Renetia Martin

Renetia Martin’s work as the founder and leader of the California Women’s Health Collaborative exemplifies important aspects of the current women’s health movement. The Collaborative provides a forum for grassroots women’s health leaders -- predominantly women of color and low-income women -- to promote their vision of women’s health. The Collaborative places women’s health at the top of the health policy agenda, while ensuring that class and race are also addressed. Sixty women’s health leaders gather twice a year to support, share with, and learn from each other. Together, they have spawned many successful community-based programs, advocacy campaigns, and innovative research efforts dedicated to improving the health of women, and conveying the health needs of low-income communities and communities of color to a wider audience. Renetia founded the Collaborative over 10 years ago while on staff at the James Irvine Foundation. She brings many years of experience as an activist for civil rights and women’s rights to her work on women’s health. Renetia also communicates her views directly to the state government as a member of the Women’s Health Council, an advisory body of the state Department of Health Services.
September 2005