Women To Watch 2025 honoree Kavelle Christie
- May 6
- 2 min read
Kavelle Christie is a strategic leader and health policy expert with a rare ability to balance big-picture vision with meticulous execution—turning bold ideas into tangible change. With
expertise in healthcare policy, public affairs, and community-led innovation, she develops solutions that challenge inequitable systems and reimagine what’s possible. Born in Jamaica, Kavelle began her journalism and public relations career, where she learned the power of storytelling to shape public discourse. Her experience in news media sharpened her instinct for clear, compelling messaging and her ability to distill complex issues into persuasive ideas that move people and policy. That foundation would later define her impact on electoral politics, advocacy, and systems change.
She transitioned into electoral politics, working across six states at the city, state, and congressional levels. As a registered lobbyist at the Rhode Island State House, she led legislative advocacy efforts, working directly with lawmakers to advance reproductive rights and expand access to care.
Her deep commitment to maternal health equity led her to launch a state-specific research initiative in 2017, analyzing Black maternal health outcomes and partnering with doulas, midwives, OB/GYNs, and community coalitions to identify gaps in care. Over the next year, she built deep, intentional relationships with community and state organizations to ensure their communities had a voice in shaping any future doula legislation. Through grassroots
outreach—including door-knocking, phone calls, and listening sessions—she elevated doula care as a central care solution.
She met individually with health policy stakeholders and city and state leaders, urging them to reexamine the need for culturally relevant policies. Her sustained advocacy laid the foundation for what became, in early 2021, the nation’s first legislation mandating Medicaid and private insurance coverage of doula care—a landmark victory for maternal health equity.
At the national level, Kavelle has contributed to key legislative efforts, including the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Underwood. She has been recruited to speak on maternal health barriers at congressional caucus meetings and collaborated with national coalitions to help advance federal maternal health policy.
Beyond legislative strategy, Kavelle has been instrumental in expanding advocacy spaces, strengthening national partnerships, and deepening state engagement to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ), healthcare access, and progressive policy priorities. She has played a key role in coalition-driven policy advocacy—co-drafting sign-on letters, analyzing legislation, and shaping policy campaigns. In Southern states, she has primarily worked to bridge the gap between state and federal policy by convening stakeholders across both levels to listen, learn, and build solutions grounded in lived experience.
In 2023, Kavelle was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Leaders Under 40 Changing Healthcare, a testament to her visionary leadership and systems-level impact. Her expertise has been featured in BBC, Forbes, MSN, The Globe and Mail, Newsweek, Healthline, and many other national and international outlets.
Kavelle brings governance experience from the board of Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island has advised national efforts focused on Medicaid, midwifery care, contraceptive access, and reproductive health equity. She majored in English Literature at the University of the West Indies and holds a Master of Science in Global Health from the University of Manchester. She is also a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS).
Interviews
Comments