Across the United States and right here in New York, women are navigating crises that threaten their health, economic stability, and lives:
- One in five new moms experience a maternal mental health condition. Forty percent of Black women experience maternal mental health symptoms — nearly twice the rate of all women (March of Dimes).
- Between January and August of 2025 more than 455,000 women left the US workforce. And since February 2025, more than 600,000 Black women have been economically impacted — they lost jobs, are looking for work, or left the workforce completely (Fortune).
- The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries and is the only one with a worsening rate since 2000. Black women have died at three times the rate of white women. And in New York State, Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at nearly five times the rate of white women (The Commonwealth Fund, CDC National Center for Health Statistics, NYS Department of Health).
These intersecting crises require targeted policy interventions. In the face of these deep challenges, our Executive Director, Rose Pierre-Louis, joined leading policymakers and health experts across three major policy forums this fall to advance actionable policy solutions and institutional reforms to improve outcomes for women, especially those in underserved communities.
Addressing maternal mental health and perinatal workforce diversity on Capitol Hill
In September, she joined Congresswoman Lauren Underwood — lead sponsor of the Momnibus Act — at the 2026 Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative conference in Washington D.C. to focus on the maternal mental health crisis and the work Black communities are actively engaged in to address it. The cross-sector panel, which also included Dr. Jamila Perritt (President and CEO, Physicians for Reproductive Healthcare), Shanita Alvarez-Crawly (Director of the Alliance for the People of Color, Postpartum Support International), and Dr. Aza Nedhari (President and CEO, Mamatoto Village), looked at how we can ensure mothers and families receive the care, dignity, and support they deserve.
Rose highlighted a core issue during the discussion: building a maternal health workforce that is reflective of the communities it serves is vital to addressing this issue. Having the option to receive care from providers who understand your community and culture helps build patient trust and leads to better outcomes for moms, especially in communities of color. She also pointed out that we must think about how we are training future healthcare professionals and ensure that maternal mental health is part of the curriculum. Addressing the lack of access to maternity care while growing and diversifying the perinatal health workforce is a key part of the Momnibus through the Perinatal Workforce Act.
Busting women in the workplace myths: “Working Twice as Hard is Not a Strategy”
The very next day, Rose was back in New York City to speak with women from across the five boroughs as part of NYC Council Member Selvena Brooks-Power’s The Outlook for Women in 2026 conference. This time Rose and an inspiring group of New York changemagers — Hon. Tiffany Caban (New York City Council Member District 22), Leah Rambo (President, Nontraditional Employment for Women, and moderator Francillia Wilkins Rahim (CEO and Founder, Consultants, Inc. and AYO Labs) — turned their attention to today’s workplace landscape and the workforce challenges women are facing.
Anchored by the fact that “Working Twice As Hard Is Not A Strategy,” the panel re-wrote the myth that simply putting your head down and working harder is the secret to success. Instead, they broke down the systems holding women back and highlighted practical tools women can tap into to power their careers, including investing in intentional upskilling, building powerful communities, leaning into your village, and seeking mentors and sponsors who can help you create your career pathways.
Advancing health justice, protecting safe and affordable healthcare access, and supporting care choice for all New Yorkers
In October, Women Creating Change’s The State of NYC Women Conference 2026 brought together over 300 leaders, advocates, policymakers and community members to examine the issues shaping women’s lives in New York City. Returning to the topic of women’s health, Rose moderated a panel centered on a critical question: New York is a national leader on reproductive health and rights, so why are so many New Yorkers still being left behind?
Dr. Alethea Taylor (Executive Director, Hour Children), Lourdes A. Rivera (President, Pregnancy Justice), and Dr. Ann-Gel Palermo (Senior Associate Dean for Academic Community and Culture, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) shared insights informed by data and the lived experiences of the women with whom they work. All speakers anchored on a simple tenet: to achieve health justice and successfully shift the system, we must not only look at access to health but choice in care.
As Dr. Taylor told the audience:
“It’s not just, ‘Does she have access?’ It’s, ‘Does she have a choice in what happens?’ Can you imagine being incarcerated, raising a child for a year and a half, and then having to lose that child? The environment in which she is pregnant matters.”
Behind every harrowing statistic are women’s lives and systems that have ultimately failed them. Across every stage this fall, Rose centered a fundamental truth we understand here at NYU McSilver: we cannot break cycles of poverty without addressing these systems and uplifting the health and economic stability of women in poverty-impacted communities and beyond.
