Medical Mistrust in Appalachia: Author Talk with Femeika Elliot

Join writer, food justice advocate, and community health disruptor Femeika Elliott a powerful conversation exploring medical mistrust in the Black community through the lens of womb care, maternal health, nutrition and agriculture.

Elliott is a recipient of the United Way Food Systems Hackathon Award, Co-founder of Rooted East Knoxville, and founder of The Lotus Project and Meik Meals. Her work centers on the understanding that access to whole, culturally grounded food and community-based care is essential to maternal health to include loss and abortion.

Drawing from personal experience, historical context, and years of service to Black families in East Knoxville, Elliott examines why Black women are disproportionately unheard, undertreated, and overrepresented in maternal mortality statistics. She connects the legacy of medical harm, food apartheid, and systemic neglect to the present-day realities Black women face in reproductive and postpartum care.

Elliott will be interviewed by Dr. Wendy Welch, co-editor of the book Medical…