Janet A. Williams, DNP, MSM, CNM, FACNM

She received her Doctorate from Wilkes University and a Master’s in Midwifery from SUNY Downstate. She is a board-certified nurse midwife who has assisted over 900 babies earthside, managing low and high-risk pregnancies with collaborating OB/GYNs and Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists. She held an appointment as a clinical instructor at Columbia University for graduate midwifery students and is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She left clinical practice in 2023, not to leave maternal health behind but to transform systems. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn-Queens-Long Island Area Health Education Center. She is the national chair of the newly formed Maternal Health Committee of Chi Eta Phi Sorority Inc., a professional nursing organization with 9,000 registered nurses and nursing students.  She is a proud member of the Kappa Eta Chapter Inc. She is a highly sought-after trainer and speaker who has been featured on national and international platforms.

Health professionals should partner with women in their care, but to do that, they must listen to, connect with, and believe women. Healthcare organizations are held accountable for ensuring their staff have the information and the skills necessary to recognize and combat implicit bias and improve connection and communication with their clients. These ideals have led her to create her signature program entitled: “B.L.A.C.K. Mothers Interrupted”

 This cutting-edge program has launched Dr. J as the go-to maternal health professional for educating healthcare providers about implicit bias and how it affects the care given to women.

She is the author of two journals for new moms entitled:

“Transitions 4th Trimester Journal …Transforming.”

“Transitions A Midwife’s Pregnancy Reflection Journal”

www.transitionswomenshealth.net

Founder and CEO of Transitions Women’s Health Consulting, N.Y. United States

Constance Odonkor is a Principal Midwifery Officer at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana

With sixteen years’ experience and skills in maternal and newborn health. Her Passion for maternal and newborn health makes her exceptional in providing excellent, expert-quality patient care. Her leadership skills include inspiring, teaching, coaching, and mentoring students and staff. She has worked in various units, including the antenatal, obstetric emergency, labour room, postnatal, and baby’s unit, where she provides holistic care to women during pregnancy, labour, and postpartum. She had her diploma in midwifery at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Korle-Bu, after which she furthered her studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery.

For effective delivery role in leadership, she had the opportunity to study these courses at the University of Washington (USA) and was awarded a certificate in Leadership in Health Management, 2022, Policy development and Advocacy for Global Health, and Monitoring and Evaluation in Global Health 2024 – 2025, respectively. Furthermore, she is a lactation counsellor, serves as a facilitator for training at the obstetric department, and is the spokesperson for media engagements in the community for the department and hospital. She is also an active member of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association and the southern zone representative for G-DNA (Ghanaian Diaspora Nursing Alliance). In addition, she has researched pre-eclampsia, which is the knowledge of midwives in managing preeclampsia. She has presented abstracts for both local and international conferences. Beyond her clinical work, Constance organizes and participates in community outreach programs focused on maternal and newborn.
Due to her resilience, commitment, hard work and dedication to work activities; she was awarded the best midwife for Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital which was organized by UNFPA/Ministry of Health in 2020, she had an honorary award as the best nurse manager in 2022 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (Obstetrics and Gynecological department).
Principal Midwifery Officer, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana