In early June, the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi), Twilio, and Techtonica co-hosted the third annual Hackers for Birth Justice event — a hackathon where technology and birth equity meet to improve Black infant and maternal health outcomes.
A hackathon is an innovation strategy that harnesses creativity, expertise, and technology to collaboratively develop solutions for complex issues. This two-day event brought together participants who formed small teams, built innovative solutions to address business challenges, and presented their applications to peers and leadership from PTBi and Twilio.
On June 13 and 14, five teams worked to conceptualize and develop solutions to combat challenges faced by Black mothers, birthing individuals, and their families. In this virtual, creative, and innovative space, hackers, developers, designers, PTBi team members, and community members collaborated to design and build prototype tech-based solutions addressing the Black infant and maternal health crisis.
Layo George, Founder and CEO of Wolomi, joined the kickoff event, emphasizing the importance of culturally competent digital solutions that understand the nuances of serving and meeting communities of color where they are. Wolomi is the only digital community created by a registered nurse of color, for women of color, aimed at improving maternal outcomes.
“I started this journey because I didn’t want to die on my own pregnancy journey,” she said. “Just because you make something digital, does not make it culturally competent, does not mean that we are designing a solution that understands the pain and the cultural nuances of a mom. That is one of the reasons why it is important to have platforms created from the community and allies.”
Watch the full kickoff
The judging panel included Natasha M. Cavanaugh, Vice President of Social & Environmental Impact at Twilio; Areca Smit, Director of Communications at PTBi; and Melissa Hanna, Co-Founder and CEO of Mahmee. The concepts were judged on social impact, technical feasibility, cultural relevance, and use of emerging technologies with an emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Meet the judges
Twilio, a customer engagement platform used by hundreds of thousands of businesses and over ten million developers worldwide, provided a $500 gift card to each member of the winning team. The winning concept was an app called SISTAS (Safe Informative Support Touching All Sistas). The app allows users to create a daily journal using prompts, voice notes, and texts that help them reflect on how they are feeling and how things are going. Though a sentiment analysis function engineered using AI, the app would monitor emotional state and send communications to friends, family, and care team members should the user be in distress and in need of support. Additionally, the app is designed to share resources.
The winning, BTS (Behind the Scenes), members:
- Alana Bui, Special Assistant to the California Surgeon General
- Je'Meshia Wade, Operations Analyst at PTBi
- Susi Franco, Full Stack Developer at Cerebral
- Yusuph Mkangara, Software Engineer at Twilio
Watch the winning team's demo
This event demonstrates the power of technology and collaboration in addressing critical health disparities and promoting birth justice for Black communities.
Judges
Natasha Cavanaugh | Vice President, Social & Environmental Impact, Twilio
As Vice President, Social & Environmental Impact at Twilio, Natasha leads the teams responsible for crisis response, environmental sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), employee impact, grants, and impact investing, and also partners with Legal on ethical product use.
Areca Smit, MBA | Director of Communications, PTBi
Areca Smit is the Director of Communications at PTBi. Prior, she was the Associate Director for Electronic Media at UC Hastings Law, Chief of Staff to the Dean of Berkeley Law, and a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. Areca has also served as executive director, project manager, and consultant to a variety of nonprofits and small businesses. She has an MBA in sustainable enterprise and a BFA in conceptual art. Following her experience with preterm birth, Areca joined the Alta Bates NICU Family Advisory Council—which she co-chairs.
Melissa Hanna | Co-Founder and CEO, Mahmee
Melissa Hanna is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mahmee, a comprehensive maternal and child healthcare platform offering personalized, ongoing education and support to new families. She received her Master of Business Administration from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, and her Juris Doctor (JD) from Southwestern Law School, where she teaches as an adjunct professor of corporate and technology law. Melissa has worked in operations and strategy at startups in healthcare, education, digital media, and consumer goods. Melissa founded her first business Audist Entertainment, a live event production company, at age fifteen, and later founded the Little Spoon Desserts Truck, LA's first dessert shop on wheels, upon graduating from Pomona College. Prior to launching Mahmee, Melissa served as Assistant Director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School.
Watch more of the teams' demos
