In this special spotlight edition of Listen to Me Good, host Michelle Browder welcomes two women leading the fight for birth equity all the way from Kansas: Dr. Charlotte Smith, founder of the Kansas Birth Equity Network (KBEN) and director of birth equity at KU Med's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and her colleague, a KBEN grants manager and first-generation Nigerian immigrant. The two are in Montgomery, Alabama learning the history behind the maternal health crisis they fight every day back home.

Dr. Smith traces her path from a 300-person town in rural Arkansas to a PhD studying Black infant mortality, and the founding of KBEN — a research network built not around academic theory, but around trust: Panera Bread meetings with sorority and fraternity leaders, a "Celebrate Day 366" campaign that flipped the narrative from infant death to infant survival, and a network that's grown to nearly 200 members across two states. They talk candidly about building a doula-led prenatal care program, distributing $50,000 in community mini-grants, launching a barbershop mental health initiative for Black fathers, and fighting to keep their organization's name — and its promise to the community — intact under shifting DEI policy. At the center of it all is a simple, radical idea: the people closest to the problem already have the solutions. You just have to listen.

This episode is part of Listen to Me Good's ongoing series spotlighting the organizations and leaders working to change maternal health outcomes for Black women and families nationwide.

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