Meet the ROSE Board

Mary Nicholson Jackson has been a Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) since 2006 and working in the Lactation community for over 30 years. Mary is a Co-founder of Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, Inc. (ROSE) and their Community Engagement Director since 2011. Mary has worked at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. for 18 years on the Lactation Team and WIC Program as a Lactation Consultant.

Mary has extensive leadership with several Georgia’s Breastfeeding organizations such as Georgia Task Force for Breastfeeding, Georgia Breastfeeding Coalition, Ga’s Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition Lactation Program, Georgia’s Hospitals Baby Friendly Initiatives, DeKalb County, Ga Health Department Faith Base Initiative. Mrs. Jackson has worked on many Local, State and National Committees in decrease health disparities to the most venerable population. She and her wonderful husband are the parents of 3 awesome adults and she has “mothered” many other awesome adults.

Betty Neal, RN., M.N., IBCLC, is a founding member of Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere Inc. (ROSE). Ms. Neal has worked in women’s health for over 30 years. She completed certification as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner from Emory University. She retired from the State of Georgia Department of Human Resources, DeKalb County Board of Health, as a public health nurse and program administration where she managed, developed, and implemented numerous statewide and local public health programs. Her past experiences include instruction in a baccalaureate nursing program and mother-baby nursing in a large urban hospital. She has a passion for mothers and babies and believes we must support and nurture our mothers who will nurture our babies."

George Bugg, Jr., MD, MPH, is a retired neonatologist who formerly served as the chief of the neonatology service at Grady Memorial Hospital and the neonatal director of the Emory Regional Perinatal Center. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (BA), Meharry Medical College (MD), and Emory University (MPH). He is a charter member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and was trained in lactation management at Wellstart International.  He is a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He and his wife, Kimarie Bugg, are the proud parents of five children and one grandchild.

Dr. Sahira Long is a board certified pediatrician and lactation consultant, and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). She is a graduate of the George Washington University School of Medicine, where she is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics.   She is Medical Director for Children’s Health Center—Anacostia in Washington, DC and for the Children’s National East of the River Lactation Support Center.

Dr. Long has been involved in breastfeeding advocacy on the national, state and local level. As president of the DC Breastfeeding Coalition and a member of the DC Lactation Commission since their inception in 2004 and 2016 respectively, she works collaboratively with the DC AAP Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinators. She currently serves as Co-Chair for the United States Breastfeeding Committee’s CRASH Committee that oversees the organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE) and the AAP Section on Breastfeeding Executive Committee. She represents ROSE on the AAP Physician Engagement and Training Focused on Breastfeeding Project Advisory Committee.

Dr. Long participated as a panelist during the US Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding and is featured as an expert in the US Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health It’s Only Natural campaign (www.womenshealth.gov/itsonlynatural) to improve breastfeeding rates among African Americans. She has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and blogs on various topics related to breastfeeding.

Michal Young, MD, F.A.A.P., is currently an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University College of Medicine. She also serves as the Medical Director of the B.L.E.S.S. (Breastfeeding Lactation Education Support Services) Initiative as well as Director of the NICU and Newborn Services, at Howard University Hospital. She is a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine, Class of 1979. Dr. Young completed a rotating internship in Medicine and Pediatrics at Grady Memorial and Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by a Pediatric residency at Howard University Hospital, and a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. Most of her clinical and academic practice was at D. C General Hospital where she was the Director of the N.I.C.U. for the last five years prior to the closure of that Hospital in July 2001.

Dr. Young has several publications and presentations over a range of topics governing infant care. Her research interests are in developmental outcomes of the ELBW, HIV perinatal transmission, and in breastfeeding education for professionals and parents. Dr. Young had just completed her fellowship in Neonatology at the time of the birth of her first child. She recalls how poorly educated she was about breastfeeding and the benefits of human milk. This experience placed her on a life-long quest to improve breastfeeding education for medical professionals, and patient’s families. Dr. Young speaks locally and nationally about the benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding for the human infant. She is a member of the ILCA Advisory panel, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the Section on Breastfeeding in the American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the Breastfeeding Coordinators for the D.C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Vice-President of the D.C. Breastfeeding Coalition.

Rev. Rhonda Crawford Hicks is presently the Minister of Congregational Care at Greenforest Community Baptist Church in Decatur, GA. She is a graduate of Hampton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Foods, Nutrition and Institutional Management. Her career has consisted of having been a Home Economist in Business (HEIB) with an emphasis in Nutrition. She served as a frequent visitor within New York state’s County schools educating children, in a fun way, about the value of nutrition. She has also been a Women, Infant and Childrens, (WIC) Nutritionist in the state of Virginia. On a personal note, Rev Hicks breast fed her three biological children and other babies who were in crisis, having accepted much of the philosophy of La Leche League. As a major advocate of breastfeeding, she has supported Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere and Kimarie Bugg for the past 8 years and has served on the Board for 1 ½ years.

Senior marketing professional with over eight years of experience in marketing, customer experience, account management, and business analytics.

Kimberly D. Harper, MSN, RN, MHA, is a registered nurse with 18 years of experience in Maternal and Child Health. Her breadth of experience ranges from leadership and nursing roles in labor and delivery units, postpartum care, public health home visiting programs, and hospital administration. She holds several roles at the UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health where she provides training and technical assistance to state and national maternal health initiatives.

Kimarie Bugg, DNP, FNP-BC, MPH, IBCLC, is a Co-founder and the current Development Director of Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, Inc. (ROSE), a nonprofit corporation developed in 2011, to address breastfeeding inequities and disparities in the African American community. Dr. Bugg previously worked for Emory University, School of Medicine, as a nurse practitioner, private practice pediatrics as an NP, as a perinatal nurse consultant for the state of Georgia, perinatal educator, hospital nurse administrator, special care nursery staff, bedside breastfeeding consultant and pediatric emergency clinic staff nurse.

Kimarie was a board member of the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) and faculty for CHAMPS (communities and hospital's advancing maternal practices) a Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. She also provided training for WIC Breastfeeding administrative staff and Peer Counselors nationally. Dr. Bugg completed a Community Health Leadership Program, within the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine that stressed best practices to provide global health equity and eliminating health disparities through action-oriented projects. Mrs. Bugg is married to Dr. George W. Bugg Jr. a neonatologist and they are the parents of five adult children and one grandchild.