Author: Karis Scott | Major: Biology | Semester: Summer 2025

Recruitment At “The Big Latch” Ujima Event

I’m Karis Scott, a current senior Biology and African American Studies major in the Fulbright Honors College on the Pre-Dental career track. I am conducting a qualitative, exploratory research project on Black Postpartum Social Support with the DREAM (Driving Research to Enhance Access to Mental Health) Lab under Dr. Ana Bridges. Most of my summer was spent fine tuning my participant recruitment strategy for interviews; I travelled to local social events hosted throughout central Arkansas by Ujima Maternity Network, collaborating with new mothers to help contribute data towards an underserved-and often overlooked- population. I plan to continue recruitment, conduct interviews, and code responses for key themes, patterns, and perspectives in time for my thesis defense during the Spring semester!

My research aims to contribute to the little existing literature on the Black postpartum experience by exploring a variety of models of social support for Black mothers. This project approaches Black motherhood as an experience completely independent of common medical literature due to specific cultural contexts and medical challenges that affect Black mothers. It will spread awareness of particular challenges commonly faced by Black mothers in parenthood, and advocate for any social needs that are currently lacking. This research could build experiential data contributing to the evolution of culturally competent healthcare strategies for underrepresented populations.

During my pursuit of mentorship, I originally struggled to secure a mentor that not only had the time to guide me in my thesis but also allow me autonomy in developing my thesis topic. A friend of mine mentioned how much she loved her research lab during genetics; its mission was set in diversity and advocacy for minority groups in mental health literature. I immediately asked for the name, applied for a research assistant position online, interviewed, then-luckily- was accepted. I spent my first semester in the lab helping analyze sources for a graduate student’s project on Black mental health issues and treatment. The largest struggle during this project was the sure lack of data covering the topic, which ultimately sparked my interest in exploring my thesis within the Black community. This same graduate student (Emily Allen) helped prune my vague interest into something impactful, unique, and specific to my perspectives on healthcare. In my journey towards dentistry (and healthcare in general), my priority has always been diversity, inclusion, and representation of minorities in vulnerable spaces, making the nearly uncovered Black postpartum journey a perfect fit for me. With Dr. Bridges approval, I began my application for IRB approval. We met weekly throughout the semester, revising my resources, questionnaires, and materials whilst also brainstorming methods of recruitment for such a specific target population. I found Ujima Maternity Network: an organization committed to supporting and educating Black mothers throughout their journeys toward pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. After gaining permission to recruit participants from their local events, I travelled between Fayetteville, AR and different pop-ups in Central Arkansas to find participants. I initially struggled to find Black mothers within the early postpartum range (twelve weeks), as the immune capacity of their children often kept them from leaving their homes. This also made in-person interviews a challenge, as many mothers preferred to stay with their child at home. With the help of many local doulas, nurses, and mothers, I was able to secure a space in Ujima for interviews and reach out to many mothers within a couple weeks of birth. Dr. Bridges and Emily also helped me adjust my research to the needs of my participants, guiding me through revisions in my recruitment criteria in order to include mothers up to sixteen weeks from delivery in the study. The final weeks of my summer have been spent collecting and analyzing bold, dynamic stories of perseverance and tenacity and social challenges from Black mothers. Ultimately, this summer has been one of adaptation, empathy, and exploration. Whether this be from recording stories of valiant determination and resilient strength from my target population, witnessing the power of Black support firsthand at Ujima, or highlighting difficult experiences faced by the Black community, this project has truly been a first-person segway regarding my passions in diversity and inclusion in healthcare. I will continue to refine my plans for future providers throughout the next semester, using this experience as a textbook for the type of dentist I’d like to become.