Helen Arega, MA

Special Projects Analyst

Helen Arega – holds a MA in Urban Affairs and Public Policy with a concentration in Reproductive Health. After moving to California in 2014, she further pursued her passion and education for sacred birth and became a full-spectrum community based-doula, ultimately, co-founding Roots of Labor Birth Collective. Helen is a birth worker, activist, researcher and educator. She is a member of Black Women Birthing Justice and currently serves as the Program Director for the ACTIONS Fellowship; focusing on reproductive health and justice at University of California San Francisco-School of Nursing. She has contributed to a few publications on reproductive justice; Battling Over Birth produced by Black Women Birthing Justice and a book chapter in Moving Life Course Theory Into Action edited by Sarah VerBiest DrPH, MSW, MPH; The Criminal Justice System’s Impact on Intergenerational Health.
Education
MA, 05/2013 - Urban Affairs & Public Policy, University of Delaware
BS, 06/2011 - Community Health, Eastern Washington University
Publications
  1. Chambers BD, Taylor B, Nelson T, Harrison J, Bell A, O'Leary A, Arega HA, Hashemi S, McKenzie-Sampson S, Scott KA, Raine-Bennett T, Jackson AV, Kuppermann M, McLemore MR. Clinicians' Perspectives on Racism and Black Women's Maternal Health. "It's not the doctor - it's me." How self-blame obscures language and other structural barriers to diabetes care mong low-income Latinos with limited English Proficiency. 2022. PMID: 35651994


  2. Chambers BD, Arega HA, Arabia SE, Taylor B, Barron RG, Gates B, Scruggs-Leach L, Scott KA, McLemore MR. Black Women's Perspectives on Structural Racism across the Reproductive Lifespan: A Conceptual Framework for Measurement Development. Maternal and child health journal 2021. PMID: 33398713


  3. Chambers BD, Arabia SE, Arega HA, Altman MR, Berkowitz R, Feuer SK, Franck LS, Gomez AM, Kober K, Pacheco-Werner T, Paynter RA, Prather AA, Spellen SA, Stanley D, Jelliffe-Pawlowski LL, McLemore MR. Exposures to Structural Racism and Racial Discrimination among Pregnant and Early Postpartum Black Women living in Oakland, California. Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress 2020. PMID: 31919987