A directory listing Black doctors has been sued. The Black Doctors Directory offers a comprehensive list of Black doctors in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Its website mentions that the directory covers specialties such as family medicine, allergy and immunology, neurology, gynecology, and hematology, and highlights doctors who provide high-quality and culturally competent care . “Racial health disparities contribute to poorer outcomes for Black residents, regardless of their education, income, or insurance. Research shows that racial congruence in healthcare—when patients are treated by doctors who share their race—improves outcomes for African American patients,” a statement on the directory’s webpage reads. The directory was launched by Pennsylvania’s only Black talk radio station, WURD Radio, and is presented through a partnership between Penn Medicine and the Consortium of DEI Health Educators. However, the directory is now facing legal scrutiny due to a...

Working side by side, Ameer Brown and his brother, Anthony, have made strategic strides as founders. Ameer and Anthony trace their roots to a Jewish hospital in Queens, NY, on Long Island. From a young age, rapper Nas, also from New York, was an influential figure in their lives. In their later years as founders, that admiration would come full circle. The pair, both HBCU graduates , lead Breakr—a company empowered by technology that fosters collaboration between artists, labels, brands, and creators to create successful social marketing campaigns, its website mentions. Breakr removes barriers to entry, welcoming users at any stage of their journey and supporting them with AI-powered deal presets, contract templates, and automated payment processes. “At the end of the year, our clients don’t have to do 1099s and tax compliance paperwork with thousands and thousands of influencers that they’ve contracted and worked with across the year…So they’ll make it easy for you to get the...

This women’s health company has been acquired. Launched in 2017 by Erica Chidi, LOOM has been a helpful sexual and reproductive resource for women, launching first at a physical location in Los Angles, CA, before scaling to a mobile application, its website mentions. TechCrunch reports its offerings included courses, content, and community for women. Chidi’s vision had been emboldened with a $3 million raise a few years later, joining the few Black women to do so. “I was like the 34th Black woman to raise over a million dollars in venture capital,” Chidi recalled to TechCrunch, adding that she didn’t expect she would raise the nearly $3 million in three months back in late 2019. “At the moment, there was just a new interest in women’s health.” In total, Chidi has secured $6.5 million in funding since its inception with support from Slow Ventures and Founders Fund, along with celebrity interest that included Tessa Thompson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Now, LOOM is turning a new leaf. It has...

Intron Health has raised $1.6 million to improve healthcare systems in Africa. Tobi Olatunji launched the clinical speech recognition company in 2020, inspired by his experience as a medical doctor in Nigeria. He recognized several shortcomings in the healthcare system, such as the influx of paperwork doctors are required to complete and difficulties in keeping track of the forms, TechCrunch reports. “I’m always asking, how can we do things better? How can we make life easier for doctors? Can we take some tasks away and offload them to another system so that the doctor can spend their time doing things that are very valuable?” he told the outlet. These questions did not escape his mind, even after he moved to the United States to obtain a master’s degree in medical informatics from the University of San Francisco and in computer science at Georgia Tech. Olatunji then worked as a machine learning scientist at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and as a researcher at Enlitic, a...

Allyson Felix has received a grant from Melinda French Gates. Felix, who retired from the world of Olympic track and field in 2022, has a passion for the well-being of pregnant women. For example, her footwear brand Saysh gives expectant mothers a free pair of shoes since their feet change sizes throughout pregnancy, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “As we thoughtfully create our products, we think about all the ways that we can better support women through our maternity returns policy, offering women shoes once their feet changed sizes due to pregnancy, and just trying to push the industry in that direction,” she told AFROTECH™ at the time. In June 2022, Felix partnered with Pampers to champion maternal health for Black mothers. Pampers committed $250,000 to the cause and provided $100,000 to the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) to help Black mothers receive quality care and to reduce maternal mortality rates. Felix is, once again, teaming up with Pampers during the 2024...

A lawsuit has been filed against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Equal Protection Project, which is under the Legal Insurrection Foundation, is suing MIT for its program supporting women of color, CRWN ( The Creative Regal Women of kNowledge), according to Boston.com. The nonprofit claims that the program is exclusionary, discriminatory, and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 because “only undergraduate ‘women of color’ can participate in the program.” “We bring this civil rights complaint against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for creating, supporting and promoting a program for undergraduate students — called the Creative Regal Women of Knowledge, or ‘The CRWN’ — that engages in invidious discrimination on the basis of race, color and sex,” foundation founder William A. Jacobson wrote in the complaint, per the outlet. In a follow-up statement, he added. “It is sad and disheartening to...

LeAnna Roberts is the embodiment of academic excellence! The 17-year-old received her master’s degree in business administration with a healthcare management concentration, from the University of Alabama on May 4, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, AL, WBRC-6 reports. “Looking back, four years ago when I started high school, I would have never have imagined. This was never a plan that I had or something that I had in the cards for myself,” she told the outlet. Two years prior, Roberts had earned an associate’s degree in science from Shelton State Community College while she simultaneously graduated from Central High School in Tuscaloosa. “When I started my 9th grade year, I knew I wanted a challenge, and I began to take dual enrollment courses at Shelton State Community College,” Roberts said, per WBRC-6. Roberts would then head to the University of Alabama as a junior at 16 years old, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology. Reflecting on her academic success, Roberts credits her parents for...

A teenager is on his way to making history in Indiana. ABC-7 in Chicago, IL, reports that at age 15, Khaya Njumbe is set to become the youngest college graduate in Indiana. As the first generation of his family born in the U.S., the teen lives in Gary, IN, and attends Indiana University Northwest. He will cross the graduation stage in May 2024 — making him the first to do so in his family. The outlet details that to get a head start on the achievement, Njume took dual-credit courses at 21st Century Charter High School. Theresa Canady, a social worker at the charter school, shared that he initially started taking college courses at age 11. “When I was younger, I had a lot of ambition,” Njumbe told the outlet. “I always just wanted to do more, impress my parents mainly. I was always an overachiever in school.” Jack Bloom, one of Njumbe’s professors at Indiana University Northwest, shared, “It’s pretty amazing. Obviously the stuff he can do is beyond what most people can do.” He added,...