the heart of mama
Here's why we do it:
Mariah Sabir (Co-Founder)
Mariah Sabir, MPH, is a dedicated public health professional with over a decade of experience in health advocacy, organizational management, and community engagement.
She holds a master’s degree in Public Health and a bachelor’s in Science. Mariah has managed city offices focused on social justice and public safety and consulted on health and legislative initiatives. They published articles on racial equity and social justice during her time at Boston Medical Center. She also co-founded a nonprofit organization focused on maternal health, empowering mothers with equitable resources and care.
As a mother of three, all of whom required NICU stays after birth, Mariah’s personal experiences with postpartum challenges and systemic barriers motivate her advocacy work. After being diagnosed with PTSD and major depressive disorder in 2012, she leaned on a carefully built healthcare support network to help her navigate these challenges. These experiences ignited her mission to address maternal health disparities, especially for Black women.
Mariah serves on the Community Advisory Board for Tufts University’s Center for Black Maternal Health and has extensive expertise in legislative reform, workforce development, and consulting for public health initiatives. Her future goal is to become an attorney, leveraging her legal expertise to better support her nonprofit clients and advance equitable maternal health systems.
Katie Riconda (Co-Founder)
Katie Riconda (she series) is a dedicated public service professional focused on building and sustaining access and equity through a social justice context. Katie’s career has spanned the federal government (FEMA), large international nonprofit organizations (Save the Children), small domestic community-based organizations (AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod), academic (New York University Wagner School of Public Service), research (Boston Medical Center), and entrepreneurship (MA Mom Advocates).
She has written local, state, federal, foundation, and corporation grants ranging from $1,000 to $70 million as a program director, liaison, and grant writing consultant. She enjoys supporting grassroots, community-focused, innovative initiatives with positive, lasting generational impacts. Katie received her MPA, specializing in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy, and BA in Sociology and International Studies. She is a former Barnstable Human Rights Advisory Commissioner, The Trevor Project Counselor, NYU Community Organizing Teaching Colleague, and Blue Cross Blue Shield MA Institute for Community Health Leadership Participant.
She enjoys year-round beach walks, local coffee shops, sending letters, photography, and dancing. She is from NY, now lives in MA with her partner, daughter, and son, and works in municipal government.
Stephanie Campbell (Advisory)
"Steph" is a public health practitioner, master facilitator, and a freelance consultant. With a career spanning over a decade, she has held diverse roles including sexual health educator, program coordinator, and grants manager. Most recently, she became a MAMA, one of her biggest achievements to date. Steph is a mother to four month old Jason Andrew Lynch Jr. fondly called Jase. She is passionate about postpartum care for Black women and families.
Stephanie fundamentally believes that high quality Postpartum care is a human right. She is deeply committed to using her talents and gifts in communities of color by fostering multiracial relationships and dismantling structural racism in public health and beyond. Stephanie fundamentally believes addressing structural racial inequities will lead to equitable outcomes across all systems.
She holds a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science from Howard University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Massachusetts. To sustain her work, Stephanie believes in radical self-care. She enjoys being a plant mom, reading and re-reading Octavia Butler's work, and spending quality time with family and friends.
Dynasty Harris (Advisory)
Dynasty is dedicated to empowering and supporting birthing people and families. With a deep passion for maternal health, breastfeeding advocacy, and holistic postpartum care, Harris combines her creativity and personal experiences to advance the organization’s mission.
As an aspiring doula, Harris is committed to offering compassionate, informed care to birthing people, drawing on her own experiences as a mother to guide her approach. She believes in the power of nurturing and providing practical, emotional, and spiritual support to new families.
A skilled content creator and social media manager, Harris has a knack for creating engaging, meaningful content that connects with communities, especially in areas of maternal health and breastfeeding support. Her work emphasizes storytelling and education, helping to raise awareness and foster connection within the parenting community.
In addition to her creative work, Harris is a dedicated full-time letter carrier. Her ability to balance a demanding job while nurturing her passions speaks to her resilience and commitment to both her personal and professional goals.
Outside of her career, Harris loves spending time in nature, caring for her plants, and diving into books. Her love for reading fuels her desire for continuous learning, while her connection to God provides the foundation for her personal and professional life. She approaches her advocacy and creative work with a sense of purpose, grounded in faith and a deep belief in supporting others on their journeys.
Yadira Richards (Advisory)
Yadira Richards is a compassionate and family-oriented individual with a deep commitment to making a meaningful impact in the lives of mothers and caregivers. Motivated by her own experiences as a mother and her desire to help others, Yadira joined MA Mom Advocate, a non-profit dedicated to providing quality, compassionate postpartum care to all families.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management and certification as a Community Health Worker, Yadira combines her academic background with a profound understanding of the challenges that new mothers face. Her passion for improving maternal care stems from her belief that every individual deserves access to support that nurtures both physical and emotional well-being after childbirth.
As a loving mother, Yadira is driven by her daughters and the values of family. She believes that caregivers are essential to the health and happiness of society and strives to ensure that every family receives the support they need to thrive. Through her work with MA Mom Advocate, Yadira is proud to be part of a game-changing initiative that is transforming postpartum care and empowering caregivers across communities.
Rachael Lovely (Inaugural Mom Advocate)
Rachael Lovely is a Cape Cod native and a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. She received her B.S. in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University and worked in both residential therapeutic counseling and cultural exchange programs for some time before moving into birth work.
Rachael has been working independently as a birth doula and Certified Lactation Counselor off and on since 2017. In between working with contracted birth and lactation clients through her business, Lovely Perinatal, Rachael also serves her tribal community as an indigenous birthkeeper and Certified Indigenous Lactation Counselor. Rachael is also a Certified Diagnostic Technician and will begin nursing school at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in May of 2025 with the ultimate goal of eventually becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife.
Having experienced discrimination and inadequate care within the healthcare system, specifically during her experience in finding providers while pregnant, she is especially passionate about confronting and addressing the racial disparities in maternal and infant outcomes and lessening the inaccessibility to diverse care options.
As a mother of two boys, each born of very different outcomes (one cesarean birth and one home birth), and through her birth work, Rachael has experienced and witnessed the wide range in quality and type of perinatal care available and is therefore a strong advocate for making the full spectrum of choices accessible to all. Even with a strong knowledge of perinatal topics and an awareness of different resources available,
Rachael still found herself struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety after the births of her children and therefore feels there is a gap to bridge between acknowledging the existence of these struggles and accessing care. She hopes to help others bridge this gap. When she is not talking someone’s ear off about “birthy things” or chasing her two boys around, she can be found indulging in her other passions- late night baking in her kitchen, reading a psychological thriller, or outside on a run!