For the last 5 years, Hope Elliott and Susan Cline Lucey have engaged in regular discourse about the elephant in the room.

As curious connectors, they observed the overwhelming majority of white participants in the GROW community juxtaposed with one single teacher of color and the challenges BIPOC students face in the space. They began to ask:

• How do we intentionally address this gap in care?

• How do we create a space that accurately reflects birthing populations in Vermont?

• How do we integrate underrepresented birthing people into a framework that both mitigates the harm of supremacy culture yet reduces division?

• How do we pool resources to uplift the BIPOC birthing community without the assumption all are experiencing financial deprivation?

In June 2025 a grant opportunity from Building Brighter Futures created the resources to go from questioning and visioning to action. The first order of business: engage consultants familiar with the space and population to build, and inform the vision as Founding Advisors. First generation Haitian-American, Natanya Vanderlaan (She/Her) instantly came to mind. Both a client of GROW and force of a facilitator and operational consultant in the social justice space, she too candidly offered reflections of her experience as “An Only” at GROW. Heather Gallagher (She/Her), a GROW affiliated Doula who supports families in birth, postpartum and at the end of life/ post sudden loss, is the daughter of a deaf Chinese immigrant. She is also a birth and family photographer who has documented diverse clients across the world in some of their most intimate moments. Heather brings the wisdom of her unique life experiences to create emotionally safe spaces for the individuals she works with. Susan Cline Lucey (She/Her) is a white perinatal educator, yoga teacher, birth doula and founder of GROW Prenatal and Family Center. She specializes in high risk births, navigating loss, and supporting families with birth after loss. Hope Elliott (She/Her), with lived experience as a Black transracial adoptee, began her career in the fields of health promotion and clinical research focusing on education, prevention and outreach. She is a health equity advocate and consultant focusing her work on racial healing. She uses mindfulness as a foundational tool for empowerment and growth for herself and the populations she works with.