Chair: Professor Seeromanie Harding

Seeromanie Harding is Professor of Social Epidemiology at King’s College London, where she leads the Population Health and Nutrition Research group. Seeromanie's expertise spans social and ethnic inequalities in health over the life course, international comparative studies, and community-based interventions in low resource settings.

She has a keen interest in using community-based participatory methods and systems perspectives to engage with the complex socio-cultural-political contexts that drive health disparities.

Dr Karen Joash

Dr Karen Joash is the Head of School for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, London at Health Education England and expert in maternal inequalities.

Karen is an obstetrician and gynaecologist who is passionate about delivering high quality care to all women. Karen has been working in obstetrics and gynaecology for over ten years and is well known for being a skilled labour ward practitioner. Expertise: High risk obstetrics, perinatal mental health, postnatal care, maternal medicine, general gynaecology, outpatient hysteroscopy, menstrual disorders, early pregnancy, acute gynaecology.

Dr Hannah Rayment-Jones

Dr Hannah Rayment-Jones is a midwife and Advanced NIHR Research Fellow in the Department of Women and Children’s Health at King’s. She has worked in a range of clinical midwifery and obstetric settings, including the provision of continuity of care for women with social risk factors. Her research focuses on maternal and child health inequalities and has been largely informed by her clinical experience and strong interest in equity and social justice. 

Hannah's previous post was a midwifery tutor in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at KCL, leading the Social Sciences and Normalising Birth modules. Hannah has worked in a range of clinical midwifery settings, including the award-winning caseload team at Imperial College NHS Trust, providing continuity of care for socially vulnerable women and a homebirth service.

Her current advanced NIHR fellowship focuses on the long-term health and social outcomes of women and children with no recourse to public funds and irregular migrant status. She is working alongside lived experience groups, migration experts, policy makers and charities including Maternity Action and Birth Companions.

Sandra Igwe

Sandra Igwe is a Black maternal health advocate, Government Policy Advisor, and is the Chief Executive of The Motherhood Group, a leading organisation that supports the Black maternal experience by delivering community-based events (Black Mum Fest), maternal training workshops and conferences (Black Maternal Health Conference UK), peer-to-peer support, national campaigns (Black Maternal Mental Health Week UK), and culturally sensitive programmes commissioned by NHS England. The Motherhood Group also has a community hub in Lambeth Town Hall as a safe space for Black mothers and families.

Sandra is a leading voice that bridges the gap between the community of Black mothers and service providers, policy-makers and organisations. a key-note speaker for Facebook (now META) , Dove, MBRRACE-UK, Nike Women, UBS and other notable corporations.

She has been listed by both Vogue UK and Forbes as the ‘Influential Women of the Year’

Dr Raquel Catalao

Dr Raquel Catalao is a clinical academic and higher specialty trainee in general adult psychiatry and medical psychotherapy in South London. She works as a psychiatrist in a local perinatal mental health service and her research focuses on racial and ethnic inequalities in multi-morbidity in women of reproductive age.  Raquel has recently co-authored an article on “Tackling racism in maternal health”  with experts from the NHS Race and Health Observatory published in the BMJ