OUR TEAM
Gabrielle Horton, Executive Producer + Host
Gabrielle is a former Democratic political staffer turned audio storyteller. Beyond NATAL, the Inglewood, CA native produces and edits audio projects for teams like KCRW, Raedio, NPR, Ninth Planet Audio/The Black List, Nuestro PAC, Tight Lipped, Michigan Radio and more. Beginning Fall 2021, she became an adjunct faculty member at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where she works weekly with students to produce news stories for live broadcast. An alumni of Spelman College and the University of Michigan, Gabrielle is an avid runner, cook, who’s still very much living in “the ‘99 and the 2000s” music era.
Martina Abrahams Ilunga, Executive Producer + Host
Martina is an entrepreneur, media maker and community builder with a lifelong passion for storytelling and Black history and culture. Her work is driven by an intense commitment to amplifying marginalized Black voices, and passing a mic to Black folks to share their stories in their own words. In addition to NATAL, she created You Had Me at Black, a platform and community using storytelling to connect, heal, and liberate. Their podcast has been download over 1million times by listeners in 31 countries and caught the attention of Vanity Fair, Complex, and others. In a past life, Martina worked in product and marketing at tech giants like Google and Square. She graduated from Georgetown University and is an avid lover of Soca music.
Jess Jupiter, Producer
Jess is a Los Angeles-based podcast producer and has led production on a number of shows including, Netflix’s Okay, Now Listen, HBO’s Lovecraft Country Radio and The Stoop, hosted by Leila Day and Hana Baba. Along with her commitment to being a joyful queer Black girl, Jess is just as committed to fostering and creating stories that expand the narrative of Black and queer communities and works to elevate stories by and for Black women. Jess served as the Sound Designer and Engineer for NATAL’s debut season.
Tiara Darnell, Writer
Tiara produces quality podcasts, like Nosy Neighbors for Spotify from both coasts. In addition to podcasting, she is also a freelance writer (Vogue, Portland Monthly, Willamette Week, and more.) and creator + former host and executive producer of High, Good People, an award-winning independent “potcast” about people of color and cannabis in the new age of legalization. Tiara served as Editor for NATAL: Season One, and is an alum of the inaugural Spotify Sound Up Bootcamp (2018) for emerging women of color podcasters, as well as the Transom traveling storytelling program (KQED - Seattle). Outside of work, Tiara enjoys making and sharing homemade goat milk ice cream, traveling, exploring and making new friends, and loving on her good friends and fam!
Akilah Wise, PhD, Content Consultant
Akilah is a trained public health researcher and freelance journalist. Originally from Los Angeles, Akilah resides in Atlanta, Georgia where she covers stories that are broadly related to public health and inequity, with a focus on maternal health care. Her stories can be found in The Nation, The Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Rewire News, Bedsider Providers, The Appeal, Lady Science, and The Body Pro. An expert in health disparities research, Akilah earned her Masters in Public Health from UCLA and her doctorate from the University of Michigan. She’s also held public health fellowships at Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and completed a journalism fellowship at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her research centers on social and structural determinants of unintended pregnancy, sexual health, and HIV and can be found in peer-review journals such as Women’s Health Issues, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Social Science and Medicine, and Public Health Reports. Akilah is highly invested in improving the climate for Black girls and women and supporting the next generation of public health researchers.
Catherine Stifter, Reporting Mentor
Catherine is happily retired from a satisfying 38-year-long career in public radio, and thankfully still involved in journalism as Senior Fellow for USC Annenberg’s California Health Journalism Project and Mentor for the Impact Fund. Highlights of her career include working with hundreds of station-based and independent reporters, editors and producers who were enrolled in NPR's On-Site Training Projects and Diversity Initiatives in the 1990s; founding member of Gays and Lesbians in Public Radio (GLIPR); a stint as board member of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) and travel to South Africa with other NPR producers to conduct a country-wide journalism training project prior to Mandela’s election.
Catherine was Managing Editor on independent public radio productions that won Peabody Awards for The DNA Files and Crossing East: Our Stories, Our History, Our America. For 14 years, Catherine helped mentor and fund community collaborations that used media to illuminate health issues within vulnerable communities across the US through Sound Partners for Community Health. She directed Capital Public Radio’s award-winning community-engaged documentary series The View From Here for seven years. Catherine is proud to have had roles as mentor and managing editor for the Next Generation Radio training project.