Tanika Gray Valbrun is an award-winning Journalist and Educator with a passion for women’s health. After her personal struggles with uterine fibroids, Tanika’s passion for women’s health inspired her to, create The White Dress Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing awareness, raising funding and increasing education about the uterine fibroid epidemic.
As the founder of The White Dress Project, Tanika has successfully worked with doctors, health advocates and elected officials in multiple states to get legislation passed declaring July as “Fibroids Awareness Month”. Recognized as a thought leader and patient advocate for uterine health, she has also spoken at various events travelled domestically and internationally.
In September 2017, Tanika’s thought leadership, led to a partnership between, The White Dress Project and The Fibroid Treatment Clinic, to amplify awareness and education about uterine treatment options to women in South Africa. While in South Africa, Tanika participated in multiple media interviews with global media outlets and connected directly with the people of South Africa through special events in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Additionally, working with national health advocates, doctors and Tony-award winning actress, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Tanika produced a stellar movie screening of the Oprah Winfrey produced and Emmy-nominated, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The event highlighted the life of a medical icon, Henrietta Lacks, and brought together community members to amplify the importance of cervical cancer awareness. Tanika serves as a Community Partner with the United State of Women, a national organization created by former First Lady of The United States, Michelle Obama, for any woman who sees that we need a different America for all women to survive and thrive — and wants to work collectively to achieve it.
In addition to encouraging women to be their own health advocates, Tanika works as a Content Producer for the Cable News Network (CNN), where she has been awarded three coveted Peabody Awards for her contributions in journalism. Tanika works closely with CNN’s 1000 media affiliates and manages multiple projects including national and international newsgathering, and demonstrating strong editorial and legal judgment through investigating, pitching and developing stories to serve all of CNN’s and HLN’s platforms. She is the recipient of Georgia Trend’s and Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “40 under 40” Awards.
Tanika earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism from Florida International University and University of Maryland with a Certification in Radio and Television.