Speakers

Dr Annabel Sowemimo is a doctor, academic, activist and writer. She is Consultant in Sexual & Reproductive Health at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust & Sexual and Reproductive Health Lead. She founded the charity the Reproductive Justice Initiative (RJI, formerly Decolonising Contraception), which aims to address health inequalities and racial disparities. In 2023, Annabel received an outstanding achievement award from the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). Within her specialty, she is interested in tackling Gender Based Violence and improving access to healthcare for marginalised groups. She is a Trustee for Birthrights and Ambassador for Birth Companions.

Annabel is also a part time PhD candidate and Harold Moody Scholar at King’s College London, with her research focusing on the experiences of Black women in Britain with Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARCs). Annabel has also worked as a freelance writer for numerous outlets including the Independent, Guardian and Novara Media, and she was a regular columnist for gal-dem. In 2023, she featured on the ITV documentary Our NHS with Dr Zoe Williams.

Annabel published her first book Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare with the Wellcome Collection in April 2023. It won the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and a Breast Cancer Book of the Year Award. It was also shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Non-Fiction, the British Academy Book Prize for Cultural Understanding and an Indie Champion Book Award.