Get to know Elizabeth
Elizabeth Dawes is the founder of Ìpàdé - DC’s first co-working, community, and event space designed for Black women and gender-expansive people of color. After first having the idea in 2019, she weathered the COVID-19 pandemic to open Ìpàdé’s doors on April 11, 2022. Ìpàdé is a beautiful and functional sanctuary where Black women, femmes, and they/thems of color can work, learn, strategize, and organize free from racially-driven macro and microaggression. Elizabeth is also the founder of Sisu Consulting, where she worked with initiatives focused on advancing social, racial, and reproductive justice for women of color across the world.
MORE ABOUT ELIZABETH
Elizabeth is a strategist, advocate, communicator, and convener who turns research into social impact. She is passionate about solving social problems that specifically affect women of color. Elizabeth’s lived experience as a Black woman in the United States drives her to fight injustice to create a more equitable world. Her life’s mission is to create a world where women of color have what they need to achieve their ideal health and well-being.
She combines her technical expertise in reproductive, racial, and social justice and skills in strategy and communications to support her clients with strategic planning, efficient and effective communication efforts, and meeting facilitation.
Elizabeth is a recognized thought leader on women of color, reproductive and maternal health, and social justice who has been published in The Nation, The Root, EBONY.com, Rewire, TIME Motto, MTV News, and Huffington Post among others. She has been featured on MSNBC and other news outlets and is quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Mic, EBONY.com, The Nation, Vice, Bustle, and Quartz among others. Her work raises the visibility of and promotes action to address health and social justice issues affecting women of color that don’t get the attention they deserve.
Elizabeth is a co-founder of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. She ideated and co-organized the very first convening of what was to become the Alliance that took place in June 2015 and went on to serve as steering committee chair and then as co-director. Among a number of other accomplishments, Elizabeth helped establish the nationally renowned Black Maternal Health Week and the Black Maternal Health Conference and Training Institute, both the first of their kind solely dedicated to Black maternal health, rights, and justice.
Elizabeth was previously a senior policy analyst at Population Reference Bureau where she worked to bridge the research-to-policy gap by building the capacity of researchers, journalists, and advocates to communicate evidence to policymakers; identifying and creating opportunities for researchers to communicate with policymakers; and creating evidence-based advocacy products. Prior to PRB, Elizabeth was a senior associate at the Reproductive Health Technologies Project where she worked to expand access to contraception through policy advocacy.
In 2021, Elizabeth was selected for the Halcyon x Black Girl Ventures Intensive. In 2020, Elizabeth was recognized as an American Express Founder of Change. Elizabeth received the Joy O’Farrell Advocacy Fellowship hosted by the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch in 2018. Elizabeth was also awarded the Orange Rose Award from Every Mother Counts for her writing and advocacy on maternal health. In 2014, she was selected as a participant for the prestigious Progressive Women’s Voices media training through the Women’s Media Center. In recognition of her innovative spirit and commitment to progress, Elizabeth was awarded a CoreAlign Generative Fellowship, where she created a leadership development program for Black women, and a Center for American Progress Leadership Institute Fellowship in 2013.
Elizabeth is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and is a Charter Member of the Alpha Beta Upsilon Omega chapter serving Southeast and Southwest Washington, DC. Elizabeth holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a global citizen based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
HEAR FROM ELIZABETH
