Adelaide Appiah

Adelaide “Adele” Appiah is a public health practitioner who approaches her career as a changemaker in the maternal health field by centering the voices and experiences of Black women and birthing people. In this vein, she has acquired over seven years of experience managing grantmaking initiatives and implementing grant-funded programs to advance maternal health outcomes. Adele’s passion for her work is rooted in her own maternal health journey and challenges navigating the maternal health care system. Her career goal is to improve the birthing outcomes of Black people through birth equity and by dismantling oppressive systems in maternal and reproductive care.

Adele has served in various programmatic and leadership roles where she’s managed multimillion-dollar grant initiatives funded by The Ford Foundation, Anthem Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Groundswell Fund.

One of Adele’s greatest career achievements is codeveloping the Black Birthing Bill of Rights, an evidence-based resource for individuals to become knowledgeable of their rights as a Black person in need of maternal care while with the National Association to Advance Black Birth. It also serves as guidance to engage health providers to change/improve their ethics, policies, and delivery approach in supporting Black people throughout the birthing process.

Adele received her Bachelor of Science in public health and sociology from The Ohio State University and her Master of Public Health in maternal and child health from George Washington University.

 

Adele leads a team of community-based participatory researchers, public health practitioners and community leaders in building public health programming that aims to reduce preterm births among Black birthing people by mitigating the association between stress and preterm birth. To build this program, Adele has centered on the lived experiences of Black birthing people. What underscores Adele’s work is the belief that the answer to health disparity lies in the community most impacted. Thus, it’s imperative that Black birthing people are not only consulted in building this program but are integrated through staffing positions and opportunities to continue to lead their communities to optimal health. This lens shares a similar approach to the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation framework.