Dana Sherrod is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the California Coalition for Black Birth Justice, a statewide organization advancing systems-change to improve Black maternal and infant health outcomes. A recognized leader in birth equity, she works at the intersection of community leadership, healthcare systems, and policy to drive better care and outcomes for California’s families.

With a track record of leading cross-sector initiatives, Dana partners with hospitals, government agencies, and community organizations to drive accountability, shift systems, and elevate Black-led solutions. She played a key leadership role in designing and implementing a multi-sector quality improvement initiative addressing racial inequities in maternal and infant health across nearly a dozen high-volume hospitals in Los Angeles County.

Throughout her career, she has developed statewide programs advancing mental health advocacy for Black women and led policy efforts to improve the built environment in historically underinvested Los Angeles communities.

Dana also serves as adjunct faculty at San José State University, helping to train the next generation of public health leaders. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, NBC, KCET, CalMatters, and Black Enterprise.

Candice Charles, MPH serves as the Research and Evaluation Manager for the California Coalition for Black Birth Justice (CCBBJ). In her role, she leads the evaluation of the Coalition’s Black birth equity focused programmatic activities and Coalition research efforts. In this role, she has overseen the publication of The State of Black Birth Equity in California 2025 Report and its companion web-platform, The California Birth Equity Connect. In addition to her work with CCBBJ she has worked as a national and statewide collaborator and strategic partner on topics like defining community rooted evidence and expanding midwifery access. Previously, Candice worked with Cherished Futures for Black Moms & Babies as an internal evaluator and prior to that with the South LA based/focused organization Community Health Councils to embed the community based participatory research model (CBPR) into organizational practice. She received her BA from New York University in Global Health and Anthropology and her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health where she focused her studies on both Global and US-based Sexual & Reproductive Health and Gendered Violence. Candice enjoys translating her passion for this work through various modes of artistic expression including poetry and ceramics.