Joy Spencer

Joy Spencer has a lifelong commitment to promoting lived experience as expertise, equity and authentic community engagement. She is driven by passion and knows firsthand the life-saving impact of sound, equitable and culturally affirming policies that help foster and sustain community-led services and supports.

Joy is a member of over a dozen councils, committees and boards providing direct services, policy and advocacy support to communities, a Parent Leader, a Leadership Triangle Goodmon Fellow and graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She is a public speaker who submitted testimony before the Congressional Ways and Means Committee, delivered the Parent Voice Keynote address for the NC Policy Institute and was a Tedx speaker at UNC. She has been featured in publications such as Cardinal & Pine, MarketWatch and NC Policy Watch speaking on the experiences of parents, and the role policy can play in improving health outcomes for families.

Joy is a doula and the Executive Director of Equity Before Birth (EBB), a “boots on the ground” nonprofit organization working to eliminate maternal health disparities and improve birth outcomes by taking an economic justice approach. Beginning operations in October 2020, Equity Before Birth serves 5 counties across the Triangle region and has enrolled over 250 families in their programs, covering the cost of doulas, midwives and therapists; offering paid maternity leave scholarships and covering the cost of essential baby items. EBB prioritizes building trust and relationships and hosts several community engagement events throughout the year, wrapping mamas around a village of support. 

She is committed to being the change she would like to see in the world.