Here in Washington, D.C., women’s history is being written every day by women leading with purpose, strategy, and lived experience. The story is not confined to monuments or moments of national recognition; it unfolds in boardrooms, clinics, classrooms, faith institutions, and neighborhood spaces across the city.
At the JBRF, that work is rooted in legacy. Washington, D.C. has long been shaped by Black women who advanced education, civil rights, and public health. Leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune, who established the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, and Dorothy Height, a lifelong civil rights strategist and advocate for Black women’s leadership, helped shape national movements from within the city. Their insistence on dignity, economic opportunity, and representation laid foundations that continue to influence how equity is pursued today.
That legacy continues through organizations led by Black women who are building stronger networks of care and opportunity across the city.
East of the Anacostia River, that commitment to leadership and representation takes form through Black Women Thriving East of the River. Under the leadership of Nakeisha Neal Jones, the initiative advances workforce development and cancer support services rooted in lived experience. Keisha Igbazua strengthens operational strategy and maternal health equity efforts. DeJuan Mason connects residents of Wards 7 and 8 to career pathways. Lady Nwadike ensures culturally grounded patient navigation for women facing complex health journeys.
The stakes of this work are real. Black women continue to face disparities in health outcomes, barriers to economic mobility, and systemic underinvestment in their communities. Addressing these challenges requires more than programs. It requires infrastructure, trust, and leadership that understands both policy and people.
The Strategic Design and Patient Navigation Workgroups brought together women leaders who helped shape the foundation of Black Women Thriving and the work it advances today.
Participants included Amari Pearson-Fields and Sade Anderson-Brown, co-chairs of the Patient Navigation Workgroup; Aiyi’nah Ford, President of Strategy District PLLC; Erin Price of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts; and Eucharia Borden of Cancer Support Community.
Together, they have helped design stronger, more accessible pathways for Black women navigating cancer diagnoses and care. Their work reflects a commitment not only to services, but to lasting structural change. They are reimagining how care is delivered, how support is
structured, and how lived experience informs policy and practice. In doing so, they ensure that solutions are built with the community, not imposed from the outside.
Across communities East of the River, Black women have built long-standing, trusted programs and organizations that support women’s health, family stability, wellness, vitality, and faith. Community partnership extends even further through leaders who continue to strengthen this ecosystem. This includes Dionne Bussey-Reeder, CEO of Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, who builds family stability and long-term opportunity for families in the region, and Charnal Chaney, founder of BOLD Yoga, who expands wellness access in neighborhood spaces. Reverend Jessica Hayden, a long-standing United Methodist Church partner and now Connecting Pastor for the DC East of the River Hub, exemplifies faith-centered leadership that responds to pressing community needs while cultivating deeper collaboration among churches and residents East of the River.
What connects all of this leadership is a commitment to changing structures that have too often overlooked Black women’s health, economic security, and expertise. This work is strategic, collaborative, and sustained, built on networks of trust and shared responsibility that extend across neighborhoods and sectors.
Women’s History Month offers an opportunity to recognize this movement. To affirm that behind every strategic plan is a woman doing the work, behind every workforce training cohort is a leader building pathways, and behind every policy conversation there should be lived experience informing the solution.
The story of equity in Washington, D.C. is personal. It is local. It is generational. And it continues to be written by the women who are building stronger systems of care, opportunity, and leadership for the communities they serve.