Nikia Sankofa, MPH, MPA

Nikia Sankofa is the Executive Director of the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), an independent nonprofit coalition of more than 100 influential professional, educational, and governmental organizations that share a joint mission to drive collaborative efforts for policy and practices that create a landscape of breastfeeding support across the United States.

Nikia received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. She later matriculated through the Master of Public Affairs program at Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where she concentrated on Environmental Policy. Nikia also has a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on Women’s Reproductive Health and earned certificates in Health Disparities and Health Communication.

Before USBC, Nikia worked at the National Association of County and City Health Officials where she directed the Breastfeeding Project, which aimed to increase implementation of evidence-based breastfeeding programs, practices, and services at the community level, specifically focusing on peer and professional lactation support to breastfeeding mothers in predominantly African American or underserved communities. Nikia also directed a community-based participatory research study that blended social, behavioral, and biomedical approaches to examine how stressors or resiliency factors influence and interact with biological factors to affect maternal and child health. As the director of an infant mortality reduction initiative in Baltimore City, Nikia oversaw the provision of intensive case management services consisting of recruitment, home-visiting, and parenting education to improve the health and wellness of women and families.