Dr. Brittany Chambers is a community health scientist dedicated to advancing sexual and reproductive health equity among Black, Indigenous, and Other People Of Color’s (BIPOC). She merges critical and public health theories to partner with BIPOC women and birthing people and organizations to better understand, operationalize and dismantle racism.

To better understand racism, funded by California Preterm Birth Initiative, Dr. Chambers and Dr. Anu Gómez at UC Berkeley, are taking a cell-to-society approach to understand how racism gets underneath the skin to contribute to preterm birth experienced by Black and Latina/x women in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Supporting Our Ladies and Reducing Stress to prevent preterm birth (SOLARS) study was designed to evaluate the relationship among psychological stressors, molecular risk factors, and gestational age in Black and Latina/ women residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. We were able to enroll 112 Black and Latina/x women and their babies collecting survey and biospecimen data across the pregnancy and postpartum periods.