Keynote Address:

Holding the Horizon - the Enduring Quest for Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (Jessica Marcella)
Given the chaos fueled by multiple, intersecting crises stemming from the administration’s actions, this keynote translated complex federal developments into clear, accessible insights on their impact on reproductive health, rights, and justice. It will provide a deeper understanding of the role and operations of the Office of Population Affairs and offer informed expectations for the near- and medium-term future. Finally, it will outline strategic recommendations for holding the horizon while navigating ongoing uncertainty and disruption.

Morning Sessions:

Centering Trans Communities in Reproductive Health: Practical Tools for the Whole Care Team (Ivan Hsiao)
This session offered concrete, culturally responsive strategies that health educators, program staff, and clinicians can use to deliver affirming and effective reproductive health services to transgender and gender-expansive patients.

Abortion Access Updates: the SRH Provider’s Role in Supporting Patient Autonomy in the Current Policy Environment (Elizabeth Janiak)
This session highlighted the roles of clinicians, clinical staff, certified family planning counselors, health educators, and patient-facing administrative staff in ensuring every patient’s right to comprehensive information and quality care.

Empowering Fathers: Transformative Strategies for Reproductive Justice (Charles Daniels)
This session is designed to empower providers with essential tools and strategies for engaging fathers in the vital conversation surrounding reproductive justice. This workshop illuminated the unique roles and perspectives that fathers contribute to family dynamics, underscoring how their active involvement can significantly enhance the holistic well-being of families and communities. Together, it uncovered innovative methods to support men as engaged partners, fostering meaningful connections that encourage shared responsibility and advocacy. Participants left equipped with actionable insights and practical resources to inspire and facilitate father involvement in reproductive health conversations.

Afternoon Sessions:

Connecting the Dots: Integrating Family Planning, Maternal Health, and Reproductive Care (Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha)
This session explored how integrating family planning, maternal health, and reproductive care can lead to improved health outcomes for birthing individuals and families. Participants examined evidence-based strategies to enhance preconception care, understand the connections between maternal and reproductive health, and considered long-term, systems-level approaches to reduce maternal health disparities and prevent maternal mortality.   

Dismantling Inequities in Refugee and Migrant Reproductive Health (Samantha Truong, Kettie Lewis, & Audrey Montgomery)
This session introduced a justice-based framework for migration and health and its intersection with birth equity and language justice, highlight unique considerations for individuals seeking reproductive health care, including pregnancy care, abortion care, care for FGM/C, mental health care, and social support/community resource navigation, and discussed opportunities for clinic infrastructure and resource allocation, community engagement, and advocacy to confront inequities in refugee and (im)migrant health, focusing on interdisciplinary collaboration in promoting sexual and reproductive health.

Reproductive Justice and the Politics of Pleasure (Shoniqua Roach)
Since enslaved black women’s forced migration to the Western world to the contemporary state-sanctioned disruption of Black family bonds via dislocation under the guise of Child Welfare to the even more contemporary legal abolishment of abortion, marginalized communities have always been disproportionately susceptible to structural and interpersonal infringements on their reproductive rights and autonomy. At the same time, marginalized communities have historically found ways to resist such infringements on their reproductive rights by advocating for –and, indeed, insisting on–the inextricable links between bodily autonomy, sexual freedom, and pleasure. This session outlines histories and contemporary forms of Black reproductive injustice and freedom, centering pleasure (and pleasure politics) as a necessary precondition for more liberatory, intersectional, and holistic understandings of Black reproductive justice.

Jessica S. Marcella, Co-Founder, Triple Dividend Partners- Keynote Speaker

Jessica Swafford Marcella, MPA is a distinguished expert in adolescent health, reproductive health, rights, and justice, and co-founder of Triple Dividend Partners, a mission-driven consulting firm dedicated to advancing adolescent health and well-being. Prior to founding Triple Dividend Partners, Jessica served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs and Director of the Office of Adolescent Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a senior executive service presidential appointment by the Biden-Harris administration. In her role, she led national initiatives in family planning and evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention, while also advising the administration on key reproductive and adolescent health issues. She played a pivotal role in overseeing the nation’s family planning program (Title X) and the evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program. Additionally, Jessica led gender equity, human rights, climate, and public health priorities within the HHS Office of Global Affairs. With more than 20 years of experience, Jessica began her career on Capitol Hill before transitioning to the nonprofit sector. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University and a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University. Jessica lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children.

Allyson Slater

Allyson (Ally) Slater is the Director of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Reproductive Justice Unit.  Her work focuses on litigation strategy and development around access to reproductive and gender affirming care, including working across state lines with multistate coalitions to develop legal theories and facts for RJU’s cases.  Prior to joining the Mass. AGO, Ally worked in private practice for 12 years at a large law firm, where she developed a pro bono practice focused on reproductive rights.  As part of Ally’s pro bono practice, she litigated against bans and restrictions on abortion in Ohio and Indiana both pre-and post-Dobbs.

Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD (she/her/hers)

Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha is the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Amutah-Onukagha is the Founder and Director of the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice (CBMHRJ), and of the Maternal Outcomes of Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab. In addition, she is the founder of the largest conference on Black maternal health in the United States held annually in April. In its 8th year, the conference has recently attracted participants from over 46 states and 10 countries. An active scholar, Dr. Amutah-Onukagha’s research investigates maternal health disparities, infant mortality, reproductive health and social justice, and HIV/AIDS as experienced by Black women. She also serves as the inaugural Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the university’s Public Health and Professional Degree Programs.

A well-published author, Dr. Amutah-Onukagha’s research has been presented in over 85 manuscripts, 8 book chapters, a best-selling book on Amazon, and a textbook on culturally responsive evaluation. Her research has also been featured across a series of platforms, including, The Lancet, TedX, USA Today, MSNBC and most recently in the New York Times. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Women’s Health Issues. Currently, Dr. Amutah-Onukagha is the Principal Investigator of two multi-
year studies on maternal mortality and morbidity. She is an active co-investigator on several other research studies with collaborators across the country.

In 2023, she received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the March of Dimes and the Academic Excellence in Maternal Health award from the IRTH app. In 2022 she received the John MacQueen lecture award from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha was an honoree of the 2020 Top 40 under 40 Minority Leaders in Healthcare, as presented by the National Minority Quality Forum.

She also holds federal and international appointments and was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Advisory Council on Infant and Maternal Mortality for a 4-year term. In 2024, she was appointed to serve as the Inaugural Health Equity Think Tank Director for Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, an international organization with over 125,000 members.

A community engaged leader, she is a founding member of Birth Equity Justice MA, a board member for the Neighborhood Birth Center in Boston, and a board member for Dr. Shalons’ Maternal Action Project. Dr. Amutah-Onukagha is also the President and Founder of Amaka Consulting and Evaluation Services, LLC, a minority and women owned public health research and evaluation firm.

Dr. Amutah-Onukagha received her Master of Public Health from The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services before completing her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Maryland. She also completed the Kellogg Health Scholars postdoctoral fellowship with an emphasis on community based participatory research and health disparities.

Charles Daniels, PhD

Dr. Daniels was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in the small city of Riverdale. He attended Bethune-Cookman University, a Historically Black University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Public Administration. Following his undergraduate studies, Dr. Daniels moved to Boston to attend Simmons University School of Social Work. He earned his Master’s in Social Work and a certification in Urban Leadership. He was also awarded the Howard Thurman Fellowship, which enabled him to obtain a Master’s in Divinity from The Boston University School of Theology. Continuing his academic journey, he returned to Simmons to complete his Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work. His thesis focused on evaluating the effectiveness of Fathers’ UpLift’s approach to serving fathers. His research aimed to answer key questions about the program’s impact, including its effectiveness in reducing unmet basic needs, increasing parenting time, improving emotional regulation, and preventing recidivism among recently incarcerated Black fathers. He also explored how program outcomes varied based on participation length, personal traits, prior incarceration history, life distress levels, and types of unmet basic needs. Before founding Fathers’ UpLift, Dr. Daniels worked at the Boston Public Health Commission Men’s Health and Recovery Program as a substance abuse clinician and oversaw a small shelter for displaced youth in Jonesboro, Georgia.

Ivan Hsiao, MPH (he/they)

Ivan Hsiao, MPH is a leading voice at the intersection of public health research, healthcare technology innovation, and transgender health equity. Ivan is the founder of Trans Health HQ, a digital platform that supports thousands of trans and gender expansive community members and clinicians to access curated information on gender-affirming care and trans health & wellness via the Trans Community Resource Hub & Clinician Resource Hub. Ivan also teaches the graduate seminar on transgender health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where they also conduct research on the use of sex and gender in clinical algorithms and the mental health of trans youth. Their work bridges academia, entrepreneurship, and advocacy to drive systemic change in healthcare access and equity. Ivan has shared the benefits of centering the trans community in medicine and healthcare in forums such as the National Institutes of Health, Boston Children's Hospital, the Harvard Convocation 2024, the 28th World Professional Association for Transgender Health Symposium, StartOut, and other venues. Ivan holds a BA from Columbia University and an MPH from Harvard University.

Elizabeth Janiak, ScD (she/her/hers)
Elizabeth Janiak is an interdisciplinary public health researcher and Assistant Professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, as well as Director of Social Science Research at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Her research explores how government and institutional policies create inequities in access to and quality of sexual and reproductive health care. Current projects include an intervention to support mifepristone implementation for abortion and early pregnancy loss in primary care settings, social factors shaping postpartum contraceptive use, and the impacts of abortion-related travel following the Dobbs decision. Dr. Janiak's work has been cited by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and covered in dozens of media outlets including The Boston Globe, Salon, and National Public Radio. A full list of Dr. Janiak's publications can be found via Harvard Catalyst.

Kettie Louis, DNP, WHNP-BC, ANP-BC (she/her/hers)

Kettie Louis is the director and one of the providers caring for refugee women through the RWHC (Refugee Women's Health care) part of the IRHC (Immigrant Refugee Health Care) and also an adjunct professor at Regis College teaching in a DNP (Doctor in Nursing Practice) program to nurse leaders in Haiti. Kettie’s focus has always been centered around health disparities locally and in Haiti and using nursing education to address these disparities. Kettie’s vast clinical skill set, global health experience, her ability to work with different providers of health care services, and her strong work ethic make her a valuable member of the BMC institution where she practices.

Audrey Montgomery, MSW (She/Her)

Audrey Montgomery is the Program Coordinator for the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) at Boston Medical Center (BMC). She holds a Masters in Social Work focused on global social work and community change. She has experience as a medical case manager for the clinic and as a research associate for Boston College, where she contributed to their refugee portfolio. She is deeply passionate about better understanding and equitably addressing the needs of newcomer communities.

Samantha Truong, MD (she/her/ella)

Samantha Truong is an academic generalist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston Medical Center and is an Assistant Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She provides OBGYN care at BMC's Refugee Women’s Health Clinic and NeighborHealth, a Federally Qualified Health Center in East Boston serving a largely (im)migrant population. Her research and clinical work in global health equity centers on respectful maternity care, refugee and (im)migrant health, and reproductive justice/family planning access, including collaborations with Partners In Health in Chiapas, the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and the Refugee Health Alliance at the US-Mexico border.  As a member of Physicians for Human Rights, she performs asylum evaluations for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. She is deeply committed to serving marginalized communities.

Shoniqua Roach, PhD

Dr. Shoniqua Roach is a queer black feminist writer and Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. Her peer-reviewed work appears in American Quarterly, boundary 2, differences, Feminist Theory, Signs, and The Black Scholar, among other venues. Her editorial work appears in differences, Signs, and The Black Scholar. Roach’s forthcoming book manuscript, Black Dwelling: Home-Making and Erotic Freedom, offers an intellectual and cultural history of black domestic spaces as tragic sites of imperial state invasion and black feminist enactments of erotic freedom. Roach has been awarded a number of awards, fellowships, and grants, including those from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Studies Association, and the Ford Foundation.

We were proud to be hosted at a venue with substantial accessibility features. To be respectful of those with allergies and environmental sensitivities, we asked participants to please refrain from wearing strong fragrances. Taking breaks and stepping away as needed was encouraged and respected throughout the day.

Attendees could request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility to our email: masrhtrainingcenter@jsi.org.

Attendees can expect the following:

• Level/ramp-equipped entrances and all activities on the ground floor
• Fully AV-equipped meeting spaces with speakers using microphones at all times
• Fidget toys in breakout rooms
• Hand sanitizer, high-filtration masks, and COVID tests offered at check-in
• Hearing assistance devices available (please request when registering; these devices have a headphone that goes directly into your ear and has amplified audio)
• Printouts of presenter slides (please request when registering so we can use only the paper necessary)
• A private space for lactation on-site
• Gender-neutral restrooms
• A quiet space to take a break or step away
• Menstrual products available in the restrooms

We followed the MDPH guidance with regards to infection control and fully support any attendee who chooses to mask. If you have symptoms of a respiratory virus, such as a fever, sore throat, cough or a runny or stuffy nose, we kindly ask that you stay home. Contact us at masrhtrainingcenter@jsi.com for more information or questions.

Registration for this event is now closed. Thank you to everyone who joined us this year at the second annual Reproductive Justice Symposium!

Space is limited and the form will close when the event has reached its maximum capacity, so please only register if you believe you can attend and contact the Training Center if you need to cancel so space can be offered to others.

Please email masrhtrainingcenter@jsi.org with any questions about the event.

Registration for the 2025 Reproductive Justice Symposium is now closed. Thank you for your interest!