Tori Bowie: Don’t ever stop saying her name.

Tori Bowie: Don’t ever stop saying her name.

by Amber SmithNo Comments
*trigger warning: mention of death   Say her name. Frentorish “Tori” Bowie.  Dr. Shalon Irving.  Tatia Oden French.  Kira Dixon Johnson.  Yolanda “Shiphrah” Kadima.  Amber Rose Isaac. The list could continue extensively.   I lead with these women’s names because sometimes they get lost in the horrific statistics that that show a Black women is almost 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes than a non-Hispanic white women (Craft-Blacksheare & Kahn, 2023). The maternal mortality rate for Black women in 2021 was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births (Hoyert, 2023) with 393 deaths in 2019 alone (Fleszar et al., 2023), and most of these maternal deaths were deemed preventable (Fleszar et al., 2023). Further, Black newborns are over two times greater to die in their first year than white newborns. The role of racism in these preventable deaths is highlighted in the fact that the mortality rate of infants of college-educated African American mothers experience an infant mortality rate that is greater than those of white...
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Meet Our Research Team in Kisumu, Kenya This Summer

Meet Our Research Team in Kisumu, Kenya This Summer

by Amber SmithNo Comments
This summer, we have 5 Duke Scholars working with the Duke Center for Global Reproductive Health in Kisumu, Kenya. We have 3 undergraduate students joining the Center as part of the Student Research Training Program (SRT), a Masters of Global Health Student, and a 3rd year OB/GYN resident all conducting research in Kenya. Read below to learn a bit about these passionate students and hear about their work and what they are most looking forward to.    SRT Students: Sydney Chen (she/her) Sydney is a double major in Global Health and International Comparative Studies with a Biology Minor. She calls Herndon, Virginia home. When asked about what her time spent in Kisumu looks like, she reflected that “The team and I are working on various ways to improve an app called mSaada which helps women in East Africa receive screening for cervical cancer. I’m specifically working on the FAQ portion of the app by making sure that the answers are clinically accurate and using...
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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. EMILY HERFEL

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. EMILY HERFEL

by Amber SmithNo Comments
Emily Herfel, DO, Msc-GH, FACOG (Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists), is an assistant professor at Duke Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an affiliate at the Duke Center for Global Reproductive Health, and a volunteer professor at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania. Dr. Herfel completed her undergraduate work at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio followed by a Doctor of Osteopathy at Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio. She completed residency at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She then went on to receive her Masters of Science in Global Health through a Women’s Global Health Fellowship at Duke University. During that fellowship, she received an NIH-Fogarty grant to complete her project in Kisumu, Kenya. I had an enriching conversation with Dr. Herfel to learn more about her experiences within the global health sphere and her passion for reproductive health care. “Right in the heart of COVID, in July 2020, I moved to...
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Resources for Abortion Access Across a Post-Roe Nation

Resources for Abortion Access Across a Post-Roe Nation

by Amber SmithNo Comments
Pictured above: People marching in Boulder, Colorado for Reproductive Health Rights in May of 2022 with signs that say “Your right to abortion should not depend on your zip code.”   Unfortunately, though, zip codes shaping access to abortions may very much be more of a reality with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.    The New York Times reveals how the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mississippi law could weaken or even overturn Roe v. Wade which could ultimately lead to legal abortion access dramatically decreasing, particularly in the American South and Midwest (Bui et al., 2021). This geographic discrepancy is even more reinforced through social class differences and communities that are “disproportionately Black, Latina, teenagers, uninsured, and undocumented immigrants” (Miller & Sanger-Katz, 2022). Ultimately, leading not only to be a social justice issue and human rights issue, but also a racial justice issue. Bui et al. quotes Caitlin Knowles Myers saying, “A post Roe-United States isn’t one in which abortion isn’t...
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