When Black Women Gather: Building Community for Proactive Longevity

Community is the first biohack

Black women have always carried the blueprint for resilience. But true longevity—the kind rooted in prevention, community, and self-advocacy—starts long before a diagnosis. It starts when we come together and talk about what’s happening to our bodies, our stress, and our access to care.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Milwaukee.

The National Association of Black Journalists–Milwaukee (NABJ-Milwaukee) and the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) are joining forces to host a Black Women’s Health Panel at 11 a.m. on October 11 at the new Martin Luther King Library Branch.
This isn’t just another awareness event—it’s a blueprint for how community care can become longevity in motion.

The panel will explore the most pressing health issues affecting Black women today: maternal health, mental wellness, hypertension, and breast cancer. It will also confront the hidden stressors that shape our health outcomes—navigating chronic conditions, finding culturally competent care, and leaning on community when the system falls short.

“We invite women of all ages to join the conversation, ask questions, and feel empowered.” —Tannette Johnson-Elie, president of NABJ-Milwaukee.

Moderated by Faithe Colas of the Greater Milwaukee Urban League, the event will feature Dr. Lia Knox of Knox Behavioral Health Solutions, Cherie Harris of C.Harris Communications, and Carla Harris, R.N., a breast cancer support group facilitator. Together, they’ll create a space for truth-telling and strategy—where the focus isn’t survival, but thriving.

And this gathering couldn’t come at a more urgent time. According to the CDC, Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. The American Cancer Society reports that while breast cancer incidence is slightly lower among Black women, mortality is 40% higher. These numbers aren’t statistics—they’re signals. And they remind us that longevity requires proactivity, not reaction.

“By shining the spotlight on Black women’s health, we can help women take practical steps toward healthier futures.” —Adrienne Bryant, president-elect of NAHSE.

At Black Girl Biohacking, we call this proactive longevity—the practice of front-loading health decisions before crisis hits. It’s the choice to learn your labs, understand your inflammation, question your doctor, and build a circle of women who hold you accountable to your healing.

Milwaukee’s model proves what happens when media, medicine, and community intersect with intention. It’s not just awareness—it’s activation. Every city deserves this kind of space: a local panel, a roundtable, a living-room conversation that connects knowledge to power.

So here’s the challenge—
If your community hasn’t held one yet, start the conversation.
Gather your women. Bring in your local experts. Host a panel, a brunch, a health day.
Longevity grows where dialogue begins.

Read the full article to learn more about the event and its featured speakers. Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

BLACK GIRL BIOHACKING · INTENTIONAL LIVING FOR LONGEVITY + SELF-DISCOVERY

SHE HACKS LONGEVITY

She Hacks Longevity is a living archive of Black women reclaiming health and reshaping access to it. These women hack not only for themselves, but for the communities they serve and the generations they uplift. Their work is proof that longevity is collective — built on survival, clarity, and the commitment to create a future where we all thrive longer and stronger.

This living archive is always growing. Check back for more biohacking baddies building longevity for themselves and the communities they serve.

She Hacks Longevity: Lisa Peyton-Caire and the Fight for Black Women’s Wellness

Longevity work often begins with personal practice — a new routine, a lab test, a supplement stack. But sometimes it begins with heartbreak. For Lisa Peyton-Caire, the loss of her mother to heart disease at just 64 years old became the catalyst for a movement that has touched thousands of lives.

From one woman’s loss came a movement serving thousands. Lisa Peyton-Caire proves that Black women are the architects of longevity.

In 2009, Lisa launched Black Women’s Wellness Day, a community event designed to honor her mother’s memory and bring Black women together around health and healing. What began as a gathering in Bowie, Maryland grew into a national call to action. The event has since reached thousands of women, building awareness of the unique challenges Black women face in health outcomes — and, more importantly, highlighting solutions rooted in community and culture.

That single day of wellness grew into a full-fledged nonprofit: the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (FFBWW), headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Today, under Lisa’s leadership as Founding CEO & President, the foundation reaches more than 10,000 women and families each year with education, resources, and advocacy. FFBWW offers maternal and child health programs, trains Wellness Ambassadors to become local leaders, and pushes for systemic change through policy and health equity work.

One of Lisa’s most groundbreaking achievements was the opening of the Black Women’s Wellness Center in Wisconsin — the first of its kind in the state. The center serves as a hub for prevention, education, and support, creating a safe and culturally relevant space where Black women can access care and connect with one another.

Lisa’s philosophy is clear: wellness is a birthright. She often reminds women that they have both the power and the responsibility to claim it. Through FFBWW, she has raised millions in funding, built partnerships with healthcare systems and local organizations, and trained everyday women to become advocates and change-makers in their own neighborhoods.

Her impact extends beyond direct programming. Lisa has served on health equity councils and state advisory boards, ensuring that the voices and needs of Black women are heard in the spaces where decisions are made. She understands that true longevity isn’t just about personal discipline — it’s about dismantling barriers and reshaping access to care.

Lisa Peyton-Caire embodies what She Hacks Longevity was created to honor: Black women changing health outcomes through collective strength, reshaping not only their own lives but the systems around them. Her story reminds us that biohacking doesn’t always look like gadgets or labs — sometimes it looks like building infrastructure, mobilizing communities, and creating a legacy of wellness for generations to come.

Lisa is one of many biohacking baddies rewriting the future of health. Stay tuned for more profiles in our living archive — proof that longevity is collective, and it is ours to claim.

To learn more about Lisa Peyton-Caire’s mission and the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, visit ffbww.org. Supporting and sharing her work is one way we can all contribute to a future where Black women’s health and longevity are fully recognized, resourced, and celebrated.