Health in Her HUE Leverages Tech + Community to Champion Health Equity for Black Women
I remember reading Serena Williams’ 2018 Vogue interview in which she discussed being dismissed by doctors after seeking attention for birth complications. Since then it seems as though a new story is published every week about the various ways in which Black women are predisposed to negative health outcomes. As a young Black woman learning to take a more conscious approach to my own health, this narrative creates a world where achieving good health seems almost impossible.
Luckily, more and more Black women are reclaiming this narrative, working to empower our community with the information and resources needed to advocate for our health. One brand being Health in Her HUE, spearheaded by founder and CEO Ashlee Wisdom.
Ashlee Wisdom is a writer, healthcare professional, and challenger of the status quo. She received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the Illustrious Howard University and has a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Healthcare Policy & Management from NYU.
Her vision for Health in Her HUE was born out of her frustrations observing how structural racism impacts healthcare and health outcomes. Understanding the impact systemic racism and sexism have on Black women’s health, she felt compelled to empower them as they engage with a healthcare system that often fails them. In creating this platform, she endeavors to develop and curate innovative solutions for health issues that disproportionately impact Black women.
Tune in to our conversation about the work Health in Her HUE is doing to combat health inequality. You can find the full transcript of the interview below, as well as links to where you can find Health in Her HUE.
Kesi Felton: What's your story? So what's your professional background? How did you get to where you are today?
Ashlee Wisdom: Alright, so my name is Ashlee Wisdom. My background, I started off at Howard as an undergraduate student. I was a Biology major, Chem minor with the hopes of becoming a pediatrician or a psychiatric pediatrician or a pediatric psychiatrist. And so I'm doing that and then I realized, I'm not really interested. I did a few internships at Howard Hospital and a hospital system – a hospital here in New York City where I'm from – and realized that I didn't really like interfacing with patients as a clinician, and then I was really going through it as a student. I figured if I'm not passionate about this, why am I putting myself through this? I finished up at Howard with a Psych major and minored in Bio. With the idea that I would still probably apply to a post-bac program and continue medical school goals. And then I really realized like, nope, this is not what I want to do. And then my first job out of undergrad was working for the Community Health Center as a grant writer, writing is my passion and I also am very interested in health. So I thought it'd be a great opportunity for me to kind of like, you know, hone my professional writing skills while also still working in the healthcare sector. And the long and short of it is that first job out of undergrad opened my eyes to this other side of healthcare. And that side being public health. And so I decided to apply to public health programs.
I started off in one school didn't have a great experience there, dealt with some institutional racism, and then ended up applying to NYU and, started grad school there while I was working at Weill Cornell Medical College/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital and well that's the rest of that story. I did my MPH in public health policy, graduated, started working for New York City Health and Hospitals, again, managing grants instead of writing them this time, but looking for grant opportunities for the Office of Population Health and also just managing the grant funding. And then I realized that I wasn't really passionate about that work.
At the same time when I was finishing up my last year of grad school, I was really dealing with institutional racism in the department I was working in at Cornell, and at the same time in grad school learning about all the health disparities and the – just the poor outcomes that were facing Black women, and that activated me. I figured, you know, I don't want to just be sad and angry about the statistics, what can I do? And so I launched my company/ platform Health in Her HUE. And that again now opened my eyes to this world of healthcare and technology and the intersection of the two, and so I started looking for opportunities in the health tech space and ended up working for this advisory firm that I currently work at now. And we help large health care investors who are looking for the best and cutting edge health tech companies to invest in and so that's essentially where I'm at now. I work for a consulting firm, and I'm also the founder and CEO of my own digital health company Health in Her HUE.
On Accessible and Empowering Health Care Content
KF: One thing I noticed about Health in Her HUE is that the tone of a lot of y'all's content is very conversational, very familiar, and a form of storytelling. While at the same time tackling a lot of unaddressed topics and being super informative, so could you explain the intention behind that decision in making it a conversational type of content platform?
AW: Yes, when I was in grad school – I'm a nurse, I love reading academic journals, and I had to read them while I was in school. And I thought, you know, I'm getting all this information. I'm learning about what are the different factors that are impacting our health and why they are poorer health outcomes for certain populations compared to others. And I thought, you know, this is very important and valuable. information for me to have as a Black woman to be aware of "What are the different things that are at play in society that are impacting my health?" Because if you let the media tell it, you would think that you know, some of, you know, they talk about obesity among black women, you people would frame it as it's because we don't work out because of our hair and different things like that. And so I realized that I was in a place of privilege in the sense of being at an academic institution and having access to academic journals by virtue of being a student there. And I thought this information needs to be, you know, disseminated to other people who may not necessarily be in this classroom, and it's not, you know, you shouldn't have to be, you know, in an academic setting to understand what's happening to your community and what's happening to – what are the things that are at play that are impacting your health. And so, I wanted to create a platform that made healthcare information, particularly for black women more accessible, and also more relatable, because health information is not something – health is something that all of us have to be concerned about. And should be concerned about, but it's not the most, “sexy thing” for us to actively seek out. And so I wanted to make health information engaging, and do that in a very cultural way. So you pointed out that it's very conversational, I think as Black women, you know, we talk about a lot of things amongst one another, but we don't really talk about, like the different things that are impacting our health necessarily, and so I really was intentional about creating a space that made healthcare – conversations about health – and the things that impact us. I wanted to normalize having conversations about that. And I wanted to normalize making this information engaging, and also just very relatable and accessible. So that was, that was the rhyme and reason behind why our tone sounds the way that it does.
KF: And then touching on something that you mentioned was the narrative that's portrayed in the media around Black women's health. It's oftentimes largely negative, it just shows, you know, the problems and not really – doesn't really offer a lot of solutions a lot of time. So how do you hope to continue to address and counter that with Health in Her HUE in terms of the content and resources that you provide?
AW: Yes, I really, I think in the media, there's a lot of, you know, trying to catch people's attention. And I noticed that a lot of the headlines are like "Black women are three to four times more likely to die compared to white women." And, you know, just pointing out the problems, which is important. We should be aware we should be conscious, and not just black women – the people who are caring for us, the people who love us – they all need to be paying attention to what's happening. But I think a lot of times people talk about us, they talk at us. They point out things that are wrong, even if it's not necessarily our fault, because there are other things that play. I noticed that the media and society is really good at calling out the negative things or things that are harming black women, but rarely ever does anyone step up to the plate to offer a solution. Oftentimes it has to be us that have to...the onus basically is put on us to figure things out for ourselves. And so I wanted – in Health in Her HUE – I really wanted to be very intentional about making this a platform where we can reclaim the narrative. Yes, there are lots of things that are negatively impacting our health. Can we create space for us to talk about that first, address that, acknowledge that, be aware of that? But then how do we talk about what are the things that we need to do to address that what are the solutions that we need to create? What are the solutions that we need to demand from policymakers, from our providers? For the people that are around us who are making decisions that impact us, what can we do now to drive solutions for ourselves? Because if we sit down and wait for other people to do it, it's never going to happen. So that's, that's been my hang-up with the media said, you know, there's a lot of doom and gloom and not enough talking about what can we do to help Black women. What are the solutions that can address the problems that we are so readily pointing out? No one really wants to step up to the plate and really create real tangible solutions.
KF: How can people listening, generally people who are Black women – who like you said love, support Black women, who are caring for Black women – work harder to kind of bring those solutions to the forefront and continue to make sure that, we're actively trying to dismantle health inequity and solve these problems?
AW: Well, I think for one, what I want to start off is normalizing these conversations, these hard and difficult conversations, and not stir around them. I'm definitely someone that's like just call a thing a thing so we can address it head-on. I wrote a piece recently that was like, we need to just stop talking about racism in healthcare, we need to cancel it. But I do think that the first step is really normalizing conversations amongst us, amongst ourselves in the community, amongst Black women. Because we are experiencing the pain points. We're experiencing negative things about the healthcare system. You know, when we go to the doctor, we're the one that feels like this doctor isn't listening to me. We have those experiences. And so if you're experiencing the problem, you're in the best position to develop solutions to address them. And I just think right now, it's a forum for us to come together to talk about and commiserate about what are the negative things that are impacting us? And then take that conversation to the next level and talk about "Well, hey, I work in the policy space as a Black woman, here's what I want to use my position in this industry, this sector to drive solutions." I work in the health space, how can I use my position, working with investors and working with healthcare companies, to make sure that they're being inclusive about the solutions that they're creating and the innovation that's happening? I'm a clinician, what can I do to speak up in my clinic, you know, clinical meetings, to make sure that we're having real honest conversations about implicit bias. That is a forum that I really want to create with Health in Her HUE is to get Black women from across industries that are sitting at different sides of the table to come together and talk about the problems, but then use our various perspectives to come up with solutions to address the problems that are plaguing us in our community.
KF: What is your long-term vision for how you will drive those conversations and solutions?
AW: So long-term goals. I'm a big visionary. I have lots of ideas. But I would say more immediately from the longer-term goals that I have is to really make our content ubiquitous. I want to see Health in Her HUE content, particularly video content. You know, social media is such a big thing and the way that people are engaging with information now people are going on Twitter, people are going on Facebook, people are going on Instagram for information. As scary as that sounds, it's also an opportunity for us to leverage those platforms that people pick up their phones and access every single day to educate. And so I want Health in Her HUE to be a platform that's known for educating Black women on various health topics. It's also driving awareness of people who are not just Black women but driving awareness around the issues that impact us. Additionally, one of the first ideas that I had with the platform was to create a space online where Black women can easily find Black doctors if that's their preference. That's still something that's in our roadmap. However, I know that that's not the only solution that's going to drive change, you know, just going to a Black doctor as a Black woman isn't going to change my outcome. Although there's research that shows that you know, when people go to providers who they feel more comfortable with, their outcomes do tend to improve. But that can't be the panacea for the problem that we're facing. There are only 5.7% of physicians in the United States who are Black. So that's not the answer to the problem. But I do know that there is a demand and that Black women do feel more comfortable – some Black women feel more comfortable going to Black providers and so I do want Health in Her HUE to be a platform that easily connects Black women to Black health care providers if that is your preference. So that's something in our roadmap. But I would say overall, I really want to bring Black women from across the table, from across socioeconomic statuses to our platform digitally, but also, a big goal of mine is to have a healthcare summit so that researchers healthcare entrepreneurs, clinicians, celebrities, people can come to the summit, and really have really interesting and engaging and informative conversations about health that can then drive solutions to impact and improve Black women's health in the long term.
KF: And then one thing you mentioned that brought something to mind is this idea of accessibility, like what we were touching on earlier. You may address this already, but – understanding people that may not be on digital platforms – making sure that you're still reaching those people. And that those people can be impacted and have the information and resources as well.
AW: So I'm trying to understand the question correctly: how do we make sure that we're accessible to a woman who may not necessarily be on digital platforms?
KF: Yeah, or even maybe a more general question, with your work in the health policy space or just health in general? How do you see people addressing or trying to make sure that lower-income women, women who aren't on digital platforms have the same accessibility? Because that's one thing that I've seen in just writing about different aspects of – like Black maternal mortality is a huge thing where accessibility to information and resources is a huge thing. What is your perspective on that?
AW: Yes, I think one of the assumptions is that Black women or people from lower socioeconomic status, don't have access to the internet. There's been research that proves that that's actually not very true. Most people, especially the homeless, actually have cell phones, because it's become like a lifeline for them. However, I do think that it's important for us to, you know, disseminate information in various channels, because everybody isn't going for information online, you know, and so it might be someone who's sitting in a beauty salon or, you know, somewhere like getting their nails done and they may not be going on digital platforms for information, but they're probably picking up a pamphlet when they go to the hair salon or when they go to get their hair cut or something like that. I think it's important – to answer your question – I think it's important to be, you know, diverse in the way that you distribute information because you're not going to catch everyone through one channel. But I do think that using digital platforms, and I'm kind of biased, I do think it kind of democratizes information. However, I'm not naive to the fact that you know, that's not going to be the main way that you, you get everyone and so I do think some of the "old school ways" of going into clinics where people are and providing workshops, providing informational pamphlets are going to still be essential and critical to disseminating health information to people who are "hard to reach." And I say “hard to reach” because I don't think that we're necessarily people from you know, lower socioeconomic statuses are harder to reach I just think that they're often not prioritized. And I just think also that the way that we should we give health information sometimes it's just not engaging. Giving me a raggedy-looking pamphlet that has like just stock photos, isn't going to be the most attractive thing for me to read. That's kind of what I want to do with Health in Her HUE is kind of shakeup this idea that you know, if you want to get your patients to adhere to their medication, if you want them to become more health literate, then you need to make sure that you're providing information to people in an accessible way, but also in an engaging way. And so that means using digital, knowing where people are, and how you can get a captive audience and kind of give them – force-feed them information in a way that's engaging. And I'm hoping that Health in Her HUE can be the space of creating that content that is attractive, but also informative enough to disseminate in different spaces.
Health in Her HUE looks forward to 2020
KF: What has been your favorite part about building Health in Her HUE?
AW: It literally started off as an idea from a personal problem that I saw. So it's been really exciting and encouraging when I see Black women who are excited to share their expertise in our platform, who are excited that they have a platform where they can share their health story. That has been amazing to me is just seeing the impact that just creating this platform – with very limited resources that I have – the impact that it's having on our community and showed me that there is a demand for a space like this, that I wasn't alone, that I'm not crazy, and that I need to keep pushing and trying to, you know, improve the content that we're creating. It's just motivating to me, seeing Black women saying, "I appreciate the space that you created for us and I want to see it grow." That has been the most exciting part for me, because I really – when I launched that website, when I created that literally after hours, like reading a long paper for school, I didn't know how it was going to be received at all. I was just thinking I'm going to put it out there and I'm going to see what happens. And so seeing a kind of grow and evolve and seeing the impact that people claim it's having on them has been the most inspiring and encouraging and beautiful thing for me building it. Also my team. My team has been amazing.
KF: What can we expect to see from y'all in 2020? How can people be involved, get connected, and engaged?
AW: We are definitely pivoting from focusing on building that – what I mentioned the database of providers. And so I thought, you know, our mission is to connect black women to the healthcare providers, services and resources that are committed to their health and well-being. And like I said, that's still in our roadmap. It's still something we want to build, and are looking for the technical expertise to build out that database. However, I've noticed we've still been doing a good job of connecting Black women to Black providers – through our written content, through our video content. And that's something that we're going to be focusing on more in 2020 is improving the quality of our content, making sure that we have more written content – we still want them from patients and having the patient perspective – but we really want more written content from doctors, from nurses, from researchers, from healthcare entrepreneurs. That you know, because we really want to build up the credibility of the site, but also maintain that fresh and conversational vibe in our content so it's not just dry, boring healthcare information. So I would say 2020 look for fresher, more informative content from Health in Her HUE and that's the goal right now.
KF: My last question is, what advice would you give to Black women specifically, within the age range of 18-25 –which is the age range that I try to focus on with my content – how do we take steps to become better advocates for our health?
AW: I would say one, be more in tune with your own body. I think that's something that I've been also trying to be better at is listening to my body, because that will then make you more, I think, assertive when you go in to seek care. I had a friend recently who shared a healthcare experience that she's had. And just kind of listening to your gut and knowing like, I know something is wrong. And even though the doctors are saying and they're kind of like brushing it off, I think if we're more in tune with our body, we know when we need to speak up if we feel like our doctor is kind of dismissing us, because the reality is we know our body more than anyone else. I don't care if you went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Howard, like, no one knows your body more than you. And so I think we need to be in tune with our body, just like physically listening to it. We also need to make sure that we're staying on top of our checkups. We're you know, if we're sexually active, we're getting tested, we know what's going on. So that when we go to the doctor, we can advocate – we can speak up. You have to know what's going on with your body to advocate for yourself, I think is a number one thing. I would just tell young Black women to be informed, to read articles. If you feel something's off with your body, don't be shy. Speak up when you are in that doctor's office because it can literally be a matter of life and death. And the last thing we want is for someone to die from something that was preventable if they would have spoken up. Also, seek out providers to feel comfortable with. If you're going to a doctor, and you're not feeling the vibe, you're just not getting a good sense from them – don't hesitate to take your services elsewhere. I think a lot of times we think about healthcare, healthcare is not very consumer-friendly. It's very much provider and health insurance-driven. And that's just the unfortunate reality that we're in. But if you have the privilege, and even if you don't have private insurance, you still have options to some extent. And so if you're not feeling comfortable with your doctor, I say the first thing you need to do is look for a new doctor. You want to find you want to be with someone who still has your best interest in mind and is listening to you and is having conversations with you when it comes to your health and well-being.
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