We are excited to highlight our work with SisterWeb, a San Francisco-based community doula network dedicated to advancing birth equity and justice for Black families. SisterWeb is a network of culturally congruent community doulas and birth workers who ensure that pregnant people from these communities have access to fair and equitable doula care. The organization also supports its doulas by providing the tools, skills, and mentorship to succeed as professional birth workers. Over the past several years, the Wallace Center and UC Berkeley’s Center of Excellence in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health have supported graduate student interns at SisterWeb to contribute to its programming and expand the Champion Dyad Initiative (CDI), a community-rooted model that strengthens culturally concordant care and supports the community birth workforce.
Originally developed by SisterWeb and clinical partners in San Francisco, the CDI pairs community doulas with hospital-based champions such as physicians, nurses, and midwives. These dyads work together to strengthen communication, collaboration, and accountability within maternity care settings. Through ongoing dialogue and shared learning, the model aims to create a system in which Black birthing people receive respectful and equitable care throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.
The Wallace Center has supported this work from multiple angles. On the research side, Wallace-supported graduate student researchers have contributed to evaluating the CDI alongside Wallace faculty member Prof. Cassie Marshall and collaborators at UCSF. Graduate student researcher Edwina Malmberg has helped analyze program data and contribute to research examining how partnerships between doulas and clinicians can improve perinatal care for Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. Looking ahead, Prof. Marshall plans to expand evaluation of the CDI model across larger healthcare systems.
The Wallace Center has also supported MCAH workforce development through student internships with SisterWeb. In summer 2025, Wallace Center MPH Intern Marley Loveman-Brown worked with the organization on projects focused on training, education, and evaluation. Through her development of curriculum for a workshop series designed for obstetricians, gynecologists, and labor and delivery nurses in Los Angeles County, SisterWeb was able to strengthen foundational collaboration between doulas and clinical providers.
Marley also led an evaluation of the workshops by designing pre- and post-session surveys, demonstrating strong impact: participant knowledge of doulas’ role in improving Black maternal health increased by 62%, while understanding of referral pathways and available resources increased by 70%.
Building on this work, SisterWeb is expanding access to doula education through a new partnership with City College of San Francisco, launching the Blossoming Birth Community Doula Training Course (HLTH 210), a three-unit credited course and the first of its kind in the Bay Area. The program brings culturally rooted, community-driven doula training into the classroom and prepares students to provide emotional, physical, and educational support throughout pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum period.