Our Moderator

Ashley Rainey is the Clinical Director for Maternal and Child Health in Indiana. She earned her BSN and MSN from Indiana Wesleyan University and is pursuing her Ph.D. in nursing research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a focus on how the child-birthing experience impacts the Black and African American women perinatal mental health.  Ashley is an elected Board of Directors member of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nurses and is committed to advancing nursing practice for all maternal and neonatal patients.  Her passion lies in creating high-quality and reliable care systems.  She is a wife and mother of three beautiful girls.

Our Speakers

Ariana McGee is the Founder and CEO of Navigate Maternity. NM has created a remote patient monitoring system for prenatal and postpartum patients. Mothers are dying and specifically, Black women are dying 3-4x the national average during childbirth and postpartum due to reactive care, data gaps, and bias. Ariana experienced the inequity in perinatal care after almost dying during childbirth with her fourth child. As a healthcare leader in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries (BD, Biogen, Genzyme, etc.) for the last 11 years, Ariana brings a wealth of knowledge and is uniquely positioned as a mother and healthcare leader to commercialize NM.  In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, AJ, and their four little ones – Jade (5), Trey (3), Naomi (2), and Aliya (1). “We’re here to save the mamas and the babies.”

Belva is the Patient Advocate at the Raphael Health Center, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center serving the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Possessing certifications as a Lactation Counselor and a Community Health Provider, she has served expecting and newly delivered parents since 2004. She is skilled in helping families navigate and advocate for themselves by providing the tools and information on OB trimester care coordination, the benefits of breastfeeding, and safe sleep techniques. Belva cherishes the lasting relationships she has developed with families on their journeys, and hopes to inspire others on this path as she has been.

Cheyenne is a certified nurse midwife practicing full scope care in Indianapolis IN. Cheyenne has been a midwife for one year and prior to that, she was a labor and delivery nurse for 7 years where she held numerous positions as a travel nurse across the country as well. Advocating for patients and learning diverse patient cultures is a strong passion of hers. Empowering women to be knowledgeable on their bodies and how to be healthier is important to Cheyenne. She enjoys caring for women who look like her as she knows it is more comforting for both the patient as well as for her. Decreasing the maternal mortality rate by providing midwifery care is one of the big reasons she became a midwife. Cheyenne enjoys traveling in her spare time. She recently just came back from South Africa where she traveled on a nursing mission trip to help with preventative primary care and teaching young girls at an orphanage about their gynecological health.

Sarah is a passionate public health professional who has spent her entire career dedicated to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. While working in state government and nonprofits, Sarah has remained steadfast on improving the lives of pregnant and postpartum people by conducting focus groups to learn directly from those with lived experience, designing and evaluating health programs, policy development, and the creation of non-traditional partnerships. Sarah earned her Master of Public Health degree from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science at Indiana State University. In 2016, Sarah became a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES®).