Health Care

By Emily Blobaum, Fearless editor Last year, Olivia Samples had a dream of starting a conference around Black maternal health. Samples, a nonbinary Des Moines-based doula who serves Black and queer families, decided the conference would uplift the positive things happening in the community. It would center Black birthing people, and Read more…

By Emily Blobaum, Fearless contributing editor Black birthing people in Iowa are six times as likely to die from childbirth than their white counterparts. Olivia Samples has heard that statistic plenty of times. Quite frankly, they’re tired of hearing it. “Having folks die in childbirth should not be an outcome Read more…

Aneesa Afroze is the infectious disease consulting physician, president of medical staff and director for antimicrobial stewardship at MercyOne and is responsible for day-to-day medical staff issues and patient treatment planning. Co-workers describe her as the Dr. Anthony Fauci of the hospital, by which she is flattered, but she says Read more…

Megan Srinivas is an infectious disease physician and public health researcher based in Fort Dodge and is on the faculty at the University of North Carolina. Her research is focused on health inequities that are affecting rural areas both domestically and internationally. Additionally as a member of the council for Read more…