Aza Nedhari, M.S., is executive director and cofounder of Mamatoto Village, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit that trains and deploys community health workers to support women through pregnancy, childbirth, and the first months of parenting. Nearly 90 percent of Mamatoto Village’s clients are African-American women, who have dramatically worse maternal health outcomes than other women, including higher death rates and more complications during pregnancy and postpartum. We spoke with Nedhari about her efforts to address what she sees as the root causes of these disparities.
