Hakima Payne

Hakima Tafunzi Payne, is the founder, and Executive Director of Uzazi Village, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating health outcome disparities in maternal and infant health in African-American communities. She holds a Bachelors in Nursing and a Masters in Nursing Education. Ms. Payne is the creator of the Village Doula Program (a community-based home visiting and perinatal doula program for pregnant individuals), Chocolate Milk Café, (a breastfeeding support group for Black families), the Village Circle, an Afro-centric group prenatal care model, and Culturally Congruent Care (an anti-racist medical education curriculum). She speaks nationally on the topics of Black maternal and infant health.  Ms. Payne works tirelessly to make birth safer, the village healthier, and to promote anti-racist care models for African-American families. She is the subject of two documentaries, “Sister Doula” and “Pregnancy and Prejudice”.  Ms. Payne resides in Kansas City, Missouri.