Angela Frazier had a vision. As a master’s student in public health, she looked around at the women in her program and saw something that troubled her. Talented, committed women were navigating a demanding field largely on their own, without mentors who looked like them, without spaces to process the weight of the work, and without communities that recognized their full potential. She saw women who were giving everything to the health of their communities while receiving very little in return.

So she built something different.

That vision became Sisters in Public Health (SiPH), a volunteer-led nonprofit now operating chapters across the United States. What began as a small gathering of women on a single campus has grown, chapter by chapter, into a national movement. With support from Kresge and others, SiPH is expanding access to professional development, deepening community connection and reshaping who gets to lead in public health.

From campus to country

Launched in 2017, Frazier initially thought of Sisters in Public Health as an on campus student group.

“But at graduation, people were asking afterwards, ‘when is the next event?’ People still wanted to get together. I never thought it would grow in the way that it has. I just love community and think we are all better together.”

One sign of that growth came through social media. When the organization created a Facebook group during the pandemic, it grew to nearly 2,000 members in just 30 days. Women from across the country, at every career stage, were hungry for exactly what Frazier had imagined: a place to connect, to learn, and to be seen.

“I really wanted to create an organization for all women in the public health field,” Frazier says. “No matter what age, race, or ethnicity. Just to have a safe space to talk about being a woman in leadership.”

That early momentum confirmed what Frazier already knew. The need was not niche. It was everywhere.

More than a network

Public health is a broad and often misunderstood field. Epidemiologists, health educators, biostatisticians, and community health workers all fall under its umbrella. What unites them is a commitment to prevention and people’s health and well-being. What has too often been missing, particularly for women of color navigating the field, is a path to leadership that feels accessible.

Women remain underrepresented in senior public health roles despite making up the majority of the workforce. The barriers are structural: limited mentorship, fewer sponsorship opportunities, and workplaces that have not always been designed with women’s advancement in mind. SiPH was built to address these gaps.

“The people doing the work of public health rarely get poured into themselves,” says Sandy Noel, a doctoral student and SiPH board chair. “Sisters in Public Health gives women a place where they feel seen, supported, and consistently connected. That changes how they lead and how they see themselves.”

“Sisters in Public Health creates a community where women in public health can find their tribe, develop professionally, and support one another through the challenges and triumphs of their careers,” said Alaina McCorvey, regional director at SiPH.

SiPH is clear about what it is and what it is not. “There is a lot of intention in everything that is done within SiPH,” Noel says. “From every event, every connection, every opportunity. We are here to lighten the load for women who are already carrying so much.”

Skills that travel

One of the most tangible ways SiPH supports its members is through professional certifications, offered at no or significantly reduced cost. These include Lean Six Sigma process improvement credentials, Certified in Public Health (CPH) exam and leadership development series open to women at all career stages.

The impact is direct and documented. When federal public health funding cuts displaced workers in 2024, SiPH mobilized quickly, sponsoring Lean Six Sigma White Belt certifications for approximately 30 job seekers.

One of those who benefited was McCorvey herself. After nearly four months of unemployment, she earned her Green Belt certification through SiPH and secured a position with a pharmaceutical company focused on disease prevention.

“Volunteering with Sisters in Public Health has provided me with more career development than any professional paying job I have ever worked for,” McCorvey says.

Across chapters, members are carrying newly acquired skills directly into their professional roles and the communities they serve. A health educator uses process improvement tools to streamline a community clinic’s patient outreach. An epidemiologist applies leadership frameworks to build a more effective team.

“Some people are epidemiology focused. Some are health educators,” Frazier explains. “They take these skill sets and apply them to their specific roles. It then trickles down to the communities they serve.”

A sisterhood that shows up

The programming goes well beyond credentials. In Los Angeles, chapter chair Jennifer Kuo has built a community that ranges from wellness events and dance classes to hands-on disaster relief. When wildfires swept through the region in early 2025, the LA chapter supported a supply distribution event to affected communities. At a volunteer food bank event that drew members from Dallas and Houston as well, participants assembled 3,696 care kits in a single day. The LA chapter went on to win the organization’s Chapter of the Year Award in 2025.

“Public health has gone through many phases,” Kuo reflects. “From becoming a buzzword during the pandemic to, more recently, being questioned or even under attack. It is so important for us to meet women where they are and remind them they are not navigating this field alone.”

That sense of belonging extends in unexpected and personal directions. A member in Phoenix was preparing to leave the city, convinced there was no public health community there, until she found her local SiPH chapter. She stayed. A woman in the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter got married, and four of her bridesmaids were women she had met through SiPH.

Frazier herself counts one of the organization’s mentorship co-chairs among her closest friends. “It is a sisterhood,” she says simply. “Literally.”

Looking forward

The vision for SiPH reaches well beyond its current footprint. Frazier sees an international organization with paid staff, expanded scholarships, and deep university partnerships.

Noel envisions chapters on every continent, with public health recognized not as a niche specialty but as a fundamental lens through which communities understand and improve their own well-being.

Both women are clear that the ultimate measure of success is not membership numbers. It is healthier communities, shaped by women who were given the tools, the confidence, and the community to lead.

For now, the work continues chapter by chapter, conversation by conversation. A brunch that leads to a service project. A certification that opens a door. A move to a new city made less daunting because a chapter is already there waiting.

“When you strengthen one member, one woman,” Noel says, “you strengthen the work. And then it ties into the impact for the communities.”