CPH 27 – Stories, Sankofa, and Shared Strength: A Conversation with Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu
Release Date: 10/21/2025
CPH 42 — Strong Boundaries and Women’s Health in the Soft Life Era: A Conversation with Dr. Zupenda Davis
Courageous Public Health
In this episode, Dr. Zupenda Davis shares what it looks like to choose yourself — in your work, your relationships, and your health. From setting boundaries that protect her peace to speaking openly about women’s health and menopause, Dr. Davis brings a vision of public health that centers the whole person. This is a conversation about courage, freedom, and what becomes possible when women stop shrinking and start naming what they need. Meet Dr. Zupenda Davis Dr. Zupenda Davis is the Assistant Vice President of Student Health and Wellness at Stockton University, where she has strategic...
info_outline
CPH 41 — Pull Up a Chair: A Conversation with Indya Hairston
Courageous Public Health
In this episode of the Courageous Public Health Podcast, Indya Hairston—Johns Hopkins DrPH student, founder of Community Speaks Consulting, and advocate for Black women’s reproductive and maternal health—shares how courage defined her pivotal year of 2023. She talks about moving across the country for a fresh start, applying to only one doctoral program because it aligned with her purpose, quitting a stable nonprofit job to launch her consulting firm without guaranteed income, and choosing faith over fear at every step. Indya reflects on taking up space as a Black woman in environments...
info_outline
CPH 40 — Purpose, Possibility, and Black Men’s Health: A Conversation with Dr. Krista Mincey
Courageous Public Health
In this episode of the Courageous Public Health Podcast, Dr. Krista Mincey—public health professor, researcher on Black men’s health, and daughter and granddaughter of first-generation college students and rural Southern farmers—shares how courage has shaped both her life and her work. She talks about picking up and moving across states alone to say yes to opportunities that scared her, walking away from relationships that didn’t honor her worth even when it meant letting go of deeply held dreams, and learning when to stay quiet to survive a system and when to use her voice to protect...
info_outline
CPH 39 — Finding Your Happy and Your Health: A Conversation with Ashley Carter, MS, RD, LDN
Courageous Public Health
In this episode of the Courageous Public Health Podcast, Ashley Carter, MS, RD, LDN—registered dietitian, co-founder of Eat Well Exchange, and unapologetic foodie—shares how courage has shaped her path from youngest child to first in her family to leave home for college, and from secure government job to full-time nonprofit founder. She talks about building Eat Well Exchange to teach communities how to eat healthy with cultural foods that feel like home, and what it took to trust herself enough to “let the boats get close” and finally make the leap. Ashley also reflects on what it...
info_outline
CPH 38 — Courage in the Questions: A Conversation with Dr. Sandte Stanley
Courageous Public Health
In this episode of the Courageous Public Health Podcast, Dr. Sandte Stanley—public health scientist, sociologist, and founder of Atlas Collaborative Consulting Network—shares how courage has guided every step of her journey. She talks about discovering public health through an ACES internship, navigating personal loss during graduate school, and later earning a PhD in sociology so she could ask the structural questions that public health can sometimes overlook. She also reflects on how her identity as a Black and Native woman shapes her experience in professional spaces—where her...
info_outline
CPH 37 — What This Year Taught Me About Courage: A Solo Episode with Dr. Kristi McClamroch
Courageous Public Health
In this episode, as we wrap up 2025, Dr. McClamroch reflects on what this year’s conversations have revealed about courage in public health — and what that means for her work with women leaders and organizations. Because if this year taught her anything, it’s that courage isn’t optional anymore — it’s part of how we change the landscape of public health. Conversation Highlights Seeing Courage in Real Time — Dr. McClamroch reflects on the moment guests begin to recognize their own courage during interviews, and how that shift opens something powerful in them. The Patterns Behind...
info_outline
CPH 36 — From First-Gen to Trailblazer: A Conversation with Dr. Maram Museitif
Courageous Public Health
In this episode, Dr. Maram Museitif shares what it means to be a first-generation college graduate, a Palestinian American public health doctor, and the “empathy princess” in systems that weren’t built for her. She talks about fighting for the chance to go to college, becoming the first doctor in her family, and then watching her sister, niece, and cousins follow—turning one act of courage into generational change. She also speaks honestly about being a visibly Palestinian, hijab-wearing woman in predominantly white spaces—about being misjudged before she even speaks, even being...
info_outline
CPH 35 — Do It Scared: A Conversation with Dr. Bertha Hidalgo
Courageous Public Health
In this insightful and resonant conversation, Dr. Bertha Hidalgo—epidemiologist, associate dean, president-elect of the American College of Epidemiology, and multi-hyphenate creative—shares what it means to “do it scared.” She talks about building a fashion and lifestyle platform while hiding her identity, navigating academic spaces as a Latina scientist, and learning to step into courage even when her voice shakes. Dr. Hidalgo reflects on becoming a trusted public health communicator during COVID-19, bridging the gap between evidence and community, and redefining what it means...
info_outline
CPH 34 — From Breakdown to Breakthrough: A Conversation with Keylynne Matos-Cunningham, MPH, M Ed, LPC-A
Courageous Public Health
In this raw and deeply honest conversation, Keylynne Matos-Cunningham, MPH, M Ed, LPC-A—licensed trauma therapist, former public health professional, and dance-loving entrepreneur—shares how walking away from a “dream” racial justice/public health role became an act of survival. She traces her path from burnout, workplace trauma, and suicidal ideation to rebuilding her life as a trauma therapist, integrating EMDR and brainspotting, and reclaiming her lived experience as a clinical superpower. Along the way, she offers a sharp public health lens on racism, complex trauma,...
info_outline
CPH 33 — Boundaries, Belief, and Becoming: A Conversation with Dr. Janelle Taveras
Courageous Public Health
In this heartfelt and powerful episode, Dr. Janelle Taveras shares how courage, faith, and self-worth have shaped her journey as a public health professional, evaluator, empowerment coach, and mother. She speaks candidly about learning to honor her value in toxic systems, choosing boundaries over burnout, and embracing her full identity—rather than watering herself down to fit into spaces not built to receive her. Dr. Taveras also reflects on integrating her faith, her purpose, and her passion for uplifting others into a life that feels whole, aligned, and authentically hers. Before we jump...
info_outlineDr. Rahmatu Kassimu has built her public-health leadership at the crossroads of evidence, lived experience, and a fierce commitment to community. Guided by the West African principle of Sankofa—“go back and bring it forward”—she left a 12-year career in the classroom to pour knowledge and care back into the communities that raised her. In this episode, she shares what it means to “do it scared”: to advocate for students finding their voices, to navigate a high-risk pregnancy as a Black maternal-health expert, and to insist that stories are as essential to health as data. Together we explore how courage can be inherited and renewed—through storytelling, through village-building, and through showing up fully in the fight for equity.
Meet Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu
Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu, known widely as Dr. K., is a public health strategist, educator, and founder of Dr. K.’s Health Minute, a platform committed to dismantling the systems that silence, marginalize, or erase Black communities. With a dynamic background that spans sociology, health studies, education leadership, and community organizing, Dr. K. merges evidence-based practice with lived experience to build equity-centered systems and stories that heal.
Over the last decade, she has empowered students, families, and professionals through culturally grounded wellness strategies, academic writing coaching, grief support, and reproductive justice work. Whether she’s facilitating a workshop on maternal mental health, decoding health policy on Instagram, or mentoring future researchers, Dr. K. leads with radical empathy and unapologetic purpose.
Her mission? To make complex ideas accessible, advocate for those unheard, and expand what it means to live well, mind, body, and soul.
Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast
Conversation Highlights
- Matrescence & Motherhood: Dr. K opens up about the shock of early postpartum anxiety — including her day-eight realization that she was fully responsible for “this potato with poor neck control.”
- From Classroom to Courage: Guided by the principle of Sankofa, she reflects on 12 years as an educator, helping students find their voices, even supporting a student-led walk-out. Leaving teaching was a leap of courage to live her own advice.
- Pregnancy as Lived Public Health: Despite being an expert in Black maternal health, she discovered how little she actually knew about pregnancy until living through high-risk complications and an emergency C-section herself.
- Storytelling as Public-Health Practice: She argues that we’ve lost crucial intergenerational knowledge because we don’t pass down full stories about pregnancy, birth, and health experiences.
- Showing Up Fully: As a Black African-American woman with Liberian-Ghanaian roots, she insists that lived experience is a strength — not a liability — in public-health work.
- Power of Community: Calls for a return to wrap-around, community-centered care and shared responsibility, rather than the “me-over-we” individualism undermining public health.
- A Vision for the Future: Envisions healthier communities built on storytelling, intimacy, and strong villages of support — the kind of care she intentionally cultivates for her own daughter.
“We have to come back to the community narrative. We can’t keep thinking, ‘If you have, that means I can’t have.’”— Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu
Stay In Touch:
Dr. K.'s Health Minute - https://www.drkshealthminuteextended.com/
Dr. K on LinkedIn - https://www.instagram.com/dr.ks.healthminute/
Dr. K on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dr.ks.healthminute/
Dr. K on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DrKsHealthMinute
Dr. K on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.ks.healthminute
Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/
www.CourageousPublicHealth.com
Subscribe to Weekly Courageous Public Health Podcast Updates - http://eepurl.com/jcgQv6
**Remember to Like the Episode, Subscribe, and Leave a Review!**
Public Health Consulting To Support You
We partner with public health, healthcare, nonprofit, philanthropic, and government organizations to design workshops and facilitated sessions that help women leaders recognize, strengthen, and intentionally use courage as a leadership skill — especially in times of uncertainty, burnout, and systems under strain.
If your organization would benefit from this kind of support, we’d love to connect. Reach out on LinkedIn or on our website!