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Frankie Robertson MPA

Frankie Robertson

Frankie Robertson, known as the Capitol Doula, is a nationally recognized, respected leader in public health and is the founder and President of The Amandla Group LLC, a social justice advocacy consulting firm specializing in addressing the social, structural, and political determinants of health impacting Black and brown birthing people through public policy and advocacy. The Amandla Group works to empower Black birthing people and eliminate systemic barriers that create deadly health inequities.

Frankie is also the founder of Black Joy, a doula firm providing doula services, specialized doula training, and community education to support positive birth and mental health outcomes for birthing people with an emphasis on supporting high-risk clients of color and parents of infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Through her work as a doula trainer and community educator, she is affectionately referred to as The Preemie Doula.

In 2020, Frankie launched the highly successful web series, #BlackMamaJoy, a series of interactive and uplifting Black maternal wellness community conversations featuring Black women as expert panelists. The conversations celebrated, empowered, uplifted, and informed Black women and birthing people of childbearing age and their families on issues of overall wellness, maternal health, and systemic threats to prevent maternal deaths and severe maternal morbidity.

Frankie has worked in grassroots nonprofit organization management for 22 years and in maternal and child health for 15 years. Her work in maternal and child health began as the state director of the Louisiana Chapter of March of Dimes. During her tenure as state director, her talented team partnered with key stakeholders on highly successful statewide initiatives that received national recognition such as the 39 Weeks Initiative, Group Prenatal Care, Baby and Me Tobacco Free, and Go the Full 40.

Frankie also served as Regional Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at March of Dimes. She supported a team of staff, contract lobbyists and volunteers across the southeast region, including LA, MS, AL, TN, FL, GA, NC, SC, and Puerto Rico. Key advocacy initiatives included maternal mortality and morbidity, social determinants of health, health equity, workplace protections, paid leave, maternal mental health, protecting immunization laws, health care coverage, newborn screening, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and smoking cessation. Frankie’s experience building and managing coalitions has led to success throughout her public health career.

Frankie has an unwavering and unapologetic commitment to social justice and equity. She applies her experience as a mission mom, training as a facilitator and alumna of Dialogue on Race Louisiana, the training she received from the Interaction Institute for Social Change to facilitate racial justice work, and extensive training as a birth doula, to advance policies and engage in community education to address root causes and dismantle structural racism that leads to health inequities for Black and brown birthing people and families.

Frankie completed her undergraduate studies at Louisiana State University and received a Master of Public Administration from the Nelson Mandela College of Government and Social Sciences
at Southern University. She completed doula training from Dona International and Sista Midwife Productions. She serves on the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative Advocacy & Policy Subcommittee and she is actively engaged in the New Orleans Maternal Child Health Coalition and the Mama+ Health Policy Core Group.

Frankie was featured in Ebony Magazine as a Young Leader of the Future, she is a 40 under 40 honoree of the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, and in 2020, she was named by InRegister Magazine as a Woman with A Cause for her dedicated volunteer work in dismantling structural racism with Dialogue on Race Louisiana. Most importantly, she is married to Levi Robertson and has two children, Levi II (8) born full term and Zoe Amandla (5) who was born three months prematurely.