Community Advisory Committee
The purpose of the Community Advisory Committee is to represent the broad interests in the community to promote positive maternal and infant health outcomes. The Committee is responsible for promoting maximum interaction of families, community organizations, and businesses, and, ensure that HMHBGA’s activities are responsive and culturally relevant to those it serves.
Members
Dr. Tenisha Bibbs
Representing the Columbus Perinatal Region
Dr.Tenisha Bibbs is the CEO of Tenisha Bibbs Enterprises which holds 2 subsidiaries, Doula Helps and Birth Work Publishings LLC. The contributions Dr. Bibbs has made and continues to make within the perinatal world has greatly impacted her community. Her passion and determination in the overall health of mothers and birthing persons is the fuel that propels her to ensure that everyone involved in the birth experience are informed in the areas of postpartum care, lactation support, maternal mental health, and without out question includes fathers, partners and companions in the front line of advocacy.
With over 25 years of service between the beauty industry and the birth industry, Dr. Tenisha Bibbs shares her expertise in her published books: Behind the Beauti: Discovering Your True Beauty from the Inside Out and Ask a Doula: A Transitional Guide for New Moms, to coach expectant mothers through pregnancy and postpartum depression and giving encouragement as she shares her story of triumph in the face of hardships, domestic violence and her own postpartum depression as an African American Business Woman and a Black Mother in the United States. Her past pain became her life’s purpose and power.
Janki Vashi
Representing the Atlanta Perinatal Region
Janki Vashi is a Management Consulting Senior Manager with over ten years of experience in federal/state/local government, non-profit, and public service consulting. Janki went to Georgia Tech for undergrad and received her Masters in Public Health at George Washington University. She was raised in Augusta, GA, and now resides in Atlanta. Janki became a new mom in October 2022 and has profound respect and passion for mothers in need of prenatal and postpartum equitable care.
Joanna Jackson
Representing the Albany Perinatal Region
Joanna is native of Albany Georgia and mother of 3 teens girls. Joanna was a teen mother that had lived experience with Maternal Mental Health. Joanna is a fierce Community Organizer that loves advocating and organizing around social justice issues as well as networking and connecting families to resources. Joanna is founder of The Guardian Parent Support Services where she advocates and supports families from all walks of life based on need. Joanna would like to encourage parents that times may get hard but don't give up because a parent is a child first advocate. During her spare time, she loves to listen to Oldie Goldies and play with her grandson and dog.
Katherine Sylvester
Representing the Macon Perinatal Region
Dr. Katherine Sylvester is a mother of two, physical therapist, preeclampsia survivor, and VBAC-certified doula. She is the founder of Operation M.I.S.T. where she and her team daily and remotely monitor the health of women via a smart device and provide them with the support, data, resources, advocacy and education they need to have a healthy pregnancy, catch issues early and between office visits, survive delivery and recover without complications.
Katherine does not believe in assumptions, protocol-driven care or generalized interventions; instead, she believes that women’s motherhood journeys are as unique as their fingerprints and should be treated accordingly. She speaks with women of all ages as often as she can to help them learn, trust and protect their bodies. She finds great joy in showering women with love while empowering them to live! To contact Katherine, please email kdpt@operationmist.org.
Lydia Elliott
Representing the Augusta Perinatal Region
Lydia Elliott (she/her) is the representative from Athens, Georgia. Lydia has been a Certified Nurse-Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner since graduating from Vanderbilt University in 2015. After five years of working in a community health center in Sumter, SC, she moved to Athens in 2020 and has been practicing midwifery here ever since. She lives with her partner and her two children and (much to the dread of her undergraduate alma mater University of South Carolina) is raising two proud Georgia fans. She is passionate about reproductive justice, improving care for the LGBTQ community, supporting womxn's autonomy in their healthcare experiences and management of perinatal mood disorders. Lydia is happy to be working with HMHB Coalition of Georgia to serve Georgians through their various birth and parenting experiences.
Pamela Spears
Representing the Columbus Perinatal Region