HealthConnect One names Janessa Mondestin as Chief Operating Officer, strategically positioning the 40-year-old nonprofit for its most ambitious expansion yet, advancing birth equity across 2 continents, 36 states, and over 175 communities.

CHICAGO, June 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthConnect One (HC One), the national birth equity nonprofit marking its 40th year of advancing community-based doula care across 36 states and more than 175 communities, today announces the appointment of Janessa Mondestin as Chief Operating Officer.

Mondestin's appointment formalizes a scope she has been leading through one of the most intensive organizational build periods in HC One's history: overseeing people and finance operations, fundraising and development, partnerships, and communications strategy. Her work has been central to the modernization of HC One's operational architecture, positioning the organization for its most ambitious year yet. A particular focus of Mondestin's leadership is capacity building for grassroots doula organizations — ensuring that the community-based organizations at the front lines of birth equity have the infrastructure, systems, and resources to sustain and scale their work. This commitment reflects HC One's foundational belief that strong communities require strong institutions behind them.

Mondestin also brings strategic relationships spanning the South and South-Central corridor — including North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana — as HC One deepens its presence across a region with significant unmet need in maternal and infant health. Mondestin's relational capital across this corridor will be an organizational asset as HC One expands community partnerships in its 40th anniversary year.

HC One enters FY2027 with four strategic priorities: expanding its flagship "Doulas Are for Every Body" campaign across the full first 1,000 days; reactivating lactation support as a primary resource in honor of its 1986 founding program; maturing DoulaREADI as a replicable hospital integration model; and expanding the HC One brand globally — building on its inaugural doula training cohort in Ghana and an intergenerational pilot in Puerto Rico.

"Operations is how we honor the mission," said Mondestin. "Every system we build, every partnership we structure, every grassroots organization we resource — it exists so that the doulas, the families, and the communities we serve have the infrastructure they deserve behind them." Dr. Twylla Dillion, President & CEO, noted the significance of the appointment: "Janessa brings an operations-as-liberation frame to everything she touches. This organization has needed a COO who understands that how we work is inseparable from why we work. She is that person."

Mondestin has written extensively on birth equity leadership and operational strategy on HC One's Substack. Her appointment reflects HC One's commitment to building institutional leadership that is visible, accountable, and community-rooted.

To learn more about HealthConnect One's work, explore partnership opportunities, or support the movement in its 40th year, visit healthconnectone.org. To join the "Doulas Are for Every Body" campaign, visit doulasareforeverybody.org. To follow Janessa Mondestin's ongoing thought leadership on birth equity and organizational infrastructure, subscribe at healthconnectone.substack.com.

Every Birth. Every Family. Every Community. healthconnectone.org

For media inquiries, contact Media Relations at Media@HealthConnectOne.org

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SOURCE HealthConnect One