I loved theater and writing short stories as a child. I was always a creative and energetic child. - Amanda Lynch

The communities that I serve are plagued by violence and substance abuse. A few years into my career, my best friend, Angel Jackson and her father Herbert Levi Sharpe, Sr. were murdered. This changed the trajectory of my entire career and I began to focus more on mental health and mindfulness in the black community.

Nearly twenty years ago, I began as a classroom teacher in Richmond, VA. Many of my students struggled due to community and domestic violence.

This double marginalization of pregnant patients limits their autonomy and unduly exposes them to the criminal-legal system. Given disparities in prenatal drug screening, Black pregnant patients are at greater risk of such double-jeopardy.