Championing safe, joyful births for Black women.
Her story: Dr. Shalon
Shalon MauRene Irving, PhD, MPH, MS, was a CDC epidemiologist and a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service — a scientist, a mother, and a fierce advocate for equity.
In the three weeks after welcoming her daughter, Soleil, Shalon sought care again and again, seeing her maternal‑fetal medicine specialist/OB seven times as symptoms persisted. She was surrounded by a caring, highly educated mother and an engaged village. She also worked at the CDC, with daily insight into the very disparities she was navigating. Even with all of that, the system did not listen deeply, connect the dots, or act in time. In January 2017, Shalon died from preventable postpartum complications.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project exists to carry her work forward with love, urgency, and accountability, building care that hears, sees, and follows through for Black women.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project™ (DSMAP) is a national initiative transforming Black maternal health through healing, advocacy, and culturally grounded community action.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project (DSMAP) brings families, community leaders, and clinicians together to make pregnancy and the weeks after birth safer and more supported. We connect evidence with lived experience through healing work, advocacy, and culturally grounded action.
Across the United States, too many Black women face preventable complications during pregnancy and after birth — regardless of income or education. The cause isn’t biology or behavior. It’s whether care listens early, responds with respect, and follows through.
We honor Dr. Shalon by building what should have been there for her: culturally safe care that listens, believes, and treats every Black woman’s birth as sacred.
Who we are
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project™ (DSMAP) is a national, community‑centered nonprofit transforming Black maternal health through healing, culturally grounded advocacy, and systemic change. We honor Dr. Shalon by advancing equity, accountability, and maternal justice.
What We DO
Rooted in the SHALON Method™
Every initiative at Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project is powered by the SHALON Method™—a bold, community-centered framework that demands systems see, value, and serve Black women as whole human beings.
We all have bias. That is not an indictment; it is part of being human. SHALON Blueprint™ turns awareness into action. Using real cases, the Mirror Exercise, and coached application, teams learn to see the person first, spot risk sooner, and respond with dignity and skill. The result is safer care, stronger trust, and habits that hold under pressure.
Formats
In person, half day. Interactive workshop for mixed-discipline teams with live coaching, case walk-throughs, and unit-specific practice.
Live virtual, 90 minutes. High-engagement session with breakouts, chat prompts, and quick drills that teams can use on the next shift.
You’ve carried a loss no one should. In GRAMMS™, you don’t have to carry it alone. This rolling-enrollment circle is for women who have lost a daughter, sister, partner, or loved one to pregnancy-related complications.
GRAMMS™ isn’t therapy; it’s consistent, compassionate community with clear pathways to resources if you want them.
We create a dignified, culturally grounded space for remembrance, connection, and steady support.
(GRAMMS™ originates from Grandmothers Rallying Against Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Sisterhood™ and welcomes all women who share this loss.
CommuniTEA 4 Change™ is one-day, community-powered convening that brings together community and faith leaders, Black women and families, clinicians, doulas, public health teams, educators, policy partners, and advocates. We align evidence with lived experience, name what’s getting in the way, and commit to immediate steps that improve care.
Co-designed with local partners, each convening creates a practical blueprint for the city — changing how people think about maternal health and how they show up for Black women during pregnancy and after birth.
How the Health System Often Fails Black Mothers
Black mothers in the U.S. are too often dismissed, unheard, or misdiagnosed—even when they advocate for themselves. Research shows that Black women are more likely to have their pain underestimated, their symptoms ignored, and their care delayed.
These are not isolated incidents. They are the outcomes of systemic bias, structural racism, and a healthcare system that lacks culturally responsive care.
The consequences are deadly: preventable complications, trauma, and maternal deaths that should never happen.
The system isn’t failing Black mothers—it was never designed to protect them.
Grief is our witness. Action is our answer.
Dr. Shalon—and so many other women—should still be here. Her death was preventable, the result of a system that failed to listen.
Four in five pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. These are not statistics to accept. They are a mandate. CDC
Their stories fuel our commitment to justice in Black maternal health. We teach, empower, and advocate, building what Dr. Shalon was denied and what every Black woman deserves: attentive care, dignity, and safety.
Protecting Black women means reimagining care from the ground up.
Be part of the change.
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A CDC epidemiologist, Lieutenant Commander, and fierce advocate for equity, Dr. Shalon dedicated her life to exposing how racism and stress harm Black women’s health.
Three weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Soleil, she died from preventable complications — a loss that ignited a movement for accountability, justice, and care that truly listens.e can rewrite the story of Black motherhood.