Portrait of Lena Brooks

Lena Brooks

Pediatric nurse. Foster kid grown up. Atlanta proud.

Atlanta, GA

What I stand for

I aged out of the foster care system at 18 with a duffel bag and a Walgreens calling card. A pediatric nurse named Ms. Carolyn drove me to my first dorm. I've never stopped trying to be Ms. Carolyn for somebody else.

My three causes are the three things I needed at different ages — and the three I still see kids and mothers in my unit needing every week.

What I stand for
Foster youthMaternal healthFood accessAtlanta

I want the kid version of me, sitting in a waiting room somewhere right now, to know that grown women like her become nurses, buy houses, and come back.

Organizations I support

Together We Rise

Provides duffel bags, bikes, and college essentials to youth in the foster care system.

Trash bags. Every foster kid I know has a trash-bag story. Together We Rise's 'Sweet Cases' make sure no child moves with their life in a Hefty bag.

Donate

Atlanta Community Food Bank

Distributes food across 29 counties in metro Atlanta and north Georgia.

I see what happens to a kid's body and attention when dinner is uncertain. This is the most concrete fix at the most concrete scale.

Volunteer

Black Mamas Matter Alliance

Black women-led alliance advancing Black maternal health, rights, and justice.

The maternal mortality numbers in Georgia for Black women are not abstract to me. BMMA is led by the people closest to the problem.

Donate
Where I show up
  • Mentor
    Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta
    Same little since 2021.

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