good afternoon and thank you so much for joining us here at UCLA uh welcome to the Center for Reproductive Sciences health and education distinguished lecture series I'm Tracy Johnson I'm the dean of Life Sciences uh I'm a faculty member in the department of molecular cell and developmental biology and the division I'll say a little bit more about who we are and before I get into the exciting reason why we're all here uh the vision of Life Sciences really encompasses what I think are some of the
most important aspects of what happens on this campus we have the department of ecology and evolutionary biology microbiology Immunology molecular genetics molecular cell developmental biology psychology integrated biology and Physiology and the institute for society and genetics and so as you can see we carry we cover a vast array of research Enterprises on this campus we have a very simple philosophy the division of Life Sciences is committed to educating the next generation of scientific lea
ders and advancing scientific research in pursuit of changing of life-changing discoveries solving society's most pressing problems and improving the lives of the planet of everyone on the planet and the planet itself so it's a noble Mission we think we have the right people to achieve it and we're excited to tell you about some of the things we're doing to approach that in the Center for Reproductive science health and education so what we do here at UCLA in the life science we do not do an iso
lation we believe that the best science and the best research happens in collaboration across disciplines and engaging many units as well as Los Angeles the entire Los Angeles ecosystem our partners across the city we think that that's where the most important work happens the UCLA Center for Reproductive science health and education is a beautiful example of this because the center is dedicated to Bringing together students scientists Educators Physicians and community members across a wide ran
ge of disciplines to support the research and education initiatives that are designed to improve human reproductive health promote healthy families and Advance the well-being of society so while the center is Led obviously in the division of Life Sciences here at UCLA the center operates in partnership with the David geffin School of Medicine the UCLA Johnson Comprehensive Cancer Center The Institute for Society of genetics and the Eli neith bro Center for regenerative medicine and stem cell res
earch at UCLA so today's special event marks the inaugural it it is the inaugural event marking the opening of the center and that's the center's distinguished speaker series the division is honored to have many in attendance who are Partners in supporting the center's mission of advancing um the work around reproductive science so first I'd like to start by thanking our exe Executive Vice Provost our Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell hunt I'd also like to acknowledge my colleagues h
ere who have supported the center Ron brookmire dean of the Fielding School of Public Health Jessica Gibson director of the UCLA Bixby Center to advance sexual and reproductive Health Equity and um Health Equity and professor and Fred Fred H Bixby ow chair on population and reproductive Health Steve dubinet who's the dean of the David geffin School of Medicine Russell kobin dean of the UCLA School of Law and abelle Valenzuela dean of social sciences and I thank all of these leaders for their par
tnership with the center I'd also like to thank our special guest thank you supervisor Holly Mitchell UC Regent Elaine Bachelor and Kristen schlater from UCLA uh from LA Care Health Plan for joining us for this important discussion on black maternal Health and Care in Los Angeles so thank you so much for being here with us so in the past several years there's been a lot of discussion that has been based on politics and perceptions and ideas around reproductive scci reproductive health I don't th
ink we need to go into much detail to have very clear and recent examples of that in fact far too little of the the discussion has really been centered on science and that's where we would like to make a difference because science really is the foundation of health and policy professionals should be able to use science to make rational decisions that are important and impactful um that will affect the lives of women and the entire Society so the time has really arrived for an internationally rec
ognized center that is really focused on research and education and innovation in the reproductive Sciences such that decisions can really be driven by science recognizing the importance of reproductive science to human health and well-being UCLA has established this new Center for Reproductive science health and education to serve as a unique National and international home for research training Career Development and public Outreach our commitment to education of course is always at the Forefr
ont of what we do so the center is also the home for Innovation and educational programs that we think will change the landscape of education for our students here at UCLA but students Beyond another core principle of our division is the importance and our commitment to diversity equity and inclusion so we believe and we know and we are committed to the idea that the best science and the best research happens when it addresses the needs of a diverse population and when it's carried out by a dive
rse community of Scholars and so it's with that philosophy that the center is really embedding itself in really important conversations that affect individuals across a wide spectrum of diversity so today I think is a beautiful example of that because we're going to kick off this discussion by focusing on something that is near and dear to my heart black maternal Health and Care so it's my pleasure to introduce the center's director Dr amander Clark and this is especially um it's special for me
because she's one of my colleagues in my department and so I've had the honor of watching her as a scholar and a leader uh for many years Dr Clark is a stem cell scientist a geneticist and a developmental biologist who's internationally recognized for her work on germ line on the germ line and in vitro gam Genesis Dr Clark is a professor in the department of molecular cell and developmental biology and she's the inaugural director of the Center for Reproductive science health and education here
at UCLA she is the president-elect of the international Society for stem cell research which is which is a global nonprofit that promotes excellence in stem cell science and its applications to human health Dr Clark's lab has um has become famous for using stem cells and regenerative medicine to understand the science of human reproduction and fertility Dr Clark's work has been recognized by many awards from International societies especially for her work in stem cell research some of these awar
ds are from the organization stop cancer the Lance Armstrong foundation and the concern Foundation She was recently awarded the founders medal from the Australian and New Zealand Society for Reproductive biology so I would just like to uh before I turn it over to Dr Clark I would like to thank all of you for being here today I'm excited that we're going to be in conversation about a topic that's so important uh with people who are across our community here at UCLA students staff faculty research
ers but most importantly we're engaging with our community so that we can um really think deeply about this important this important set of questions so with that I'd like to turn it over to Dr [Applause] Clark thank you Tracy thank you everybody for being here today I'd like to begin by thanking the staff of the CSH who put this event on in particular Stephanie kiso Ido who is the associate director of the C as well as Stacy antonu assistant to director and Brian rupi um our chief administrativ
e officer I'd also like to thank Olivia Lum and her team as well as our sponsors and partners who you can find at the back of your program and who are on display as you were coming in the room uh earlier today i' would also like to acknowledge the support of my co-director professor Hannah Lander from sociology and isg and join and join Dean Johnson and welcoming our um Executive Vice Chancellor and provos Dell hunt thank you so much for being here here in 2021 Dean Johnson and I discussed the c
ritical importance of creating a new center focused on evidence-based research and education in reproductive Health and Care our goal for this Center was to Kickstart new opportunities for research on the uccl campus and to create space for conversations about reproductive health and equity in the summer of 2022 the vision became urgent as the Dos Jackson decision of the Supreme Court revealed General Gap gaps in the general Public's knowledge and understanding of reproductive bodies and also ho
w reproductive bodies are cared for and the realization to us that this lack of understanding actually extended to undergraduate students uh in higher education not just on the ucil campus uh but a gap in the programming for Reproductive health and science as a part of undergraduate education to be part of the solution our center created four priority areas to increase the visibility of reproductive sciences and health research on the uccla campus and to work TOS more inclusive practices for res
earch in this area to better prepare our student body for evidence-based conversations around the importance of reproductive Health Science and care and to familiarize students to the reproductive Health Care Workforce and the critical responsibility that they have in ensuring that this care is evidence-based and equitable and finally our fourth activity is to create the distinguished speaker series in order to learn from people performing transformative work that impacts reproductive Health and
Care through research policy or education and that is why we are here today I'm a scientist so I actually need to show a little piece of data so here is the data that I want you to take a look at as I talk talk you through it for our first distinguished speaker event the focus is on black maternal health and specifically how health policy Community engagement and education can improve outcomes this is the research that shows disparities in outcomes for black birthing persons in California so th
is data comes from the California Department of Public Health and in particular the maternal CH adolescent Health division so it's not that disparities uh in outcomes for black birthing persons is a different State's responsibility it's all of our responsibility and this disparity is also seen in the state of California where there is some of the most permissive and inclusive policies for Reproductive Health and Care so you can see this disparity which is displaying pregnancy related mortality r
atio in different racial groups from 2012 to 2020 so this increasing disparity in Black maternal Health outcomes is not just a one-off it happened in one year it did didn't happen again this is a structural problem that we need to solve together so finally the most important thing Behind These statistics is that there are real people and real families today our goal is to hear from the people at the heart of making change to improve the lives of black women and their infants and their families s
o thank you with that we're going to start the official side of the program so I would like to introduce Kristen schlater who manages maternal health education programs for LA Care Health Plan before Kristen starts I'm going to talk a little bit about what La healthc care plan is for those of you in the audience who have not heard of this before La laare Health Plan provides access to Quality Health Care for La County's most vulnerable and lowincome communities the agency was found in 1997 and t
oday provides health coverage and community services for more than 2.9 Million LA County residents the organization is also a strong supporter of the David geffin school of medicine at UCLA providing full ride scholarships each year to eight medical students and they've been doing this for the last five years and as far as I'm aware they're continuing to do it into the future so we are delighted that Krist is here to tell us about LA's Community Education work in Black maternal health so please
join me in welcoming Kristen thank you so much everyone and we at La care are delighted to be here today and to sponsor today's program and as Amanda Clark she gave a great overview of La care and what we are about and what we offer but I'll just add a little bit to that and I'll keep my remarks brief so we can um all listen to our speaker that we have here today so we also have several different departments at laare that are dedicated to reducing maternal Health disparities as well as health in
equities overall we have our Health Equity dep Department we have our quality improvement Department we have health education department where we all sync up in align goals to further reduce disparities among African-Americans as well as um La counties populations over for all um we are committed to finding and creating Solutions and Advanced Health Equity and um and include our goals and to reach uh those goals among Comm uh partnering with community-based organizations we can't do this alone s
o we have to partner community community based organizations that also help us along our journey to reduce those disparities we're most excited and happy about the new doua benefit that launched this year so the Dua benefit yes thank you launched um January 1 2023 and we are just coming upon the anniversary of this benefit and julas provide educational physical and mental and emotional support for women and birthing people to guide them along their pregnancy Journey so with that we are so excite
d that we have this benefit to offer to all of our pregnant members and birthing people and um we've gotten a pretty good start we've gotten very good um feedback regarding this benefit and we're very happy to offer at La care to our medical members um we are also looking forward to expanding Partnerships we can't do this alone we look forward to working with hospitals uh schools Community Based organizations to help us along the journey again our goal is definitely to reduce Health disparities
and inequities and I'll keep my um I'll keep our remarks short and um thank you for having us here [Applause] one of our first sessions to our um undergraduate students and talking about who was part of a career a care team for uh birthing people a duers and we were actually quite surprised that many of our students didn't know what a douer was and you'll hear a little bit more about duers today in the remarks so um so stay tuned for that so next I would like to introduce Ela Bachelor Dr Bachelo
r is the Chief Executive Officer of MLK Community Healthcare throughout her career Dr bachelor's priority has been to improve access and quality of care for underserved communities through Innovation and collaboration her Awards and recognitions are numerous including a James Irvine Foundation leadership award and the Partners in Care vision and excellence in health care leadership award Dr Bachelor is a rheumatologist by training and a graduate of Harvard University University Case Western Rese
rve University and I am delighted to say a bruan earning her mph the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in 2019 Dr Bachelor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and in uh 2023 she was appointed a regent of the University of California I've asked Dr Bachelor to say a few words about black maternal Health and Care and to introduce supervisor Mitchell for the UCLA uh Center for Reproductive science health and education dis distinguish speaker series thank you Dr bachela thank you aman
der and uh thank you for inviting me to this special event today it's uh great to be here today both as a bruan and as a regent um and thank you for asking me to introduce my friend supervisor Holly Mitchell oh okay great we're surprising her my connection with supervisor Mitchell goes back more years than either of us probably care to acknowledge to a time when we were both younger less tested and as we noted and were discussing outside the hall had fewer gray hairs even then as she began her c
areer at the Western Center on lawn poverty fighting for Californians experiencing poverty and before she entered the world of government leadership I knew that Holly was special since then our careers have intersected and overlapped and I have watched cheered and admired as she has taken on challenge after challenge as a board member I had the honor of working with Holly when she led Crystal Stairs fighting for lowincome families across Los Angeles County today as the CEO of MLK Community Healt
hcare I have the privilege of working with her to ensure availability of highquality health care for her constituents in South Los Angeles advocacy is the through line in supervisor Mitchell's career focused on prevention of poverty and increasing access to resources for women Children and Families she distinguished herself for a decade in the California legislature passing 90 bills and serving as the first African-American chair of the Senate budget and fiscal Review Committee she is distinguis
h now yes that's quite an accomplishment she was doing some work in the legislature she's distinguished now as a member of the first all- women Le Board of Supervisors in the history of Los Angeles County and accomplishment that all of us women should take great pride in we've benefited from from supervisor Mitchell's leadership and advocacy of MLK Community Healthcare as I've known Holly in friendship and admiration over many years I've come to appreciate her greatest asset Holly is a champion
it's her nature but she's a particular kind of champion not just an achiever but a champion centered on the words with and for Holly does things with and for others the Holly Mitchell I'm introducing is both Advocate and partner inclusive and fierce on behalf of all women we are so fortunate to have her Among Us please join me in welcoming my friend supervisor Holly [Applause] Mitchell that's a lovely pleasant surprise when when it is a sincere you know people say oh we've been friends for years
and sometimes it's not true well this is true and so thank thank you elain as she was talking about that I had a vision of a of a photo uh our mothers knew each other our mothers who have both passed were forces of nature yeah right they were yes and I have a image of a picture of in my mother's backyard in a hot tub and Elaine's mother was there and I was there and they were having a drinking laughing good time um so that goes to show you that we really do go back uh in a real personal way um
so thank you Elaine I appreciate you and I appreciate being here and appreciate knowing the university is um engaged in this very thoughtful deliberate conversation um that I it is my hope will guide policy discussions how many of you are students just by sign of hand oh show of hands okay great I had the privilege of starting my day today at Dickerson Elementary Middle School in Compton uh Dickerson is a school of black and brown students 650 and they do TK through 8th grade and as I sat here l
istening to the introductions and what's happening here on this prestigious campus I have to say I thought how many of their those students will find their way here how many I hope it will be a significant number um because the exercise we engaged in um um included me asking them to answer three three questions let me see if I can remember and it was basically um what makes them feel safe in their Community what they felt their Community was missing there were three I only remember two and their
answers were profound um both made filled me with hope and made me deeply sad about what they felt was missing from their community and sometimes when young children have fundamental basic assets missing from their Community they hit a ceiling very early in life so I hope that our Collective work my colleagues in the board and I working very hard every day um can pour assets into their community so they find their way a very relatively short distance to this amazing institution my why I ask mys
elf that question ask my team members that question on a regular basis because it governs my work you heard through ela's beautiful introduction kind of where I've been professionally um what she didn't talk about was I think kind of the history of my why how I got here which was my parents were met as eligibility workers working for Department of Social Services then and as a result of that I realized not too many years ago that in my very early formative years all the adults in my family eithe
r worked for the county or they were on the county meaning they were beneficiaries or recipients of County Services and what was what's unique about that is in my early understanding of that there was no distinction uh my parents who were initially social workers my mother went on to probation and a career Inc Corrections both of my parents their entire careers um working for the public working for the State of California or LA County um and I think that is informed the way in which I have chose
n to show up in the space of being an agent of government be it an assembly member a senator or a County supervisor and I see my role as bringing government to people as opposed to expecting them to navigate systems and find their way to us as well as making government meet their current emergent need as opposed to saying well this is the way we've always done it and folks will just have to find their way to us so my why um there are women here from black women for wellness a community based age
ncy um its founder and I worked together many years ago in the California black women's health project and it was during my time working around the likes of Billy Avery um the founder of the national black women's health project where we were doing advocacy at the national level that I began to look at the the data impacting black women's health and our lives and the fact that the black maternal morbidity rate and the black infant mortality morbidity rate has in some decades worsened but certain
ly hasn't improved significantly um is a part of my why the fact that black women are continuing in the state which is now I think the fourth largest economy in the world and in a county with the I think 11th largest economy in the world has a scenario where black women are dying um during or shortly after child birth is Criminal and so my why is to figure out much like my early experience with my parents what role I can play in facil itting County government to address that challenge headon bec
ause it's not like some of the challenges we all face in society where we don't have the answers or we don't have the resources or a high hands or time behind the back our back we can't figure it out we absolutely can it is a problem we can solve for and many are at Martin Luther King community hospital um a program operating um at UCLA um Harbor um a County facility uh with a program that they're running so it can be solved for us so the question we all have to ask ourselves is and so why isn't
it and what are the barriers that are preventing us from addressing that morally offensive reality that there are groups of women all but for the color of their skin who are on par socioeconomically in terms of educational attainment with other groups of women who have poorer Health outcomes and poor birth outcomes compared to other women so that's my why in terms of why I have lost my mind and left a job that I love that was much simpler ran for public office office and continue to run for pub
lic office um to attempt to create spaces and opportunities and policies to address those issues uh going back to once I was elected my state level work and my ongoing advocacy with organizations I respect and have worked for over the years we we came to the table had introduced the bill Senate Bill 464 the California dignity and pregnancy and child birth act um which was controversial uh it was enacted in 2019 and the law mandates provider training in hospitals on implicit bias to really requir
e that childcare providers um check themselves we all have bias and to deny that is um sophomoric at best and so to go through the process of unpacking our bias so we are able to show up and do our work to the degree that we can as human beings bias free I think is important when you look at the statistics um on what's Happening to certain groups of women what I have found as a policy maker is you can fight the battles lose your front teeth get scratched and you know have to take off your earrin
gs and Willy swing the bill is passed the governor signs it into law and then the work really begins to make sure that the law is actually operationalized well it pays to have friends in high places I served with the attorney general when he was in the assembly so when we had a conversation about what's happening with the bill when advocacy groups were saying well you know it didn't have any teeth in it I was no longer in the legis I said well go back and introduce another bill that does we at l
east got the first step through keep going and so before we did that he in working with black women for wellness and others did a little homework and sent letters to all California uh facilities healthc care facilities where children are born requesting data on their implicit bias training of employees and of the 242 responding facilities 83% that would be 2011 had not completed and in some cases hadn't even begun training until after receiving the letter from the Department of Justice well agai
n it pays to have friends in high places because after they got that first letter July of 2022 when the the investigation concluded more than 80% of the perinatal Care staff in the 242 facilities had completed their training funny how that happens right because they knew that the Department of Justice was watching and was going to hold them accountable to the letter of the law which I think we all should fully expect we have more work to do but for me that was a first real concrete step in terms
of drawing a Line in the Sand saying it's unacceptable and we're looking to the provider Community to step up and do more I was thrilled when the governor and my former colleagues in the legislature um acknowledge the value of duelas and doing so by including them as a medical benefit um again making sure that all women regardless of one 's ability to pay can have access to duess services so I was thrilled about that again how do we operationalize it so at the county we realize you know being a
medical provider is no easy task um and that duelist many of whom operate as individuals may not have the the back of the house capacity to have a clinic or a hospital with an entire billing department who does nothing but chase down payments services rendered and so we wanted to set up what we're calling the Doula Hub in the county to really Provide support services to duelist to continue to Advocate on their behalf because while it's great to be a medical um um provider uh we all know particu
larly Dr Bachelor that medical reimbursement rates aren't the best in the state of California we wanted to make sure that we were providing support to duelas to recruit and train more duelas in fact that's my retirement plan when I turn my a Board of Supervisors I'm have I told you I'm going be a duel I'm coming um we wanted to really make sure that that we didn't miss the opportunity that that that medical beneficiaries could fully um have the opportunity to have this amazing service because al
l the research shows us as to go back to where my conversation started in terms of black women and their experience delivering babies in the state of California when du are involved their outcomes improve significantly why because the doer job is to pay attention to the birthing person to listen to her to believe her um to advocate for her and so I'm really excited about um what we're doing we just had a meeting with all the health plans um to talk about um what they were all doing to step up to
support this um that we wanted them to help us support the Doula Hub at the county um and I opened that meeting it was last Friday and I told them y'all are in trouble having a meeting with me Friday late afternoon cuz most days I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired but on Friday I really am um and you know that this was a problem we could solve for and I fully expected that all of us on that Zoom screen were going to do all we could to deliver so now you know how are they going to say no
supervisor Mitchell we're not so I'm very hopeful uh and excited about what we heard from many of the plans laare included in terms of what they've already done um and what kind of vision we share in terms of what we can build because if we build it in LA county the rest of the state will follow um and so I'm excited about that very tangible Next Step we're taking around supporting birthing outcomes Reproductive Rights woo elections matter just saying um and I I was you know I I have really been
very fortunate and blessed my entire elected career to be in the right place at the right time um sometimes to be proactive in terms of taking advantage of opportunities to expand access to policy and sometimes it's like really am I the lone person standing case in point can't remember the year I was in the assembly and I brought forward the only Bill in a state legislature in the entire country that advanced access to reproductive Jud um Justice every other bill that went before a state legisl
ature that year took steps back and what's so tragic about that distinction for me is it wasn't like this supersonic change in the whole world kind of reproductive Rights bill it was simply a bill that said that if you a nurse practitioner um you could administer a reproductive um um cont contraception thank you of choice not that you'd write the script but just that you could administer like and I when Planned Parenthood brought it to me I'm like is this like a real thing like this really can't
happen and so they talked to me about you know particularly in rural California where uh plan Parenthood or any reproductive Health Clinic may have multiple clinics they may have one physician that goes to multiple clinics and it's a nurse practitioner that runs things in their absence and so if I don't happen to be in the clinic on Tuesday when the doctor is there then I have to come back in a week to pick up my prescription that I have the script for and as my grandmother would say if you tho
ught you might be get pregnant on Monday if you going to wait a whole [Laughter] week right that part so really innocuous bill from my perspective and that was the only Bill that advanced access to reproductive health services and choice and care that particular year in the entire country so again here I am with the Board of Supervisors right time right place when roie way is overturned made me think back to my very early days in my early 20s when I served on the board of directors of the um Pla
nned Parenthood marante um clinic in Sacramento um when I talked about how we had to change our language because I was from a generation of young women who were post Row V way I mean our we we attained our reproductive maturity post row and so when I had board members that were wearing coat hangers on their lapels I said you have to understand that really doesn't speak to me right that we have to figure out how to grow and groom and activate a new generation of activists to protect this right an
d here 30 years later we've basically lost it at the federal level so I was very proud in 2022 to um carry a motion that was unanimously approved by my colleagues to make sure that LA County would be deemed a quote safe haven for Reproductive Health Care um and to make sure that the county was appropriately resourced because we knew and it has come to fruition that women from neighboring states would come here for a safe haven um my um longtime friend and and colleague then state senator cydney
camer do who is now a member of Congress um introduced a Senate bill sb245 to allocate $20 million in state funding to fuse into this program again it's good to have friends in high places because policy without resources is a bright idea policy fused with resources affects change so I was very proud to be able to do that and know that there's lots more we have to do until we can um regain my right to my own damn uterus um in the meantime I think it's important that we continue to look at policy
areas um where we can provide protections when we can and we're all very fortunate to be Californians a state that chose to include in its State's Constitution my right to my uterus sorry for our friends family and neighbors who don't call California home I just think in closing [Music] um a couple things you know figuring out ways wherever we are University campuses students nonprofit advocacy organizations elected officials how we can operate in our own lane to continue to elevate these issue
s um to tell the truth to to acknowledge the data for what it is to check our own bias um and to create safe spaces where people can access health services that I believe they should be entitled to and Health Services um that um are not only culturally and linguistically appropriate in how they're administered but also see me for who I am and believe me when I tell you that something is wrong with my body you know that's the ultimate goal and all of us particularly you all as students have a uni
que role to play and I hope that your long illustrious careers in health um are informed by that basic core commitment in terms of your commitment to make sure that you see the patient for who they are and listen and bring your bias free attitudes to that service so I'm continuing to operate in My Own Lane by bringing forward motions allocating resources supporting projects like uh Mama's neighborhood it's an organization formed at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center in my district um where it's a fr
ee highquality healthc care and support program for at risk pregnant women before and after child birth where we do the full complement of wraparound Services we ask critical questions like how can we be of service how do we reduce stress do you need Wick nutritional supports housing assistance if necessary breastfeeding education um parenting classes all the things you need to make sure that you are in the best position to provide um a wonderful opportunity for your baby uh County was blessed t
o receive just under $4 million Federal grant to support this program and I'm hoping that we can look at Pilots like that pop up at other County facilities Martin Luther King Community Hospital is doing amazing work Dr Bachelor and I were featured um in a movie what's the name of the movie birthing Justice birthing Justice birthing Justice if you haven't seen it try to check it out where they feature the work of Martin Luther King community hospital they feature the work of the members of Congre
ss who are trying to pass the Omnibus um um package of bills they talked to me about 464 and other work and so I'm really proud of all of those efforts and yet we have so more to do so in closing you know um I have a portrait of Shirley Chisum that hangs in my office it was gifted to me by um a senate fellow who's my last fellow um before I left the state senate who's now uh uh at Cal in their school of public policy get an advanced degree and you know when I think about Miss Chism for those of
you who are too young to perhaps know and this the and this the final day of Black History Month um she was the first black woman elected to congress representing New York ran for president in 1972 um and started as a teacher's aid started her career there but you know for for me is an example of a woman who had the courage and frankly the audacity to grab opportunities that were available for her in her time and to accomplish extraordinary things she didn't let other people limit her expectatio
n or Define her there's one there's a movie coming out soon and I hope it talks about how um she was a a founding member of now National Organization for Women and how the Democratic party and now basically abandoned her when she decided she was going to run for president um and yet she didn't let that stop her it was a courageous feat and it wasn't about her being selfish it was about her truly being selfless and wanting to create space for a broader conversation that needed to happen during th
at that time on the national political front and now is a time when we need people to take courageous stands and um not perhaps the easier path the the safest path but to really be courageous um to be selfless in our efforts to create a better LA county for all of us an LA County where we can grow old in in dignity and their children can grow and Thrive you know I want in LA county particularly in my in the second supervisorial district um where we no no longer talk about deserts food deserts ho
using insecurity Health Care access deserts uh there's a young organizer in the Central Valley that gave me a beautiful analogy that I use all the time time he talks about you know we like to say underserved communities he he he refers to them instead as unfinished communities because we all want to live in a community that's finished what's a finished Community a community like some of the students this morning at Dickerson Elementary talked about communities that have resources grocery stores
that are convenient uh tree canopy Green Space we every finished Community should have schools that um meet the unique needs of every parent children um every Community should have a variety of housing options to meet our needs be they single family homes or multif family dwellings um communities with housing where I feel safe and seen and a part of right that's what a finished Community looks like and so I am working every day in my Lane to make sure that every every community in the second dis
trict is a finished Community because I think when we use those other terms to describe communities or groups of people it puts the onus on them that they've done something or that they should be held accountable for the conditions in which they live I am clear that sometimes the government has fallen short sometimes the the general economy has fallen short and left some communities behind so I hope that you all will make a commitment as I have to work very hard to finish communities and in the
context of what you're studying and what we're here to talk about today that includes communities of women who have the right to determine their own reproductive Justice and path and that every group of women and girl have access to the services they need to meet their own needs I really appreciate you inviting me today it's been a delight help me with the next steps can I open it up for questions should I sit down I'm going to go over here and sit down fabulous thank [Applause] you I was be mic
rop L women there apparently there are micrones well we could be loud enough for now so maybe I don't need the microphone um so you're so you're both alumni of a UC so I'm going to begin by asking you today what was your favorite class at UC out you out you see I know you've been to number plac dirty 30 what was it dirty 30 what was it it's human biology great great answer that was so long ago I remember my favorite class the dirty 30 was dirty 30 was interesting I'm going to call my next class
dirty30 Elaine what about you okay so I'm a lum of the School of Public Health and I have to say that I L every class I took and I still have these these like worn out tattered note books that I'm still hanging on to for some reason but my favorite class was um introduction to Health System organization and financing that was taught by one of my wonderful mentors and dear friends Dr Paul torren beautiful beautiful okay I was being theis with 330 but it was the textbooks were very intriguing um u
h you know I'm a polys side major I went to attended UC Riverside um California politics was fascinating to me and to then you know move into California politics um uh and to you know have to govern under the rules of a a Jess unru an early speaker of the California legislature that I learned about was fascinating to me so we know from research that um diet as well as exercise and not smoking is really important in order uh to uh reduce disp ities in birth outcomes so what are you doing policy-w
ise in order to um uh improve access to food in communities that are low resourced in LA county that are unfinished communities um so much you know it was tragic to join the Board of Supervisors during covid for so many reasons but what has struck me um you know the county as many levels of government transitioned into food giveaways um at a level that we had not done before and worked collaboratively with um uh restaurants that were closed that stepped up to help us at the city uh restaurants t
hat were closed stepped up to help us um with the um senior nutrition programs because the senior day centers were closed um and to see the number of people that would show up in the second district for our food giv ways the number of people who continue to show up in that we you know generally believe that we are post pandemic in that schools have reopened we're all gathered here together um the um eviction moratorium has ended you know from all indicators one would suggest based on decisions g
overnment has made we're postco and yet people are still showing up a tragically High High numbers you know so some of the work we're doing I'm doing specifically in the second district is you know forging public private Partnerships to create opportunities for grocery stores to come in and finish communities we have an amazing development along the Vermont Corridor that was a um strip mall that burned during the '92 uprising and it was a parcel of land that was never developed uh my predecessor
then supervisor Mark reallyy Thomas through imminent domain which is a controversial power of government um seized the property when I say seized the property the county paid for it to the tune of $40 million we paid one amount the owner sued us went back to court lost we paid a different amount so the tune of $40 million paid to buy this parcel which is now being developed for a school low-income housing development and a Target and South LA cafe so working in creative and innovative ways to b
ring options to finish communities and this one is so particularly profound for me when I think about um all that Community was promised and was was never delivered for all of those years that parcel laid bare which was a constant reminder every time you drove past it about um promises not kept and so I think there are creative ways that government again can can get out of our own way sometime to partner with private Enterprise to bring developments to finish communities and at MLK Community Hea
lthcare what type of education initiative are you aware of in order to um to have health promoting factors particularly for women and their families and the farmers market we help yep so I'm going to start by saying that um it's not just maintaining a healthy weight that contributes to good birth outcomes it's maintaining good health in general that maintains Health to good maintains good outcomes for pregnant women and I think that um all of the efforts to improve access to Primary Care and pre
vention and to keep women in Optimal Health as they you know contemplate getting pregnant and do become pregnant is very important as a provider we are in the community with health education we are screening our patients for food in security helping to connect them with the resources that supervisor Mitchell just talked about um we also have our own food program that we call recipes for health that provides fresh produce um cooking classes shopping lessons etc for patients that we're caring for
and um you know I think the education also starts at a young age so having connections with Schools starting in kindergarten you know all the way through uh high school and connecting with kids and teaching kids about the importance of good nutrition and and good health I think all of that builds can I comment on that you know the reason I talked about bringing the resource to the community um a lifetime ago when I was the executive director of the California black women's health project the sta
te department of health services and I just saw this cookbook so they're still producing It produced a couple cookbooks how to cook healthy soul food how to cook healthy Spanish food right right and I we were running uh we were the black woman Health Project then was in partnership with UCLA and we were running um sister circles and I brought the nutritionist in from department of health services and she was doing the cooking demonstration and you know you always have a group in the audience who
's looking at you like [Music] M so I had two who lived in the building where we had a uh the whale was our black woman Health Project office and we were in the first floor of a Housing Development on 49th in Central and I had a couple in the building who would come and I just I'm like they're only coming to make me feel bad right so they would always in the front row and so she did her de cooking demonstration we're going to prepare skinless chicken breast and she was chipper and we're gonna co
ok healthy soul food and Miss Jones I'm like oh here she goes said Miss Mitchell yes Miss Jones I'd be happy to take this cookbook and cook skinless chicken breast if you can find one for [Laughter] me in the in a market in South Los Angeles and that started us on a project in a journey where we a could not find skinless chicken breast I learned about the point sometimes of colored Lighting in meat counters cuz it looks one way then you pull it out from that colored light and it looks different
I learned learned about the routing system of trucks and that you know the produce market is is almost a Stones Throw from 49 to Central but their routing takes them West and north and by the time they came back around to the markets around 49th and Central was days later and you know you'd be challenged to find a leafy green anything that they were pulling off those trucks to stock in those markets so finishing communities making those communities priority giving them healthy food options from
which to choose from a public policy perspective is in my lane and Miss Jones taught me that 35 years ago you know Holly one thing I was going to add is you know the importance of being a role model as well you know so one of the priorities that we set when we developed our health system and opened was that we would only serve healthy food and we had quite a debate and a you know almost a fist fight over whether we were going to have a fryer at the hospital and you know certain members of my sta
ff told me you can't open a restaurant in South La without a fryer but I said no we will not and we will also not have you know a whole bunch of sugary Beverages and other you know huge donuts and cookies and things and we've stuck to that um and we've stuck to the healthy food and we have stuff in our cafeteria that even I wouldn't eat too exactly that's leadership so supervisor Mitchell while you take a sip of water I'm curious about how you became aware of doers um and how they um and how tha
t particular group of care providers can really help women during the birthing process so I was an adult before I learned the how I was named why I was named Holly Holly was my father's grandmother who was a nurse Midwife in Mississippi and my father have I ever told you the story I don't know um I I was an adult [Music] um and I said well why he said well as a very young child they would be sent from East St Louis Illinois to Mississippi to Grandma's for the summer and she was tall all 6 feet I
'm 6 feet and um he was deeply impacted by the fact that she had her own horse and buggy and that white men would tip their hat to her when they passed her on the street and that she wasn't required to step aside and off the sidewalk if white men passed her why because she delivered everybody's baby in this little small town in Mississippi and for whatever reason as a young child he knew that was significant and admired her as a result of it and said if he ever had a daughter he would name her H
olly now the irony for me is I was an adult I had already been leading the California black women's health project I'd already worked for Diane Watson was her health policy Advocate I'd already worked in in reproductive Health policy before I heard that story so I just just thought that was it's just it speaks to me it was meant to be it was meant to be because grandmother Holly said so um and so just in my work early on with black women's health project advocating on behalf of the needs of blac
k women that I learned of duelas um I was on the board of the birthing project when I was a young staffer in Sacramento um developed by a public health former Public Health employee of the state who looked at and couldn't figure out you know why the black infant mortality rates were just disproportionately high in some counties across the state and Sacramento County was kind of at the top of the list and came up with this you know kind of innovative approach much like midwives much like douas wh
ere you're pairing a woman with a pregnant woman and in the birthing project experience it was example it was a woman experiencing at with atris pregnancy either a teen or a woman in jail to just help her navigate the system not to be a mentor but a sister friend cuz you're you're a mentor and a sister will give you two different kinds of advice and the sister friend concept was to really Empower her to help direct her to resources but to power her to make decisions and our goal was to make sure
this young woman didn't have a second pregnancy within one year that was the goal um and so those combined kind of experiences expose me to the concept of douth where again it's it's more non-medical than anything but it's truly supporting the needs of the woman pre- and postpartum not just looking at the delivery as The Soup To Nuts of the experience but leading up and months if not the full year after to provide her ongoing support so those combined experiences expose me to the concept of dou
as and just all the data that shows us the the role they play in improving birth outcomes and survival outcomes for women so Elaine how how do we bring in the duelers into the medical community so they're accepted as part of their care team so what are what are the strategies we should be thinking about great question we don't necessarily do things in medicine just because it makes sense or in politic so I would say you know one it starts with continuing to accumulate strong scientific evidence
that doulas contribute to better birth outcomes um disseminating that evidence so that providers are familiar with it and um understand it um I would say that that providing adequate coverage and payment for maternal health care so that we have the resources to include duelas in the healthc care team and then finally I would say we need to make sure that we're training um you know and inviting enough women to become duelist so that they are available um to our providers to deploy and you know I
will say that we do work with duelas at my health system either douas that women bring with them or if they don't have a doula we have a way of connecting with them with that Resource as well so we are at the hour in fact we're a little bit after the hour and so there would be time for perhaps one or two audience questions and then we need to close for the day do we have any questions from the audience first first I want to just say thank you this was a really wonderful conversation and I'm stru
ck by a statistic about uh uh black women in uh the birthing process that when we correct for socioeconomics and access to care and all of the other things that seem like they're going to be really key factors you correct for all of that there's still a disproportionate risk for black women I was wondering if you can say something about what that's all about and maybe what can we do to start thinking about systemic issues that we can get it's about race that's the common thread and when we carri
ed um s464 I never remember the entity that did the research study it's it blocks but there was a survey of medical students their survey of their attitudes toward black women and the perception that we have a higher threshold for pain that our skin is more difficult to penetrate I mean the bias that's that's the origin of the bill the the level of misinformation and bias and I shall go further and say racism took my breath away the Common Thread is race the common thread the same can be said in
terms of the statistics around black infant mortality you adjust for access to uh early care early uh prenatal care access to income education the Common Thread is race and the stress that is associated with being a black woman in America the extra burden Society puts on us it's the stress so that's the Common Thread that's the Common Thread that we need to call out and attempt to correct for I couldn't agree with her more um it is race and racism bias whatever you want to call it um I spent my
Christmas Vacation doing research and working on a writing assignment for a report that is going to be published by the National Academy of Medicine in September it is an update of a report that was first published in 2003 called unequal treatment you know we were debating the name we should give the report I like the name still unequal and um you know I I spent some time research doing research on just what we're talking about bias racism and you know that's it in a nutshell you know I will sh
are the fact that there was a very large study done in the State of Florida that looked at all of the births in that state over a period of time thousands of births and compared outcomes for black children who were treated by white pediatricians and children who were treated by black pediatricians the children who were treated by black pediatricians had a significantly higher chance of surviving and the association became stronger as the children became sicker so you know I I think it's wonderfu
l for us to do biased training but I personally believe we need to diversify the healthc care Workforce and we need to have a Workforce that is aligned with the the population and you know once we get there I think we will see a lot of these biases and disparities disappear I couldn't agree and I'm going to say something qu controversial even with a diversified Workforce we need to do bias training because um I won't say that but I think we have to do it Elaine um if you if any of you have never
taken the very easy online I agree with you Hol tests um the Harvard yes so there's so many available to take them to just get in touch with your own sense of bias I think it's a really powerful exercise that we should all do you don't have to share your results it's just important that you know and try to unpack for yourself how you got here we did a racial Justice learning exchange training at caly domingus Hills last night and the focus was implicit bias in the media recognizing the role ima
ges either in the news or entertainment media play in informing and validating and exacerbating our sense of bias and so I agree with you because I was going to come back and say you know your example um when I have heard from the women who have delivered in your amazing program that combines doulas and midwives and doctors in a hospital setting that that cost extra because everybody's there and available but cost shouldn't be our only determining Factor when I've heard those stories um it it ma
kes perfect sense that they feel seen and heard and validated and there's not a question in their mind that the person attending them um isn't fighting as hard as she is to protect her and and have her birthing experience be productive so I think we have to do both we have to diversify the field and we have to do implicit biased testing and training and not just one and then you're cured oh yes I'm not biased anymore but that it's an ongoing part it has to start clearly in the medical schools ba
sed on that survey I saw it needs to start as early as possible and we have to continue to have the conversations and for those of you who are future researchers I will take it a step further and say that we also need to continue to do research on the best ways to train people so that the training is actually effective and not what I would call performative I agree so we have a few more questions from the audience we have oh I can speak loudly too um it would be remiss not to ask this question e
specially for the Center for Reproductive science and health education but speaking as agent and as an LA County Supervisor What policies and protections will you put in place regarding ibf I can go home now just curious yeah I you know it doesn't you when you invite your next person who's a state legislator or a federal policy maker I think it's just it's more appropriate there now I I guess I will go back to try to figure out what policies are in place at County Health facilities I don't know
but in terms of um guiding and protection and restrictive policies or expansion policies I think that's probably at the state and federal level that doesn't follow that doesn't fall in my lane and I think as long as it's you know legal we will provide those Technologies and treatments and continue to advance the science at the University of California okay you see all right thank you so please join me in thanking uh supervisor Holly Mitchell and Dr elae [Applause] Bachelor we're so grateful that
you brought the community to us but it's our job to go out into the community and so with that thank you so much for coming and there's a reception outside
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