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Kristen Brooks is the founder and lead clinician of Building Beyond Therapy Inc. With almost a decade of experience as a social worker, Kristen has provided social work services in many capacities, including child welfare, inpatient psychiatric services and schools. Kristen received her MSW from the University of Maryland Baltimore and is clinically licensed in Maryland and Washington, D.C. 

 While Kristen has provided therapeutic services for many years to individuals and families, her true passion lies in helping young women and mothers realize their true importance and potential. Kristen holds a Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C) through Postpartum Support International (PSI) and has completed specialized trainings in Postpartum Mood Disorders with an emphasis on trauma and pregnancy and infant loss. She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. Kristen is a Board Certified Supervisor with the Board of Social Work Examiners and a Board Approved Supervisor with the Board of Counselors and Therapists in Maryland, is a member of Postpartum Support International and the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color. Kristen currently  resides in Prince George's County with her husband and children.

Kay Matthews founded the Shades of Blue Project in 2013, shortly after the stillborn death of her daughter Troya Simone. Kay shifted into full-time advocacy for Black birthing individuals after launching her Non-Profit organization BabyCakes and Brunch, from which the Shades of Blue Project was created. As she built the Shades of Blue Project, she understood that she was not alone in her experience and that the maternal morbidity rates of Black women were only worsening. Also true was that Black maternal mental health support systems were non-existent, poorly managed, or resulted in Black mothers having their children removed from their homes. This lack of Black maternal mental health care and continued ill-treatment of Black birthing individuals spurred Matthews to create the I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Method Training. She also created Black Maternal Mental Health Week (BMMHW)—a week-long event that focuses on the challenges that persist, viable solutions, community support, and compassion training. 

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Donna M. Neale, MD, is a fellowship trained OB/GYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist focusing on high-risk pregnancies, labor and delivery, and gestational diabetes.

Dr. Neale attended medical school at the Boston University School of Medicine, completed her residency at Georgetown University Hospital and performed a fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University. Dr. Neale is a member of the National Medical Association and a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Linda Jones is a Birth and Postpartum Doula and mother of two, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of four, who lives in Oakland, CA. She founded and owned Waddle and Swaddle Baby Boutique and Resource Center in Berkeley, CA and has been a part of the natural birth advocacy community in the Bay Area for over three decades. She is one of the co-founders of Black Women Birthing Justice and was one of the founders of a Doula collective (Roots of Labor Birth Collective) Linda is a Community Advisory Board member for UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative and is Executive Director and on the Executive Committee for Mothers for Mothers Postpartum Justice Project.

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Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson is both a licensed clinical psychologist and doula with specialty in multicultural psychology, trauma, suicide prevention and maternal mental health. Dr. Sayida earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with a Multi-cultural Clinical-Community Emphasis, from the California School of Professional Psychology, at Alliant International University. She completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and Religion at Spelman College. She has had a multi-faceted career as a psychologist having worked in community-based, in-home, psychiatric hospital, prison and private practice settings.       

Dr. Sayida’s study and work strongly emphasize multicultural awareness and in an effort to further this, she has traveled to Ghana, Mexico, Egypt and India, studying mental health approaches, indigenous culture and local spiritual traditions.

As a midwife with a background in Africana Studies and history, Dr. Lauren Arrington is interested in applying tactics that emerge from social justice movements to achieve equity in perinatal care. She is an assistant professor in the Doctorate of Nursing Practice Program at Georgetown University School of Nursing, a practicing midwife in Maryland, and previously served as a maternal health advisor for Jhpiego, where she provided technical support for global health projects in Southern, West, and East Africa. She is the co-editor of a maternal health equity toolkit for Maryland Hospitals that was developed through the Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program (MDMOM). Her work leading a hospital-based quality improvement initiative to reduce peripartum racial and ethnic disparities was recognized with an award from the Alliance on Innovation and Maternal Health.

As a maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialist, Dr. Lewis manages the entire range of medium- to high-risk pregnancies, including women who start their pregnancy with health issues such as high blood pressure or advanced maternal age as well as those who develop complications during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes or placenta previa.

Dr. Lewis has more than 20 years of experience practicing as a perinatologist and obstetric doctor and has a special interest in managing complex obstetric conditions. As medical director of University of Maryland Capital Regional Health's OB/GYN, MFM and Women's Health and Specialty programs, Dr. Lewis focuses on presenting his patients with comprehensive options for their delivery, no matter how complicated, and helping a high-risk mother maintain the gestation period as long as is safe for her and her baby. His job is to balance the risk to the mother's health from an extended gestation and the risk to the baby of a premature delivery.

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