When Black Babies Thrive, All Babies Thrive

Problems. The ones most people don’t have the stomach for. The ones nobody talks about at cocktail parties. The ones that can’t be solved overnight. We go looking for them.

These are the words in United Way’s new credo for 2017, and they perfectly describe the issue of Infant Mortality. Milwaukee has one of the highest rates in the country, with Black babies dying at nearly three times the rate of White babies.

In 2014, United Way became the backbone agency for the Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families Collaborative (LIHF), a community-wide effort working to eliminate racial disparities in birth outcomes and ensure more babies reach their first birthdays.

With a career and life dedicated to serving the community, Wanda Montgomery became the co-chair for the Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families in March of 2016, alongside Mayor Tom Barrett. Wanda was recently awarded the Gwen T. Jackson Community Service Award at United Way’s Annual Meeting. We talk today about her path leading to this important role in fighting infant mortality, and the successes and challenges she has faced in this work.