Ayanna Davis

As the fifth generation of her family to live in the Bay Area, Ayanna Davis, also known as, “Mama Ayanna,” is passionate about our Bay Area Community’s health, wellness and wellbeing. She is a wife, mother of seven and a grandmother of seven with one more on the way. She is currently Deputy Executive Director of Healthy Black Families, a community public health non-profit with a history of educating, empowering, and advocating for pregnant and parenting Black women, caregivers and their families. Healthy Black Families is dedicated to providing people with knowledge, skills, and strategies to make social systems and policies more equitable for Black people and marginalized communities. The vision of Healthy Black Families is to organize individuals, families, and the organizations that serve them into communities empowered with knowledge and skills to advance social equity and justice. Through these efforts, the organization works for health equity, against displacement and endeavors to inspire community members to vision, work together in strategic unity, and create a thriving, healthy community with a vibrant and empowered future that serves all the needs for the safety and wellbeing of the people that live here. As Deputy Executive Director of the organization, Mama Ayanna provides leadership through the planning, designing, implementation, facilitation and supervision of Healthy Black Families’ program activities, advocacy education, and policy development, as she trains future leaders, works with collaborative partners and consultants; builds relationships with community organizations, key community members and stakeholders; and participates in coalition building. She believes that “Resistance Is Sacred Work” and “Housing Is a Human Right’. Most recently she and the amazing staff at Healthy Black Families worked with the City of Berkeley to create the city’s first Affordable Housing Preference Policy, and lead the Equity 4 Black Berkeley People’s Assemblies, creating the People’s Preferences for a thriving Black Berkeley.