHI, is a first-generation Cambodian-American, the first in her family to graduate college, and now a mom to a lively toddler. In this episode, she shares how encouragement from loved ones gave her the courage to move alone to a new city, how each brave step fueled the next, and how she's learning to balance motherhood with a demanding career. From teaching herself English with Sesame Street to championing education for immigrant communities, Mully shows us that courage often begins with believing in yourself—and grows into a force that shapes families and futures.

Meet Mully Chea, MSHI

Mully Chea, MSHI, is a first-generation Cambodian-American, born and raised in West Philadelphia. She is a proud Temple Alumni. Mully is passionate about education, child and maternal health, minority health, and nutrition. She is deeply rooted in the community and uses her background in Public Health and Information Technology to help others.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Leap of Faith: Mully shares how moving alone to a new city—leaving behind friends and family—pushed her to trust herself and discover new courage.
• Courage Feeds Courage: Reflects on how that first bold move built her confidence to keep taking brave steps in both career and life.
• Motherhood & Grace: Talks candidly about the challenges of balancing career ambitions with being a new mom, and the ongoing practice of giving herself grace.
• Power of Encouragement: Highlights how the support of a few trusted voices helped her push past fear—and how she now aims to be that voice for others.
• Education as Transformation: From teaching herself English with Sesame Street to becoming the first in her family to earn two degrees, she champions education as a powerful equalizer.
• Choosing Community with Intention: Shares the importance of surrounding herself with people who inspire and uplift her—and being that example for others, especially first-generation immigrants.

"I had to teach myself English with Sesame Street. Education became the foundation no one could ever take away." — Mully Chea, MSHI

Stay In Touch:

Mully Chea on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mullychea5/

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu has built her public-health leadership at the crossroads of evidence, lived experience, and a fierce commitment to community. Guided by the West African principle of Sankofa—"go back and bring it forward"—she left a 12-year career in the classroom to pour knowledge and care back into the communities that raised her. In this episode, she shares what it means to "do it scared": to advocate for students finding their voices, to navigate a high-risk pregnancy as a Black maternal-health expert, and to insist that stories are as essential to health as data. Together we explore how courage can be inherited and renewed—through storytelling, through village-building, and through showing up fully in the fight for equity.

Meet Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu

Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu, known widely as Dr. K., is a public health strategist, educator, and founder of Dr. K.'s Health Minute, a platform committed to dismantling the systems that silence, marginalize, or erase Black communities. With a dynamic background that spans sociology, health studies, education leadership, and community organizing, Dr. K. merges evidence-based practice with lived experience to build equity-centered systems and stories that heal.

Over the last decade, she has empowered students, families, and professionals through culturally grounded wellness strategies, academic writing coaching, grief support, and reproductive justice work. Whether she's facilitating a workshop on maternal mental health, decoding health policy on Instagram, or mentoring future researchers, Dr. K. leads with radical empathy and unapologetic purpose.

Her mission? To make complex ideas accessible, advocate for those unheard, and expand what it means to live well, mind, body, and soul.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Matrescence & Motherhood: Dr. K opens up about the shock of early postpartum anxiety — including her day-eight realization that she was fully responsible for "this potato with poor neck control."
• From Classroom to Courage: Guided by the principle of Sankofa, she reflects on 12 years as an educator, helping students find their voices, even supporting a student-led walk-out. Leaving teaching was a leap of courage to live her own advice.
• Pregnancy as Lived Public Health: Despite being an expert in Black maternal health, she discovered how little she actually knew about pregnancy until living through high-risk complications and an emergency C-section herself.
• Storytelling as Public-Health Practice: She argues that we've lost crucial intergenerational knowledge because we don't pass down full stories about pregnancy, birth, and health experiences.
• Showing Up Fully: As a Black African-American woman with Liberian-Ghanaian roots, she insists that lived experience is a strength — not a liability — in public-health work.
• Power of Community: Calls for a return to wrap-around, community-centered care and shared responsibility, rather than the "me-over-we" individualism undermining public health.
• A Vision for the Future: Envisions healthier communities built on storytelling, intimacy, and strong villages of support — the kind of care she intentionally cultivates for her own daughter.

"We have to come back to the community narrative. We can't keep thinking, 'If you have, that means I can't have.'"— Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu

Stay In Touch:

Dr. K.'s Health Minute - https://www.drkshealthminuteextended.com/

Dr. K on LinkedIn - https://www.instagram.com/dr.ks.healthminute/

Dr. K on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dr.ks.healthminute/

Dr. K on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DrKsHealthMinute

Dr. K on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.ks.healthminute

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

In this heart-centered conversation, Venus R. Evans—a Mi'kmaq and Maliseet leader in southeastern Kentucky—shares how quiet courage has guided her journey, from standing firm in her Indigenous identity to leaving a long marriage and leading grassroots organizing. She reflects on her grandmother's influence, the matriarchal roots of Indigenous community health, and the intertwined legacies of trauma, healing, and courage, while highlighting the Auntie Network, which unites and uplifts Indigenous women across Kentucky. This inspiring exchange reminds us that public health is as much about community, culture, and visibility as it is about clinics and data, and that courage often shows up as a steady, quiet presence at the table.

Meet Venus R. Evans

Venus R. Evans is a proud Tribal Citizen of the Mi'kmaq Nation, with ancestral roots in Presque Isle, Maine and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. Born and raised in London/Laurel County and currently residing in Corbin, Kentucky, she is a dedicated Indigenous advocate working to uplift Native voices and address systemic challenges facing Native communities in the Commonwealth.

She serves as Commissioner At Large for the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission and is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, where she formerly represented the Cumberland Chapter on the Steering Committee. Venus is also a former secretary of the Governors Interstate Indian Council and is the founder of The Auntie Network, a grassroots initiative focused on community care and cultural preservation.

A frequent speaker on Native American issues, Venus has participated in numerous panels across Kentucky and the U.S., championing Indigenous rights, cultural education, and representation.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Quiet Courage in Action — Venus reflects on the power of steady, quiet courage: showing up when no one is watching, holding her ground as a Mi'kmaq and Maliseet woman in spaces where her identity was often dismissed, and continuing to serve her community despite resistance.
• Roots of Strength — She honors her grandmother, who lost her First Nations status when she married outside her band yet persevered to raise her family in Appalachia—passing on both survival and courage to future generations.
• Creating the Auntie Network — Seeing the isolation of Indigenous women across Kentucky, Venus organized a monthly Zoom gathering to connect, support, and amplify one another—embodying the Auntie values: Advocate, Unite, Nurture, Teach, Include, and Elevate.
• Claiming Her Voice — Venus shares the personal courage it took to leave a decades-long marriage, confront dismissive health-care experiences, and speak openly about intergenerational trauma—reminding listeners that vulnerability is a strength.
• Public Health Beyond Charts and Clinics — She envisions a public health approach that reflects the values, language, and stories of Indigenous communities—where land return, cultural revitalization, and community visibility are as essential as disease prevention.

"Courage isn't just what we carry—it's what we pass on." — Venus R. Evans

Stay In Touch:

Email Venus Evans - [email protected]

Venus Evans on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/venus.evans.3

Venus Evans on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/v.evans606/

Venus Evans on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@venusevans606

Venus Evans on X - https://x.com/Evans1Venus

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

In this deeply personal milestone episode, Dr. Kristi McClamroch pulls back the curtain on her journey as a podcast host, revealing how 24 conversations with courageous women have fundamentally changed her. What started as careful attention to names and pronouns took on new meaning after a transformative conversation with Dr. Nandi Marshall about the language we use—and don't use—to describe identity and community. From her initial use of the term "BIPOC" to her evolving understanding of how good intentions can still perpetuate "othering," Dr. McClamroch shares the uncomfortable but essential work of being corrected, adjusted, and taught. With vulnerability and wisdom earned through real relationship, she explores what it means to make genuine space versus performative space—and why the courage to be wrong might be the most important courage of all.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• The Power of Names — Dr. McClamroch reveals her ritual of asking every guest how to pronounce their name, and share their preferred pronouns and racial/ethnic identity. She recognizes that getting these basics right is fundamental to respect and authentic connection.
• Creating Authentic Space — She describes her approach of telling guests to "take up all the space" and refusing to rein them in during interviews, believing that real intimacy comes from seeing and welcoming someone's full self.
• The BIPOC Awakening — A conversation with Dr. Nandi Marshall completely shifted Dr. McClamroch's perspective on language and identity, revealing how well-intentioned terms can still center whiteness and create "othering."
• Courage to Be Corrected — Dr. McClamroch shares the uncomfortable but essential realization that despite being careful about individual identity in interviews, she was still lumping communities together in her marketing materials.
• Evolution in Real Time — She demonstrates how she changed her podcast marketing from "BIPOC women" to simply "courageous women in public health," while still grappling with how to be transparent about her intentional centering of racialized voices.
• Learning as Leadership — The episode reveals how being willing to be wrong, taught, and changed by her guests has become central to her growth as both a host and a person.

"Making space for someone isn't just about giving them a platform. It's about how you invite them in, how you see them, and how willing you are to be changed by them." — Dr. Kristi McClamroch

Stay In Touch:

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

In this luminous and energizing conversation, Dr. Joyce Senior shares her journey from Costa Rica to Oregon and from nutritionist to nonprofit co-founder, program manager, and consultant. She reflects on living her core values—love, service, well-being, and growth—while navigating what it means to be an Afro-Latina leader in U.S. public health. Whether she's hosting living room dance parties, translating health materials, or co-creating culturally centered spaces like My Hair, My Health, Dr. Senior embodies public health rooted in joy, justice, and intentional legacy.

Meet Dr. Joyce Senior

Dr. Joyce Senior is an Afro Latina, born and raised in Costa Rica. She is an energetic professional known for managing public health nutrition and health equity programs. As a program manager at Oregon State University, she has led the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program since 2017 and was a member of the SNAP-Ed state leadership team since 2021.

She is the founder of Dr. J Senior Consulting LLC, providing English and Spanish translation and cultural competency consulting to various sectors including higher education and nonprofits. In 2021, she co-founded My Hair My Health PDX, a health and wellness nonprofit supporting Black women and their families in Oregon.

Dr. Senior earned her Ph.D. in Food Technology from Clemson University in 2015 and a PMP® certification from the Project Management Institute in 2022. She aims to leave a positive legacy, guided by her core values of love, service, wellbeing and growth.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Living Her Core Values — Dr. Senior names love, service, well-being, and growth as her foundational values—and she actively centers them in both her professional and personal life.
• Courage to Begin Again — She shares the courageous journey of leaving Costa Rica to pursue graduate school in the U.S. and carving out a life rooted in service and purpose.
• Creating Her Own Table — Dr. Senior describes co-founding My Hair, My Health, a wellness initiative for Black women that blends beauty, culture, and community healing.
• Reclaiming Her Power — From founding her own consulting business to challenging Eurocentric beauty standards, Dr. Senior shows how Afro-Latina women are reshaping public health.
• Vision for the Future — She calls for interdisciplinary, community-driven public health and urges listeners to invest in education, challenge false divisions, and build lasting legacy.

"As an Afro-Latina, I am constantly redefining beauty—not by European standards, but by the fullness of who I am." — Dr. Joyce Senior

Stay In Touch:

Dr. Joyce Senior on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoyce-senior/

www.drjseniorconsulting.com

www.myhairmyhealthpdx.org

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

In this heartwarming and powerful episode, Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES, reflects on the lessons she inherited from her grandmother's kitchen and how they continue to shape her purpose in public health. From folding butter into biscuit dough to centering culture and community in maternal health work, Kimberly shares how legacy is both recipe and roadmap. With deep faith, fierce love, and a calling to uplift Black women and birthing people, she invites us to consider what we carry forward—and what we're called to transform.

Meet Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES

Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES, is a dedicated public health leader with a Master of Public Health in Urban Public Health from Rutgers and a Bachelor of Science in Community Health Education from Montclair State University. As Deputy Director at a local municipal health department, she leads community-focused outreach and education efforts across diverse populations including older adults, migrants, and at-risk residents.

A first-generation college graduate, Kimberly brings a personal and professional commitment to health equity, with particular passion for sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and maternal and child health. She also teaches at Montclair State University, serves as Associate Director of Health Communications at Yale's Substance and Sexual Health Lab, and sits on the board of the NJ Society for Public Health Education.

Her work encompasses strategic planning, community outreach, public health programming, and culturally responsive engagement—always rooted in a mission to reduce disparities and elevate underserved communities.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Courage to Pivot — Kimberly shares how not getting into medical school led her to discover public health, a field where she could merge her love of science, service, and people in more meaningful and lasting ways.
• Owning Her Voice — As a first-generation Haitian American, Kimberly describes how finding and using her voice—especially in academic and professional settings—has been an act of courage and healing.
• Birthwork as Advocacy — Her experience as a doula and bereavement care provider reflects her deep commitment to showing up for people at their most vulnerable moments, particularly Black women and immigrant families.
• Legacy Through Food — Kimberly views baking and cooking—especially her legendary peach cobbler—as acts of cultural connection, generational love, and joyful resistance.
• Leadership on Her Terms — She rejects the myth that leadership must follow one path. Instead, she embodies courageous leadership by choosing authenticity, honoring her lived experience, and creating space for others.
• Vision for the Future — Kimberly calls for a public health field that centers equity, sustainability, and belonging—and for institutions to invest in long-term community relationships, not just short-term outcomes.

"I want to be in spaces where I can show up fully as myself—Haitian, woman, loud laugh, peach cobbler and all. That's how I know I belong." — Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES

Stay In Touch:

Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-pierre/

Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/publichealthkim/

Kimberly Pierre, MPH, CHES on X - https://x.com/PublichealthKim

Wealth in Public Health – Empowering Communities Through Health Education and Strategic - https://wiph.org/

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6

**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**

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At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage among public health professionals.

We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!

Zainab Shipchandler, MPH, MCHES, CLC is not afraid of uncertainty—in fact, she embraces it. In this episode, we talk about her bold pivot from lactation equity work to the world of artificial intelligence, and how her public health training informs both. Zainab shares what it means to lead from values like curiosity, compassion, and humility—and to navigate systems that weren't built for her with intention and care. From fighting for birthing people's rights to questioning dominant knowledge structures, Zainab models what it means to bring audacity, not certainty, into courageous public health leadership.

Meet Zainab Shipchandler, MPH, MCHES, CLC

Zainab Shipchandler, MPH, MCHES, CLC, is a health educator, public health consultant, and maternal and child health advocate. She is passionate about equipping people with the knowledge and skills to navigate health information and services in the age of AI.

As Director and Health Education Consultant at ZRF Group, she brings her background as a Master Certified Health Education Specialist to a multidisciplinary team of experts in AI and medicine. She collaborates with clients nationwide to build professional and community capacity in AI + health literacy through workshops, speaking, and curriculum development.

Zainab is especially dedicated to supporting families during the perinatal period. She recently became a Certified Lactation Counselor to guide parents through their infant feeding journeys. Her lived experience as a patient, mother of young children, and trusted resource in her community informs and inspires her work.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• From Community to Code — Zainab shares her transition from grassroots work in maternal health to exploring the potential of AI—not as a departure, but as a way to deepen her commitment to equity and care.
• Courage to Stay Curious — She describes how giving herself permission to "not know" opened the door to interdisciplinary innovation and allowed her to reimagine public health beyond traditional boundaries.
• Centering Maternal Wisdom — Grounding her work in the lived experiences of birthing people, she advocates for maternal voices to shape the design and use of technology in health care systems.
• Disrupting False Binaries — Zainab challenges the separation of tech and compassion, insisting that data systems can and must be built with humanity, dignity, and justice at their core.
• Vision for the Future — She calls for bold experimentation, creative courage, and structural change in public health—centering those most affected as co-creators of solutions.

"There is such courage in not knowing. In saying: I don't have the answer, but I'm willing to ask, to listen, to learn." — Zainab Shipchandler, MPH, MCHES, CLC

Stay In Touch:

Zainab Shipchandler, MPH, MCHES on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/zainabship

ZRF Group on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/zrfgroupinc

ZRF Website - www.zrfgroup.com

ZRF Group on Instagram - www.instagram.com/zrfgroupinc

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

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