Black Women’s Wellness Day is an annual health summit that informs, inspires, and empowers Black women and girls to build and sustain healthy, wellness-centered lives. We have grown to become one of the Midwest’s largest annual wellness events by Black women, for Black women, now celebrating our 12th year! In 2019, we welcomed 700 guests to #BWWDAY, and this year’s first ever virtual event promises to reach even more far and beyond Wisconsin where are headquarters are now based.

Founded by Lisa Peyton-Caire in 2008, Black Women’s Wellness Day was first observed in a small public library in Bowie, Maryland with a crowd of 40 women and family members on Friday, May 22, 2009 in honor of Ms. Peyton-Caire’s mother Roberta W. Peyton who succumbed to heart disease at the age of 64 on May 22, 2006.

Since that time, the event has grown to bring thousands of women of all ages into the movement to improve their health and wellness through a fun, entertaining, and information-packed experience where women, girls, health advocates, wellness practitioners, medical professionals, community partners, and survivors come together to share life-saving, life-enhancing information, testimonies, and transformation stories.

Today, African American women account for roughly 7% of the U.S. population and 14% percent of the total population of women, yet are over-represented in all major categories of disease and illness, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, obesity and reproductive disorders.

Black women are more likely than their white peers to die from heart disease, cancer, and stroke; to experience life-threatening complications in pregnancy and childbirth, to be obese or overweight, and to be diagnosed with HIV. We are more likely to have less access to quality healthcare or mental health services that support our optimal well-being, and to face racism, bias, and barriers in accessing social and economic opportunities that contribute to better health. We need not look far within our families or to read local, state, and national reports to conclude that the health and well-being of Black women and our communities is in a state of duress.