Meet Cohort 4 Graduates
Kristina Cheek, CLC
Baby LUV/Healthy Start
Valdosta, Georgia
Kristina Cheek is the Founder and Executive Director of Sista Girl Birth Initiative, a community-based organization focusing on Black maternal health in Valdosta, Georgia.
A Black woman. Mother of four. Leader. Risk-taker. Dreamer. Connector. Overcomer. Advocate. Go getter. Kristina has a passion for improving the birth, breastfeeding, and parenting experience for Black birthing and parenting families in Valdosta and surrounding rural South Georgia. She aims to heal the pain and trauma narrative around the perinatal experience of Black women and helps them reclaim their birth right.
Her four empowering, transformative birth experiences inspired her calling into birth work, and she became a doula after training with CAPPA and DONA International. She then obtained her Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) certification credential. She is currently a candidate of the Perinatal Mental Health Counselor (PMH-C) credential following her extensive training with the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health. In the 16 years that she has been in birth work, she still feels the magic from seeing a baby being born and the moment a mother realizes her full strength and power as a woman. Birth work is an honor and privilege for her, and she is grateful and blessed that this is her lifework and calling.
Kristina’s expertise lies in forming meaningful and long-lasting community connections and collaborations, workshop facilitation, curriculum development, political organizing, and healthcare policy consulting. She has successfully lead workshops in breastfeeding, Black maternal health, public policy, reproductive justice, childbirth education, as well overseeing a successful weekly fatherhood program.
Kristina served as the South Health District WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator, where she was awarded a Loving Support Gold award through USDA. After working for five years as a Family Support Specialist and briefly, as the Fatherhood Engagement Coordinator through the South Health District (GA DPH) Healthy Start program, Kristina founded Sista Girl Birth Initiative, an emerging non-profit organization to specifically target and serve Black birthing families in her community. She is also a Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association Birth and Leadership Institute cohort selectee. She was recently chosen to serve as a neo-doula mentor for the inaugural Georgia Black Doula Network cohort. Kristina graduated from the second cohort of the rigorous Perinatal Patient Navigator program in April 2024 with the Morehouse School of Medicine Center for Maternal Health Equity.
She is an active member of the Southwest Georgia Breastfeeding Coalition and the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Doula Access Working Group. Kristina is also an enthusiastic Southern Georgia Black Chambers of Commerce member, where she has honed her business and community development skills. Kristina was recognized in September 2024 as a Hometown Hero by the Southeast Georgia Community Health Worker association for her hard work and dedication to perinatal health. She was also selected to join the second class of the South Georgia Women’s Leadership Initiative and has recently joined the newly former Amicae Auxiliary chapter of Zeta Phi Beta in Valdosta, GA. Kristina is a Sister Song Birth Justice Care Fund partner to help reduce barriers to perinatal support for at-risk, low-income women in her community. She recently traveled to Joliet, IL to attend the Black Maternal Health Caucus Stakeholder Summit where Valdosta was represented for the first time. In October 2024, Kristina will have her first major maternal health presenter feature at the Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association annual conference, where she will present on her organization and community partnerships for optimal perinatal health outcomes.
Kristina strongly believes that community health workers and partnerships are the key to solving the Black maternal and child health crisis in America. Outside of her work in maternal child health, Kristina is a lover of jazz and has an extensive vinyl collection. She is an outstanding cook, riding quarter horses, and has a weakness for beautiful dresses. Kristina is also an avid reader with a love for historical fiction in the American South. Her favorite mantra is “make your own magic” which she strives to do daily. Her four children (and her dog Zora) are the best things that has ever happened to her and what she is most proud of.
Personal Mantra: Make your own magic. Life is a cabaret!
Jasmine Creighton, MS, CBS
California Black Women's Health Project (CABWHP)
Banning, California
Jasmine Creighton is a Maternal and Reproductive Health advocate, Certified Breastfeeding Specialist (CBS), and Perinatal Health Specialist at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. Based in the Inland Empire (Southern California), she is a wife and mother of two. Jasmine is a pathway three student pursuing her International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) credential. She serves on the board of the Inland Empire Breastfeeding Coalition (IEBfC), where she coordinates the Cultural Task Force and chairs the IE Black Breastfeeding Task Force. She is dedicated to expanding education and resources for Black communities and is the owner of Yaya’s Hands Perinatal and Lactation Services. Currently, Jasmine works as a Clinical Care Coordinator for Pacify.
Personal Mantra: Life is meant to be experienced.
Malikah Garner, MBA
Henry Ford Health/ BMBFA
Detroit, Michigan
Malikah Garner is a passionate leader and advocate in maternal child health, deeply committed to reducing racial inequities in health outcomes for Black moms, babies, and families in the City of Detroit. In April 2021, she assumed the role of Project Manager at Henry Ford Health (HFH) for the Hope Starts Here, Imperative #1 Team, a collective impact birth equity project. In Malikah’s role at HFH she also supports the work of the Office of Community Health, Equity, Wellness & Diversity at HFH including the Triple Crown Project awarded through the Office of Minority Health, The Trauma and Resiliency Informed Community Healthcare Initiative, and supporting the Women Inspired Neighborhood Network Detroit. Her focus involves developing thriving collective networks, driving systems change, and coordinating the expansion of evidence-based programs to increase positive health outcomes for pregnant women, children, and families in Detroit. With a BA from Saginaw Valley State University, MBA from Northwood University, and a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion certificate from the University of South Florida, Malikah possesses a robust educational background.
She recently joined the Birth & Breastfeeding Leadership Institute at Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA) as a cohort 4 Promising Institute Leader. Malikah actively participates in various initiatives such as staffing and managing the Detroit Regional Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force, an inaugural member of the Detroit Community Based Doula Task Force, and a member of the Southeastern Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Coalition Advisory Council. In 2023, she joined the Healthcare Anchor Network’s (HAN) National Community Advisory Committee, aiming to support the development of community engagement metrics that can be used by HAN’s member health systems and community engagement practitioners, to assess the relationships between health systems and the organizations they collaborate with.
Malikah is a co-founder of the Mommy Ambassador Program, Board Member, and Lead Mommy Ambassador at BMBFA. She is dedicated not only to community support but also to elevating community voices and integrating lived experience into institutional, policy, and systems change. Her involvement in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Better Maternal Outcomes initiative in 2019 resulted in positive policy changes at Henry Ford Health, including the inclusion of doulas as complementary to the healthcare team and HFH amending their visitor policy to allow doulas to accompany mothers during birth without counting as a visitor. Additionally, Malikah actively advocated for community-based doulas to receive Medicaid reimbursement and provide policy input & support alongside BMBFA colleagues.
With eight years as a Mommy Ambassador and advocate at BMBFA, Malikah's 4.5 year breastfeeding journey, lived experience, and advocacy have garnered recognition in published articles and on national platforms like Good Morning America. Beyond maternal child health, she extends her skills and contributions to equity as a centering community leader and lived experience expert in collaboration with Full Frame Initiative (FFI). Malikah significantly contributed to the inaugural Community Bill of Rights, guiding government, systems, philanthropy, and nonprofits to center wellbeing and uplift communities to shift power and heal systemic harms. Recently, she was consulted to design a nationally utilized curriculum for FFI for "centering community," and began facilitation of the training in the Fall of 2023. A native Detroiter, proud mother of two amazing boys, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Malikah embodies a multifaceted commitment to community, equity, justice and transformative change.
Personal Mantra: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou
Dasha Tate, PSD, BS
ROOTT
Columbus, Ohio
Dasha Tate is a Doula, Supervisor and Health Administrator in Columbus, Ohio who brings structure to non-profit organizations while supervising staff and managing client caseloads. In 2011, Dasha started as an Unemployment Claims Examiner at the State of Ohio and moved on to be an Unemployment Claims Examiner II, adjudicating redetermination appeals made by claimants and employers. While at the state, Dasha’s focus in public service was to adjudicate timely claims, and make justly determinations according to unemployment law.
While working at the State of Ohio Dasha was spiritually called to be a Doula and started Faithful Birth Doula Services. Dasha’s mission was to advocate for those who could not advocate for themselves and to encourage families to trust their intuition and how they were created. As a business owner, Dasha wrote a Blog to bring awareness to Doula trainers of color from the United States and abroad. The blog garnered over 1600 views across two releases.
In 2017, Dasha started working at Restoring Our Own Through Transformation (ROOTT) as a core Perinatal Support Doula. At ROOTT Dasha has dedicated herself to organizational growth that empowers families, expands service offerings, and improves outcomes. Dasha initially started as the Home Visiting Team Lead utilizing her problem-solving skills to address gaps within the organization. Dasha then moved up to Family Services Supervisor and began to focus on data analysis, data management, and strategy execution. Dasha is a critical thinker that contributes to the recruitment, training, and supervision of staff, along with quality improvement strategy initiatives that increase family engagement and employee retention.
Furthermore, Dasha recently became a graduate of Franklin University with a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management. Empowered by her own birth experiences and fighting for quality conditions for her mother, Dasha is grounded in changing Black equity for those affected by substandard care in the American Healthcare System.
Dasha is a proud mother of three children, DeAsha, Daivya, and Daimyr, as well as one grandson, Delonie.
Personal Mantra: I am here to serve my people by creating equitable spaces that affirm our culture, intuition, and history. Our experiences make us who we are by teaching us to trust ourselves, learn those lessons, and believe we are enough, exactly where we are.