Emilie Rodriguez has spent more than a decade creating community-based care for families. A Bronx-rooted founder, doula, and maternal health advocate, Emilie knows what it means to build solutions from lived experience. Through Ashé Birthing Services, she and her team of Black and Brown doulas support hundreds of families each year across New York City, offering care that is grounded, culturally responsive, and personal.
She hasn’t stopped there. Out of what she saw families facing every day, she helped build something more: The Bridge Directory, a platform that connects people to vetted perinatal providers who meet a higher standard of care. Families can search for obstetricians, midwives, mental health therapists, lactation specialists, and other providers by language, insurance, and approach, making it easier to find care that feels right for them. Together with the Bridge Community Foundation, which helps cover essential birth and postpartum support for families who could not otherwise afford it, Emilie’s work is building an ecosystem of care that does not make people navigate a broken system alone.
Emilie still remembers applying for a CitizensNYC grant for the first time. It was one of the first grants she had ever written, and at the time, it felt like a shot in the dark. But that early support gave her more than funding. It gave her confidence. It showed her that her ideas were worthy of investment, that her writing was strong, that her dreams for her community could become real.
In her words, CitizensNYC helped show that there were organizations willing to believe in people like her. In a world full of “nos,” CitizensNYC was willing to say yes.
That first yes mattered. And it traveled.
Over the last several years, Emilie and her co-founder, Guramrit LeBron, have grown their work into a powerful set of community-led solutions for perinatal health. What started with one organization has expanded into three interconnected efforts, each created to fill a gap, meet a need, and move families from surviving to being truly supported. Their work now reaches thousands of families a year, informs institutional research, and pushes for change not only at the grassroots level, but within the healthcare systems that shape people’s lives.
Emilie’s leadership has always been about responding to what the community is facing and building something better. “I definitely did not picture myself as a leader,” she said. “I feel like the community has given me that title.” That humility, paired with relentless action, is part of what makes her such an extraordinary force.
She also understands something CitizensNYC has believed for more than 50 years: that early support can change everything. When grassroots leaders are trusted at the beginning, when someone says, “we believe you, we see your vision, we’re willing to invest,” new possibilities open up. Other funders pay attention. New partnerships become possible. What once felt out of reach starts to take shape. Emilie is an example of what happens when local leadership gets the resources it deserves.
And the impact of that work cannot always be measured in simple terms. As Emilie puts it, how do you measure dignity? How do you measure empowerment? How do you measure generational healing? The care her organizations provide has ripple effects that stretch far beyond a single moment of birth. It touches families, partners, babies, and entire communities. It helps people feel protected, informed, and seen during one of the most important moments of their lives.
Emilie’s work is also deeply collaborative. She is quick to honor her co-founder, Guramrit LeBron, whose leadership, technical skill, and shared commitment have helped shape all three organizations from the beginning. Together, they have built something rare: a model of care that is visionary and practical, rooted in trust, and responsive to what families are actually asking for.
As CitizensNYC celebrates the grassroots leaders who make this city stronger, Emilie Rodriguez stands out as a powerful example of what community-led change looks like in practice. Her work is compassionate and deeply rooted in racial and economic justice. It bridges care and advocacy, research and real life, systems change and human connection.
We are proud to honor Emilie Rodriguez as one of this year’s New Yorkers for New York: a leader whose work reminds us that when we trust local vision, invest early, and follow the wisdom of community, we can build a city where more families are cared for.
We all believe every person deserves to live with dignity. Emilie is making sure those lives begin with dignity, too.
