about
About Us
RJ Squared, LLC is a Reproductive Justice consulting firm dedicated to eradicating the maternal and infant health disparities faced by Black women.
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We bridge the gap between data and action by providing capacity building, technical support, and data analysis for organizations across higher education, policy, and clinical practice. As trusted strategists, we provide expert strategic planning and facilitation, uniquely positioning us to convene practitioners, clinicians, and policymakers to co-create systemic solutions. Grounded in innovation and inclusion, our team delivers the thought partnership and comprehensive curricula—including interactive online modules and tangible guides—needed to equip and mobilize leaders in this critical field.
Our Story
Bridging the gap between public health strategy and systemic disruption. RJ Squared, LLC was founded by public health practitioners Rebecca Severin, MPH and Jasmine T. Getrouw, Ph.D. to address a critical, long-overlooked gap in the Black Maternal Health ecosystem.
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The Catalyst
Throughout our extensive careers, we routinely witnessed well-intentioned maternal health initiatives fail to improve actual outcomes for people of reproductive age. As we analyzed these failures, we identified a profound systemic flaw in standard public health approaches: a tendency to over-index on individual behavior modification—often rooted in harmful stereotypes—while completely ignoring the severe deficit in institutional accountability.
We realized that sustainable health equity is impossible without deliberately analyzing and dismantling the historical and capitalistic structures that perpetuate institutional racism. Driven by the need for a radical shift in the field, we launched RJ Squared to move organizations past "good intentions" and toward measurable, structural accountability.​
Over a Decade of Local Impact & Leadership
For more than ten years, RJ Squared has maintained a unique pulse on perinatal health programming and the strategic intellectual development of the perinatal health landscape across North Carolina.
We center an anti-racist, health equity orientation in all of our work. Notably, we were instrumental in the lifecycle and development of North Carolina’s Perinatal Health Strategic Plan—the first plan of its kind in the state to explicitly emphasize racial equity and establish a framework that local and regional groups still build upon today:
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2014: Served as original foundational stakeholders.
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2016: Heavily contributed to the plan's official publication.
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2018–2020: Acted as the lead consultants and managers of the plan and its statewide stakeholders.
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Systemic Advocacy in Action
Our commitment extends far beyond traditional programming. True systemic disruption requires community power and political alignment. To drive lasting change across North Carolina, we continuously build robust, collaborative relationships with:
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Statewide full-spectrum doulas
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Birth justice advocates
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Critical healthcare and community stakeholders
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Crucially, we actively align our initiatives with North Carolina leaders and politicians who are fiercely advocating for rural health access, reproductive freedom, and equitable perinatal outcomes.
At RJ Squared, we don't just manage public health strategy—we disrupt the status quo to save lives.
Mission Statement
To eliminate the harm caused by the structural determinants of health in historically marginalized communities through the adaptation of the Reproductive Justice Framework in advancing equitable policies and practices.
Vision Statement
To shift historically marginalized peoples from the margins to the center—anchored in reproductive agency, autonomy, and justice—where we create lives of joy, absolute abundance, and self-determination.
Rebecca A. Serverin
MPH, CPH, Operations Director
Rebecca is an experienced facilitator, consultant, and systems analyst. She has spent the last 13 years leading federal and state programs related to maternal and infant health. Rebecca has a background in program implementation, program management, reflective supervision, coaching, motivational interviewing, quality improvement and Results Based Accountability framework. Rebecca is passionate about examining the roots of racial inequities, helping individuals and teams discover innovative solutions, and strategic planning.
If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
Zora Neale Hurston
Jasmine Getrouw
PhD, MPA, Executive Director
Jasmine is an experienced antiracism centered, equity focused strategist and facilitator. She encompasses innovative approaches for expanding equity across the lifespan. Jasmine uses a root cause analysis through an intersectional, antiracist lens. Jasmine’s toolbox, developed by her roots in community health education, includes performing needs assessments; planning interventions, implementation; and the evaluation of programs, which both reduce disparities in marginalized populations and address implicit bias within our sociopolitical context. Jasmine is dedicated to developing effective strategies for addressing the structural inequities that have historically and disproportionately affected communities.
The far more difficult question we must collectively engage has to do with the political positions (in the widest sense) that we come to practice, not merely espouse; the mutual frameworks we adopt, as we live (both consciously and unconsciously) our daily lives. No matter our countries of origin, decolonization is a project for all.
M. Jacqui Alexander
Valued Partnershsips
