Our Team

Anyea Taylor

Protector. money getter. mother.

  • Anyea Taylor (she/her) is a fundraiser, strategist, and community builder based on Chicago’s South Side. She has spent her career working across media, philanthropy, and nonprofit leadership to strengthen organizations rooted in equity, care, and community wellbeing.

    Anyea studied Strategic Communications at Butler University and earned an MBA focused on social impact through Loyola University Chicago’s Baumhart Scholars Program. Her background spans corporate advertising and media at Disney and iHeartRadio, as well as development and partnership roles at Cradles to Crayons, La Casa Norte, and Sit Stay Read.

Jeanine Valrie Logan

Dreamer. Grower. Culture Bearer.

  • Jeanine Valrie Logan (she/her/goddess) is a Certified Nurse Midwife, certified lactation specialist, and has a strong background in public health and reproductive health policy. She is a birth justice activist and often speaks publicly on breastfeeding, birth justice, doulas, and midwifery in the Black community. She is the co-editor of the book Free to Breastfeed: Voices of Black Mothers.

    Jeanine works collectively with birth workers of color and allies to address birth inequity--including most recently on the writing and passing of HB738 which expands birth centers in the state of Illinois. She is currently working on the development of Chicago South Side Birth Center, a nonprofit, midwife-led, culturally congruent, community focused birth center to be located on Chicago’s south side. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University and a Master in Science in Nursing from DePaul University. She also received a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Global Reproductive Health from the George Washington University. Jeanine completed the nurse midwifery program at Frontier Nursing University in the fall of 2018.

    Jeanine is a wife and mama of three awesome Empresses, all of which were born out of the hospital-2 at home and 1 at a birth center. Jeanine spends her extra time with family, building bonfires, creating art, making herbal medicines, reading, gardening, and swooning under her favorite cedar tree.

Lissah Mason

visionary. creatress. land + community steward.

  • Lissah Mason (she/her) is the Community Building and Education Coordinator at Chicago South Side Birth Center. She is also the founder of (Re)Birth Society, a community-led organization committed to wellness, education, justice, and empowerment. She serves as a Land and Community Steward, working to improve the ecosystem of care for members of the African Diaspora and Native/Indigenous communities by organizing cultural events and gathering spaces, mutual aid efforts, and education programs.

    Lissah is a Full Spectrum Doula, specializing in spontaneous physiological birthing and Afro-Indigenous birth practices. She completed the Doula Training International (DTI) program in 2018 and the CAPPA Childbirth Educator program in 2023. She has received traditional hands-on training from peer and elder birth workers. With over 9 years of education and experience in the field of plant-spirit medicine, she is an herbalist, rootworker and continuing student at Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.

    In addition to her wellness work, Lissah is a scholar, educator & journalist with a focus on Hoodoo and African-Indigenous cultural history and heritage. Over the past 12 years she has been active in community service and social justice work, organizing and volunteering for grassroots orgs in North Alabama, Tuskegee, Chicago and San Diego. In addition to her role within CSSBC, she serves on the board of Nature’s Garden for Victory & Peace.

    Lissah is a devoted Mama, family member, teacher, friend, and #ancestorsbaby, committed to the total liberation of the Earth, the Spirits, and the People.

Nikki Charisse

Baby whisperer. connecter. cheerleader.

  • Nikki (she/her) is a Licensed Midwife, Monitrice, and Perinatal Educator with more than two decades of experience serving families across California and now Chicago.

    Her path into birth work began in 2003 when she supported a dear friend as a doula. What followed was not just a career, but a calling. After becoming a mother herself, Nikki immersed fully into community-based midwifery care, supporting families in both the Bay Area and San Diego.

    In 2014, while in midwifery school, Nikki felt a clear vision take root: to create a birth center that served those most often pushed to the margins — LGBTQIA+ family builders, Black and Brown families, immigrants, and asylum seekers — with clinical experience and deep cultural reverence. That vision became the San Diego Community Birth Center, where she served as founder and principal midwife, building a clinical practice dedicated to equitable, community-rooted care.

    As Midwifery Director at the Chicago South Side Birth Center, Nikki stewards clinical development, midwifery practice standards, and the cultivation of a care model grounded in safety, dignity, and belonging. Every pregnancy and birth is a miracle, and Nikki is honored to be able to contribute experience, genuine love, and culturally congruent care to families in Chicago and beyond. 

Stella Lee

artist. birth worker. storyteller.

  • Stella Lee (she/her) is an artist and graphic designer based in Chicago. She has worked with creative and wellness organizations to expand brand awareness through communications and design initiatives. Stella studied Visual Arts at Iowa State University and has also spent time as a yoga teacher, astrologer, herbalist, and reiki healer. She loves bringing together tools and perspectives from her diverse background to weave the threads of shared lived experience.

    As the Communications and Marketing Coordinator for the Chicago South Side Birth Center, Stella works to create meaningful connections and spaces of collective healing for all birthing people through accessible design and beautiful user experiences. Most importantly, her goal is to communicate the intellectual, spiritual, and embodied richness of CSSBC’s mission, as well as its solidarity with the path of reproductive justice and universal human liberation. 

    Stella holds a deep love and devotion for the wisdom and empowerment that the reproductive justice movement brings to birthing people and families of color, and is grateful to be in service to the incredible community of birth workers and birth justice advocates on Chicago’s South Side.

    In her free time, Stella enjoys writing, cooking, making herbal tinctures and salves, and spending time with loved ones.