Alicia D. Bonaparte, PhD.

Dr. Alicia D. Bonaparte is currently a Full Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and trained as a medical sociologist with a specialization in reproductive health, health disparities, and female crime and deviance. She earned her MA and PhD from Vanderbilt University in Sociology and her BA in Sociology (cum laude) from Spelman College. Her research interests include the gendered social hierarchy within American medicine, the intersection of race and gender in healthcare practices, and racial disparities. She is co-editor of the anthology Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth, contributor to
Routledge’s Motherhood Companion examining the collusion of race, class, and gender regarding choices about midwife-attended births as well as Routledge’s Black Feminist Sociology examining non-U.S. based global health researchers utilizes a Black feminist sociology and identifies how and why this model foments further advocacy-oriented evolution within research and interventionist approaches geared towards Black women within the African diaspora. She has been an invited speaker on birthing justice and reproductive justice for Doula Training International, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and University of California-San Francisco; and led a collaborative talk about disparities at LaGrange College. Dr. Bonaparte has also provided commentary to various documentaries focused on Black maternal health.

Check out Dr. Bonaparte's previous interview.

Tricia Gray

Tricia Gray is a Los Angeles based community worker with over 15 years of experience in juvenile carceral system, foster care, suicide education and awareness, and county public health. Currently, Tricia is the Volunteer Engagement Coordinator at ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE, the only abortion fund in the state of California providing free and unbiased funding and logistical support for abortion care seekers. Tricia and ACCESS are working to shift the "pro-choice" narrative of equitable abortion access, as this narrative has highlighted access for primarily higher earning white women in the country while critically limiting equitable access to reproductive healthcare for lower income, rural and most often, Black communities. Tricia believes in centering the most-affected community members as stakeholders for developing policies that will enhance quality of life for their communities; and the necessary push-back communities must collectively exercise when policies and public officials with vague and/or contradictory values are adopted. Tricia is an advocate for community connection and reconnection to indigenous Black practices as a means of transcending unjust American administrations, social service systems and policies.

Check out Tricia's previous interview.

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