Dr. Waffiyah Saleem Iddriss | Biography

Gender Based Violence Healing & Wellness Practitioner • Maternal Health Equity Strategist • Master

Facilitator • Mental Health Consultant • Griot of Healing • Youth Wellness Whisperer • Author

Dr. Waffiyah Saleem Iddriss is a powerhouse in purpose heels, GBV healing & wellness

practitioner, a maternal health equity strategist, master facilitator, MH Consultant, and griot

of healing. She is the Founder and CEO of SHE MATTERS, a liberatory wellness movement

uplifting BIPOC/ALAANA woman, girls, and femmes, and their co-conspirators into spaces of

healing, truth-telling, and collective care. She currently serves as Deputy Director for

Connecting Our Communities for NJ (COCNJ), where she centers policy, advocacy, and parent

power to birth justice across the state.

Nationally, Dr. Waffiyah is a Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow, Cross-State PN-3

Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder of a National Power-Building Training Initiative, and

Co-Lead Grassroots Subcommittee Facilitator for the National Collaborative for Infants &

Toddlers (NCIT). She specializes in the intersections of gender-based violence, maternal

health equity, and culturally responsive healing frameworks.

With over two decades in child protection and higher education, Dr. Waffiyah now serves as

a Consultant/Facilitator for Rutgers University’s NJ Child Welfare Training

Program(NJCWTP), a Mental Health Consultant/Facilitator for Simon Youth Academy &

Recovery High schools, holds leadership positions with Northern NJ Association of Black

Social Workers (NNJABSW- 1st Vice-President), Berea Scholars NYC (Trustee), and the

Women of Color Task Force at NJCEDV (Co-Chair).

Dr. Waffiyah also serves as a peer reviewer for federal grants through the U.S. Department of

Justice, Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (OJP Peer Review Support

Services), contributing her expertise to support equitable funding decisions and strengthen

community-centered justice initiatives.

She is also the co-author of H.E.R.: Healed, Empowered and Resilient, a powerful testament

to radical healing, womanhood, and reclaiming voice through story.

A lifelong lover of the arts, she embraces storytelling as both cultural memory and liberation

practice. In 2024, Dr. Waffiyah (Saleem) Iddriss made her stage debut in Crowns, produced

by Daryl Stewart Productions. She returned to the stage in 2026 in The Color Purple, also

produced by the company, continuing to embody storytelling as both art and liberation

while weaving theatre, healing, and community narrative into her broader work.

Dr. Waffiyah is currently cultivating an international partnership with Green Life

Educational Compound (GLEC) in Ghana. This cross-continental collaboration centers

education, wellness, and cultural exchange, launching in 2026 with a book drive, healing

circles, and community infrastructure-building. GLEC is a growing global educationalnetwork purpose-aligned that mirrors Dr. Waffiyah’s commitment to radical

self-determination and global solidarity.

Having traveled to 14+ countries across Africa, Central America, and Europe, she brings a

global lens to her grassroots heart-work. Her work is not only about service, it’s about

sovereignty.

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political

warfare.

"

— Audre Lorde