About S.H.E. Circle: Meet the Founders

Meet the S.H.E. Circle Founders

Amari Pearson-Fields

In her own words:

"Every woman has a militant responsibility to involve herself actively with her own health. We owe ourselves the protection of all the information we can acquire about the treatment of cancer and its causes... And we owe ourselves this information before we may have a reason to use it.”

Audre Lorde wrote these lines in her Cancer Journals, they had power then and they still have power today. The S.H.E. Circle is about fulfilling the debt that we owe ourselves. As African American women we stand on the ground of our ancestors. We are connected to those women who have gone before us spiritually and in other ways. The women in my family all died far too young from cancer, diabetes, obesity and kidney failure. I live with the legacy of hypertension as well. When I look around my community I see that same cycle of hypertension, stress, depression, and obesity being repeated. We must become actively, energetically, and passionately involved in reclaiming our wellness and honoring our divine spirit. The work of this project is my calling, my purpose, it is why I was created. It speaks to my commitment to improving the health of my community. When I reclaimed my African name I became Amari Sokoya which means strength, and visionary who champions the cause of the suffering. It is a lot to live up to. Leading the S.H.E. Circle program let me fulfill that promise.

About Amari:

Amari Sokoya Pearson-Fields, MPH (Washington, DC) served as the Deputy Director and Research Director for the Mautner Project, the National Lesbian Health Organization. Her primary research interests included access to healthcare for minority populations within the lesbian community. She was the principal investigator on the Black Women2Women Spirit Health Study and a study addressing Access to Cancer Screening for Butch Identified Lesbians. Additionally, she directed the Mautner Project’s social marketing campaign aimed at reducing tobacco use for Lesbians over 40 and the healthcare provider training program Removing the Barriers to Accessing Health Care for Lesbians. Ms. Pearson-Fields currently serves as the Director for the Capital Breast Care Center in Washington, DC.

In 2004, Ms. Pearson-Fields was awarded the Walter J. Lear, MD Outstanding Student Research Award. She is also a recipient of a Ford Foundation Research Fellowship (2001-2002). Her previous work has included research on HIV, substance abuse, maternal and child health and adolescent violence. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Public Health at Walden University.

Ami M. Gaston

In her own words:

"The health of our community lies in our hands. The health of our children lies in our hands. Both of these rely on our own health, which lies solely in our hands."

The health of our community lies in our hands. Having pursued and participated in a project such as this one not only speaks to my passion of wedding Body, Mind and Spirit health and connectivity together, but it also hits closest home for me, because its focus is directly on African American Lesbians—my community. To me, Spirit Health Education becomes the crux and the essence of all aspects of our daily health care. Without the spirit to educate ourselves about our health, then both our health and our spirit deteriorate.

About Ami:

Amikaeyla M. Proudfoot Gaston served as the Spirit Health Education Project Coordinator and Systems Administrator for the Mautner Project, the National Lesbian Health Organization. She has done extensive work in the health arena, focusing primarily on health research, education, and outreach, and has taken a particular interest in all aspects of women’s health, with particular interest in Complimentary Alternative Medicine and the bio-psychological effects of music on one’s health.

She is the Founder and Exutive Director of Amethyst & Indigo, Inc., the national non-profit organization for womyn of color and many cultures, which advocates for the holistic approach to health – full attention to body/mind/spirit connectedness and services women, primarily lesbians, in the African-American, Native-American, Asian, and Hispanic communities in the northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. She also has worked extensively as a cultural competency diversity coach and is a national trainer for the Mautner Project in the Removing the Barriers project. She also leads conflict management / resolution workshops for nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C. through another organization she co-founded known as Paradigms 2020.

Ami has served as the former co-chair of the District of Columbia Health Advisory Board and former director of the Howard University Nwataoma Medical Advisory Health Outreach Association, and has over 10 years experience in alternative healing modalities, organizational development, HIV counseling, grassroots community organizing, and feminist social justice and advocacy work. She has received numerous awards such as the CIBA-GEIGY Award for Outstanding Community Service, and the Charles B. Ray PIONEER Award for Exemplary Leadership and Outstanding Service.

Presently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Institute with a concentration in Indigenous Spiritual Music and Ritual Rites.