Primary Investigator
Dr Brittany D Chambers Butcher
Dr. Brittany Chambers is a community health scientist dedicated to advancing sexual and reproductive health equity among Black, Indigenous, and Other People Of Color’s (BIPOC). She merges critical and public health theories to partner with BIPOC women and birthing people and organizations to better understand, operationalize and dismantle racism.
To better understand racism, funded by California Preterm Birth Initiative, Dr. Chambers and Dr. Anu Gómez at UC Berkeley, are taking a cell-to-society approach to understand how racism gets underneath the skin to contribute to preterm birth experienced by Black and Latina/x women in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Supporting Our Ladies and Reducing Stress to prevent preterm birth (SOLARS) study was designed to evaluate the relationship among psychological stressors, molecular risk factors, and gestational age in Black and Latina/ women residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. We were able to enroll 112 Black and Latina/x women and their babies collecting survey and biospecimen data across the pregnancy and postpartum periods.
To better operationalize racism, Dr. Chambers is partnering with Black women and birthing people to reconceptualize racism, to identify novel ways to measure structural racism. She led a project using a community-based participatory approach in Oakland and Fresno to #listentoblackwomen across the reproductive lifespan define structural racism and describe how it shows up in their communities. The conceptual framework that emerged from this work guides Dr. Chambers current research agenda.
To better dismantle racism, funded by a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities K01 grant, Dr. Chambers is developing and piloting testing a racial equity training for perinatal care providers. As an assistant professor at the UCSF, she received a competitive two-year UCSF-Kaiser Permanente Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) K12 award to collect formative data to develop the training. She continues to work with mentors at UCSF and Dr. Leigh Ann Simmons to move forward this important work that is a direct response to California Senate Bill 464.
Dr. Chambers is committed to taking a reproductive justice approach centering in on BIPOC women and birthing people at every phase of the research process.
Lab Coordinator
Helen Arega
Helen Arega, MA is the Community Strategies to Advance Reproductive Justice and Equity (CARE) Lab Coordinator
Helen is a passionate advocate for reproductive and birth justice, deeply committed to empowering individuals on their birth and postpartum journeys. Influenced by her Ethiopian/Eritrean background, Helen has spent over a decade as a community-based doula and advocate for reproductive health, focusing on creating equitable, accessible care for marginalized communities in the US and Africa.
Helen holds an M.A. in Public Policy with a concentration in Health Promotion, which allows her to combine research expertise with practical and lived experience in her holistic approach to supporting women and birthing people. She is particularly interested in exploring the role of alternative healing modalities in enhancing birth and postpartum care. Helen co-founded of Roots of Labor Birth Collective (RLBC) and currently serves as the Program Manager for the Black Women Birthing Justice Doula Collective. She has provided full-spectrum doula services throughout the Bay Area, US and Africa; including offering free doula services to incarcerated women at Santa Rita Jail in CA.
Helen’s work extends internationally, where her Ethiopian/Eritrean heritage has led her to Uganda and Ethiopia. She collaborated with the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), coordinating projects and serving as a co-country liaison for Ethiopian/Eritrean refugees, further strengthening her understanding of global reproductive health issues. She is also a board member of the Terrewode Women's Fund, an organization that combats Obstetric Fistula in Uganda, providing life-saving support to women affected by this devastating condition.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Helen is a lover of the planet and its people. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, practicing yoga, and sound healing, always seeking ways to deepen her connection to the world around her.
Lab Manager
Denise Eastwood
Denise Eastwood is originally from Southern California but her home has been Davis, CA for more than10 years. She has grown to find love in community work by empowering community members to take advantage of programs designed to decrease the gap in equity. Denise is a lab manager for Dr. Brittany Chambers at the University of California, Davis. She is involved in several research projects. Denise has extensive experience in community outreach and development, serving residents in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco and Tijuana, Mexico to dignify their living conditions.
Denise enjoys utilizing her mind-body connection in an attempt to de-stress. This has lead to nature walks that evolved into half marathon training and a love for self expression in different forms of art. She loves to serve in a physical way and she will join the front lines when able to.
Post Doctoral Scholar
Dorian Odems
University of California, Davis
Publication: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100479
Community Research Assistant
Aresha Auzenne
Aresha Auzenne is a San Francisco native, specializing in trauma informed birth work, placenta medicine, breastfeeding counseling and donor milk education. Aresha is a full spectrum holistic Doula and a mother to a vibrant little boy. She is most passionate about empowering women and mothers of color, building supportive maternal communities and fostering spaces of healing through motherhood. She credits her work, her passion and her healing to the many powerful women who held her and her son, during her own transition into the depths of motherhood-learning to crawl, to walk, to talk, to exist as a brand-new being. Aresha is currently working as a Community Researcher at UC Davis, investigating Black maternal health and birth outcomes amongst women and mothers of color.
Research Data Analyst
Jessica Johnston
Jessica Johnston is a research data analyst in the Community Strategies to Advance Reproductive Justice and Equity (CARE) Lab, led by Dr. Brittany Chambers Butcher. She earned her BS in Psychology and MPH at UC Davis, building a foundation for her career in health research. Beyond birth and reproductive justice, Jessica’s diverse experience spans college student health, family caregiving, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and health care delivery science. She has also contributed as a clinic manager for a perinatal support group and as a volunteer in street medicine initiatives in her hometown of Sacramento. Guided by an unwavering commitment to reproductive health and health equity, Jessica is dedicated to driving meaningful change and advocating for marginalized communities.
Research Data Analyst
Celeste Laing
Celeste F Laing (she/her) is a research assistant at UC Davis. I began working in maternal health research in 2022 as a Human Development undergraduate. I am currently at San Jose State where I plan to obtain my Masters in Speech Language Pathology.
Research Data Analyst
Gabriela Negrete
Gabriela Negrete is a Community Research Assistant for the UC Davis Community Research Hub. Gabriela understands the importance of conducting research that is rooted in community partnership to address racism and health disparities. She is committed to centering and elevating the voices of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Queer communities with the goal of participating in research grounded on racial equity and reproductive justice. In her spare time, she loves to cook, garden and rest. She is super excited to be part of this team and support all the wonderful work that has already been done!