Our honorees were selected for the impact, scope, and reach of their work along with their commitment to the following:
Join us for a packed evening with notable guests, engaging activities, an exciting reveal, and of course, our amazing honorees!
Reasons to attend:
Meet Mila [Mee-Lah], a resilient young soul who has faced her own battles with mental health. Recently awarded a microgrant by the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium for the 2023 Black Girl Joy Challenge Special Edition, Mila is on a mission to bring a touch of joy and support to Black girls navigating their mental health journeys.
The Birth of MH Boxes
Inspired by her own experiences, Mila established MH Boxes in 2023, a nonprofit organization with a heartfelt mission. As a 12-year-old from a bi-racial family, Mila is attuned to the disparities in how mental health is perceived, particularly within the Black community. While conversations around mental health are commonplace in some families, there is often hesitancy and stigma within Black families.
The Grant and the 2023 Black Girl Joy Challenge Special Edition
Mila’s program is dedicated to creating care boxes for Black girls in her community. These boxes are filled with coping tools carefully curated by Mila. Each item is a favorite of hers that has played a vital role in managing her anxiety. By sharing these tools, Mila aims to break the silence around mental health in a community where discussions on the topic are often limited. Click here to view pictures of the boxes and learn what is inside. MH Boxes have been delivered to 556 Black girls in Richmond, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Petersburg, and Colonial Heights.
Karen Rice, LCSW, is the Director of Therapeutic Resources at the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls (VHBG), an Adjunct Professor in the Masters of Social Work program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and an internationally certified Mental Health First Aid Training Instructor.
Karen’s Advocacy for the past 30 years
Karen’s advocacy for youth mental health spans all mediums and covers a period of more than 30-years. At VHBG she provides counseling, consultation, and psychoeducation services to individual youth, families, and groups.
Youth Mental Health First Aid
Since 2017, Karen has taught more than 50 8-hour workshops called Youth Mental Health First Aid. She has trained more than 1,000 adults and she is a certified instructor at the international level. Over the years, Karen has become a resident expert in the area of Mental Health First Aid, recognizing the need to empower those that come in contact with adolescents the ability to identify critical cues that are indicative that they may be in crisis. In addition, they learn how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.
Sign up for the free Youth Mental Health First Aid course here.
Birth in Color (BIC) works alongside communities to empower them through comprehensive, culturally-inclusive support, dismantling the systemic barriers in maternal, reproductive, and infant health.
Reproductive Justice for Pregnant People of Color
In addition to the advocacy BIC does around maternal and reproductive health issues, their doulas are changing the landscape for birthing folks across our state, providing a healing-centered birthing experience. BIC recently launched “COLOR THEORY” which critically examines the healthcare system through the lens of social justice and the impact of systemic racism to address disparities in patient experience and healthcare outcomes.
Founder, Kenda Sutton-EL
Kenda Sutton-EL is the Founder and Executive Director of Birth In Color. Hailing from rural Virginia, she is committed to addressing structural racism and advocating for the rights of incarcerated pregnant individuals, fighting against human rights violations. Kenda’s work emphasizes diversity and inclusion, specializing in training people of color to become doulas and conducting racial bias training for healthcare systems and professionals.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Health Science, she is also a Doula Trainer, Diversity Equity Inclusion Consultant, and Policy Analyst, demonstrating her broad expertise in the public health sector. As Chair of the Virginia Doula Taskforce, Chair of the Greater Richmond Regional Maternal Child Health Taskforce, and a member of the Virginia Maternal and Data Outcomes Taskforce, Kenda is influential in shaping maternal healthcare policies. She participated in Vice President Kamala Harris’s roundtable discussion on Reproductive Health and co-founded “Black Maternal Health Week” in 2019. Kenda also led the campaign for Doula Medicaid Reimbursement in Virginia.
Tenants & Workers United (TWU) is a community organization based in Alexandria working to organize low-income communities of color, especially young people. TWU organizes young people in neighborhoods across Alexandria to take action in their schools. Young people affiliated with TWU have won major victories including getting school resource officers out of area high schools and enacting restorative justice policies.
TWU’s Living Legacy of Advocacy & Activism
For 35+ years, TWU has been organizing low-income communities of color, working with immigrants, women, youth, and low-wage workers, to build power so people can become change agents. TWU pushes to secure sustainable systemic changes that advance racial, economic, and social justice through community-led campaigns for affordable housing, health equity, education justice, police accountability, and immigrants’ rights.
Lead Organizer, Ingris Moran
Ingris Moran was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, the daughter of Salvadoran parents. She joined the youth chapter of Tenants and Workers United as a freshman in high school. A first-generation college graduate, Ingris earned her Bachelor’s in Sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University. After college, Ingris became a youth organizer at TWU, and now, nearly 10 years later, Ingris serves as a Lead Organizer, overseeing all the organizing work that happens in Alexandria City, including the housing and education justice campaign. Ingris has lived experience and a deep understanding of community organizing, recognizing the critical importance of empowering working class families of color in order to change systems.
Join us in celebrating our honorees as we reconvene our annual awards ceremony on September 12, 2024, at Main Street Station in Downtown Richmond from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. for a special evening of networking, inspiration, honoree panel discussions, and much more!
October 9, 2025
June 5, 2025