THE WOMEN’S FUND OF MIAMI-DADE “VIRTUAL IMPACT COLLABORATIVE”: From Risk to Resilience: Maternal Health and Hypertension Insights

Join Your Women’s Fund for the basics we all need to learn.  This eye-opening, solutions-oriented Impact Collaborative is anchored in our Health & Wellbeing Pillar and the exciting collective impact work of AIM: Alliance for Infant & Maternal Health. Experts will bring lived experience and make visible powerful, community-rooted, community-driven approaches that can prevent and address maternal hypertension and improve outcomes for birthing people and infants. Keynote: Kim Gifford, Director of Healthcare Practices, The Preclampsia Foundation. Panelists: Eliana Ramos, The Honeycomb House, Founder, Isadora Delvecchio, MA, Sr. Director, MCH Collective Impact, Dr. Katia Magalie Apollon, MD Baptist Health. This is not simply about life and death, but about long-term health and the ability to thrive. That affects entire families, the workforce, and beyond. Birthing people in our community continue to experience high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality, with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, and preeclampsia, among the leading and most preventable causes. These outcomes can be linked not only to individual behaviors but also to systemic inequities embedded across healthcare administration, housing stability, economic opportunity, environmental stressors, and access to timely, high-quality, and respectful pre- and post-partum care. During this Impact Collaborative, we will lift what we know works: community-based doulas and midwives, culturally responsive prenatal and postpartum support, early blood pressure screening and monitoring, patient education rooted in trust, and neighborhood organizations that help ensure warning signs of hypertension and preeclampsia are recognized and addressed before they become life-threatening. This conversation will explore how policy, healthcare systems, philanthropy, and community organizations can align to dismantle barriers, close gaps in care, and scale approaches that honor the voices and leadership of Black birthing people. Whether you are a healthcare provider, nonprofit leader, policymaker, student, funder, advocate, or community member, this session will deepen your understanding of how centering community expertise is essential to creating a more just and responsive maternal health system.