CPH 19 — Fear as Fuel, Joy as Resistance, Liberation as Practice: A Conversation with Jannah Bierens, MPH, MA

Courageous Public Health

On This Episode Of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

In this expansive and soul-stirring conversation, Jannah Bierens, MPH, MA shares how courage, curiosity, and lived experience have shaped her radical reimagining of public health. From leaving traditional institutions to stepping fully into purpose, she reflects on what it means to color outside the lines, take up space, and practice public health as a form of protest, healing, and love.

Jannah invites us into her world as an educator, community builder, and truth teller—someone who lights the way by embodying the change she wants to see. With clarity, conviction, and joy, she reminds us that resistance can be beautiful, and that our breath, boundaries, and brilliance are tools for transformation.

Meet Jannah Bierens, MPH, MA

Jannah Bierens (she/they) is a pro-Black North Carolina native currently living in Michigan, working locally and nationally as a racial equity consultant, transformational leadership coach, and seasoned facilitator. As founder of PHREEEDOM LLC, she leads with love and joy through facilitating reflective dialogue around root causes of oppression, strategies of sharing/shifting power, and reclaiming narratives for self, systems, and social transformation. With 25 years, mostly in community-based public health practice, Jannah’s lived, and career experience combined with their M.P.H. and M.A. in Social Justice and Community Organizing, shapes a historical and political analysis that compels them to examine and name systemic power imbalance with unapologetic truth. Most importantly, it is the guidance through generations of Black super women that have prepared them most for working collectively and in community, to get PHREEE.

Listen To This Episode of The Courageous Public Health Podcast

Conversation Highlights

• Fear as Fuel — Jannah Bierens shares how leaving traditional institutions to become a public health entrepreneur was one of the most courageous choices she’s made—and how the fear never goes away, but becomes part of the process.
• Power in Presence — She describes what it means to take space as a Black woman in public health, while also making space for others through humility, accountability, and intention.
• Practice over Performance — Jannah challenges the box-checking culture of public health and calls for a shift toward practices rooted in love, justice, and community wisdom.
• Reading as Resistance — She reflects on how books, color, and joy have sustained her—and why her bookshelf is as much a credential as any degree.
• Breath and Boundaries — Jannah shares her personal mantra—rest, pleasure, and boundaries—and the radical act of choosing joy, stillness, and embodiment in a system not built for liberation.
• Curriculum for Change — She calls for public health education that integrates sociology, neuroscience, and history, and re-centers lived experience alongside academic knowledge.
• A Liberated Vision — Her future vision includes circles over ladders, curiosity over conformity, and public health rooted in community, creativity, and collective healing.

“Fear doesn’t go away—it becomes fuel.” — Jannah Bierens, MPH, MA

Stay In Touch:

Jannah Bierens, MPH, MA on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannahjustice/

Email Jannah Bierens, MPH, PH - [email protected]

Email Dr. Kristi McClamroch - [email protected]

Dr. Kristi McClamroch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-mcclamroch/

www.CourageousPublicHealth.com

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Public Health Consulting To Support You

At Courageous Public Health, we are turning up the volume on courage within women, particularly Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color who are doing the work of public health. We support public health organizations through workshop design and facilitation, and speaking engagements. Interested in working with us? Reach out on email, LinkedIn, or our website!