"When women take care of their health, they become their own best friend." — Maya Angelou
About This Event:
This Women's Health Month, join Mass League Women's ERG for a powerful virtual panel conversation, one that goes beyond checkups and screenings and digs into the real lives of women. This is not just a conversation about healthcare. It is a conversation about the whole woman, her work, her roles, her stress, and her worth.
Our two speakers will bring their expertise and lived experiences to the conversation, covering:
🔹 Equity, Systems, and Support: What structural changes are needed to truly support women's health?
🔹 Women Who Hold Everything Together: Balancing roles, navigating societal expectations, leadership stress, caregiving, and why high achievers are often the last to ask for help.
Because when women are truly supported, they no longer have to choose between caring for others and caring for themselves, and that is when families, workplaces, and communities thrive.
Speaker 1: Ms. Wadezah McCullough
Ms. Wadezah McCullough is the City of Brockton's Commissioner of Health and Human Services. In this role, she oversees public health programs, manages budgets, enforces regulations, and coordinates responses to public health emergencies. Working with state and local partners, she will promote safe environments, expand access to quality care, and develop policies that support healthier communities.
Commissioner McCullough grew up in Roosevelt and Freeport on Long Island, New York, and graduated from Freeport High School. During the COVID-19 pandemic, after beginning her doctoral program, she sought opportunities aligned with her passion for health equity. She moved to Brockton in September 2021 after accepting the Health Equity and Engagement Manager position at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.
Wadezah is a Doctor of Public Health Candidate, a Bloomberg Fellow, and a member of the Iota Alpha Chapter of Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on how racism and discrimination affect the mental health of multiethnic Black youth and how school-based health centers can help address these challenges. She earned her Master of Public Health from Morehouse School of Medicine and her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Saint Augustine’s University.
She began her career supporting school health programs at Montefiore Health System in New York and later served as the Health Equity and Engagement Manager at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center. Passionate about service, Wadezah enjoys volunteering, exploring local parks, dancing, and spending time with loved ones. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Speaker 2: Susan Spurlock
Ms. Spurlock is the executive director of Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, the nation’s oldest continuously operating free public lecture series. She is also a senior research fellow at Suffolk’s Sawyer Business School, Moakley Center for Public Management, where she works on special projects and is a faculty member. Before these positions, she served as the director of the Massachusetts Child Welfare Institute, the training and professional education center at the Department of Children and Families; Associate Dean of the Northeastern University School of Education; Deputy Chief of the Criminal Bureau in the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General; and Executive Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Ms. Spurlock holds a B.S. (cum laude) in Education and a Juris Doctor degree, both from Boston University. She completed, with distinction, a Suffolk University Sawyer Business School Certificate in Human Services Management and Leadership.
All are welcome. We hope to see you there! 🌺
-The Women’s ERG