Class of 2027
Denise Anderson, PhD, MPH
Executive Director
The Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing
New Jersey's Public Health Institute
Maplewood, NJ
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Dr. Denise Anderson is the inaugural Executive Director of The Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing (CHEW), New Jersey's Public Health Institute (NJPHI). Denise – part ecosystem architect and part policy whisperer - works to shift systems and stretch minds to disrupt business-as-usual ideologies. She leads with moral clarity, navigating with respectful curiosity, while claiming space confidently and unapologetically.
Denise, a thought leader, has developed a strategy for ongoing growth as a convener for public health that promotes statewide health equity as part of a sustainable public health infrastructure. The CHEW-NJPHI four strategic priority areas are 1) health equity; 2) democracy and health: civic engagement and public policy; 3) trust in science: evidence-based action; and 4) public health workforce development.
A few highlights of Dr. Anderson’s accomplishments include serving as Project Director on national cooperative agreements focused on healthcare delivery models and sustainable strategies for community-based organizations. She designed, developed, implemented, and managed New Jersey’s first-ever statewide rapid mobile response team to bring the COVID-19 pandemic response to communities on the margins of initial response efforts. Further, she co-led the declaration of racism as a public health crisis in New Jersey as President-elect of the New Jersey Public Health Association.
She also serves on the boards of the Northern NJ American Red Cross and the African American Chamber of Commerce of NJ, co-chairing multiple committees. She holds a BS in Human Ecology, an MPH from Rutgers, and a Ph.D. in urban systems from Rutgers and NJIT. Additionally, Denise is a Fellow of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Public Health Prevention Service and the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Tina Loarte-Rodríguez, DNP, RN, CPPS, CPHRM
Executive Director
The Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, Inc.
Bristol, CT
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Dr. Tina Loarte-Rodriguez is dedicated to leaving the world a little better than she finds it. Her unwavering belief in the power of community, kindness, and growth is a testament to her character. Guided by her strengths of curiosity, creativity, and bravery, she approaches every challenge with an open mind, bold vision, and the courage to lead transformative change. As a pioneer, she is committed to uplifting others as she ascends, using her privilege and influence for the greater good.
Her professional journey reflects a deep passion for innovation, health equity, and advocacy. With 19 years of nursing experience across various healthcare settings and specialties, she now serves as the Executive Director of the Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce (CCNW), where she fosters statewide collaborations to build a highly educated, diverse, and sustainable nursing workforce to meet Connecticut’s healthcare needs.
A first-generation college graduate of Cornell University, the University of Connecticut, and Quinnipiac University, Dr. Loarte-Rodriguez was named a 2021 Hartford Business Journal Healthcare Hero and led her team to win the 2021 Connecticut Nurses Association Excellence in Team Award. She is the creator and editor of the groundbreaking anthology series Latinas in Nursing, amplifying the voices, stories, and leadership of Latina and Latino nurses across the country. Her published works serve as a call to action for representation and equity in healthcare.
Proud of her Afro-Latina Boricua (Puerto Rican) roots, Dr. Loarte-Rodriguez was born and raised in the vibrant Bronx, NY. She now resides in Connecticut, where she finds joy in dancing, traveling, reading, and spending time with her supportive husband, their three phenomenal children, her father, and two rescue dogs—an everyday reflection of her deep values of family and community.
Joanne Fernandez-Booker, MD, MPH
Pediatrician, Clinical Professor and Medical Student Advisor
City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine
New York, NY
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Joanne M. Fernandez-Booker, MD, MPH is a pediatrician and Clinical Professor at the CUNY School of Medicine, where she also serves as a Medical Student Advisor. In this role, she supports students in career development and residency planning, with a focus on holistic, equity-centered advising for those navigating academic challenges. Her work is grounded in a commitment to fostering belonging and advancing inclusive excellence in medicine.
Previously, Dr. Fernandez-Booker was a field physician with the New York City (NYC) Department of Health’s Vulnerable Populations Program, delivering care in the South Bronx and Mott Haven. She played a key role in bridging medical and educational systems to promote student well-being and led local efforts in COVID-19 and Monkeypox vaccination distribution and contact tracing.
Deeply engaged in advocacy and equity work, Dr. Fernandez-Booker serves on the national executive committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s Council on Health Equity. As Chair of the New York State AAP Chapter 3 Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, she spearheaded the “Advancing Equity in Pediatrics” initiative, which brought together pediatricians from across New York State to engage in dialogue and build skills around health equity. She currently leads two grant-funded projects focused on empowering physicians, students, and trainees to recognize, respond to, and effectively address microaggressions in the clinical settings; expanding the pediatric pipeline; strengthening mentorship; supporting advocacy; and improving pediatrician retention.
Dr. Fernandez-Booker earned her Bachelor of Science from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at CUNY City College of New York, her Medical Doctorate from New York Medical College, and her Master of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Yale School of Public Health. She completed her pediatric residency at Westchester Medical Center. Her professional interests include immigrant health, health equity, and workforce development.
Class of 2026
Akshar Abbott, MD
Staff Physician/Director of CIVIC
Veterans Integrated Service Network 23 Clinical Resource Hub Virtual Eye Care Service
Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Akshar Abbott is an ophthalmologist and medical retina specialist with the Veterans Integrated Service Network 23 Clinical Resource Hub Virtual Eye Care Service at the Veterans Health Administration, providing high-quality subspeciality eye care to patients in rural communities across the United States. His work focuses on understanding how telehealth and mobile health technology can be leveraged to lower barriers to eye care. He also leads the Community for Innovation in Vision Care, a VISN 23 team aiming to improve the delivery of eye care services by adapting innovative technologies. In addition, he has served as an MIT Catalyst Fellow and later MIT Catalyst Fellowship Faculty, focused on the intersection of innovation and health equity.
Akshar received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He completed his fellowship in medical retina at the National Institutes of Health. He is a 2023 National Academy Scholar of Diagnostic Excellence and a member of the inaugural United States cohort of Obama Foundation Leaders.
Akshar’s work aims to center the core aspiration of our democracy: the uncoupling of demographics and destiny, empowering all Americans to live their fullest lives independent of who they are or where they live.
Carrie Bridges, MPH
Vice President of Community Health and Equity
Brown University Health
Providence, Rhode Island
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Carrie Bridges is the Vice President of Community Health and Equity at Brown University Health, based in Providence, R.I. Carrie leads the system’s efforts to advance health equity through population health and community benefit strategies. A member of ambulatory leadership, Carrie oversees the Community Health Institute and Center for Health and Justice Transformation which deliver community-based prevention and screening services, social needs screening and navigation assistance, population health disease management interventions, workforce development and skill-building programs, and youth development initiatives. Collectively, these strategies are designed to reduce health disparities by improving healthcare access, outcomes, quality, and patient experience.
Having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Duke University and a Master of Public Health degree from the Boston University School of Public Health, Carrie began her career as a public health prevention specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she concentrated on refugee health, tuberculosis program evaluation, and the prevention of healthcare acquired infections. She also served as the team lead for Health Disparities and Access to Care in the R.I. Department of Health where she supervised the offices of Minority Health, Women’s Health, Special Health Care Needs, and Primary Care & Rural Health. In addition to her public health experience, Carrie has worked in public education as a classroom teacher and school district administrator. Through her professional roles and non-profit board service, Carrie endeavors to create the conditions that will allow all people to thrive.
Liany E. Arroyo, MPH, CPH
Director, Connecticut Urban Opportunity Collaborative
Fairfield County’s Community Foundation
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Hartford, Connecticut
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Liany E. Arroyo is the Director of the Connecticut Urban Opportunity Collaborative, a partnership among Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven that is dedicated to advancing equity and promoting social and economic mobility in communities across the state. Prior to this role, she was the Chief Operating Officer at Charter Oak Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center located in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood, where she ensured that it delivered on its mission to provide high quality care regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. She served also served as the Director of Health and Human Services for the City of Hartford during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, she oversaw the growth of the department’s programs to address opioids and chronic disease as well as the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally from Bridgeport, CT, Liany worked in Washington, DC where she served as the Senior Director for Health Equity at Power to Decide and oversaw a three-year community health worker research project to prevent teen pregnancy on the U.S.-Mexico border. She also spent a decade at UnidosUS where she was the Associate Director of the Education and Children’s Project and the Director of the Institute for Hispanic Health.
Liany has used her expertise in the non-profit and government sectors to develop programs and promote public policies to improve the health status of communities of color across the nation. She holds a BA in psychology from Wellesley College, an MPH from Columbia University, is Certified in Public Health, and was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar in 2022.
Class of 2025
Lou Hart, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics (Hospital Medicine);
Medical Director of Health Equity, Yale New Haven Health System
New Haven, CT
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Lou Hart, MD is a practicing Pediatric Hospitalist, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, and the Medical Director of Health Equity for Yale New Haven Health System. His mission is to identify and eliminate unwanted variation in care process and outcome that exist within our structured systems.
Dr. Hart started his clinical leadership career as Director of Equity, Quality & Safety at NYC Health + Hospitals, our nation's largest comprehensive safety-net healthcare system. Clinically he loves seeing patients and working with empowered teams to improve the equity, quality & safety of patient care. By leveraging quality improvement and patient safety frameworks and methodologies, his team confronts systems-based drivers of inequity using a just culture approach. Academically, he spends time researching and publicly engaging colleagues in dialogue over the innate flaws of racial essentialism in medicine and its contribution to a lower standard of care for all patients.
Sherise Chantell Rogers, MD, MPH
Interim Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, Attending Medical Oncologist Division of Hematology/Oncology, Founder,
Brown University,
Providence, RI
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Dr. Sherise Chantell Rogers is an attending medical oncologist at Brown University Health and the Interim Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. She earned her Master of Business Administration from Yale University, where she was selected for the prestigious Pozen–Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership. In addition to her academic, leadership, and clinical work, Dr. Rogers is the founder of a health-focused startup.
A specialist in gastrointestinal malignancies, Dr. Rogers’ work centers on advancing cancer outcomes and eliminating disparities. Her research portfolio spans therapeutic clinical trials, microbiome analysis, and population health.
Before joining Brown University Health, Dr. Rogers served as Assistant Professor of Medicine, scientist, and Community & Belonging Officer at the University of Florida. She is an inaugural Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Scholar and former Principal Investigator for the Florida–California CaRE2 Health Equity Center. Her academic accomplishments include numerous research grants, peer-reviewed publications, and awards. She also served as Co-Course Director for the Cancer Biology and Clinical Oncology curriculum at the University of Florida and continues to mentor trainees and students from groups underrepresented in medicine. Dr. Rogers remains an active member of several national committees and professional organizations.
Dr. Rogers received her Bachelor of Science in Human Development from Cornell University and earned her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees from New York Medical College. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Stony Brook University Medical Center and her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at The Ohio State University, where she also served as Wellness Chief Fellow.
Amon Rodgers, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor; Founder
Charles Drew University; Rodgers Medical Group
Long Beach, CA
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Amon Rodgers is a family medicine physician and an assistant professor at Charles R. Drew University (CDU) of Medicine and Science. He serves as principal investigator and medical director for the university’s Mobile Health Outreach Program, which focuses on providing primary care and public health services directly to communities disproportionately affected by health inequities throughout Los Angeles County. He also serves as the founding co-director for the university’s school of medicine’s “Medicine and Society” curriculum, a course designed to introduce medical students to topics around health equity, community partnership, and leadership.
Past roles also include being a founding core faculty member and associate program director for CDU’s Family Medicine Residency Program. His professional interests include mobile health service delivery, leadership development, optimizing healthcare delivery for individuals experiencing homelessness, and understanding the relationship between community development and one’s health.
Class of 2024
Nazleen Bharmal, MD, PhD, MPP, MBA
Chief Health Equity Officer; Clinical Associate Professor
Stanford Health Care
Palo Alto, CA
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Nazleen H. Bharmal, MD, PhD, MBA MPP is the Chief Health Equity Officer at Stanford Health Care and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Primary Care and Population Health. She was previously on the Value Based Operations Team at Cleveland Clinic and served as the Associate Chief of Community Health & Partnerships where she worked with an interdisciplinary team to implement a community health strategy focused on health equity, social determinants of health, and partnerships with community stakeholders. Dr. Bharmal practices primary care internal medicine focused on disease prevention and health promotion. Her other experiences include serving as the Director of Science and Policy at the Office of the Surgeon General in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a clinician-investigator at the RAND Corporation and UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Health Services and General Internal Medicine with a research focus on health disparities, chronic disease prevention, and social determinants of health using quantitative, qualitative, and community-based participatory research methods.
Nazleen has published in several scientific journals and received awards for her public health research and leadership activities. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School, PhD in health policy and management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, MBA from the Yale School of Management, and MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Karen Orjuela MD, MBA, MSCR, FAAN
Vascular Neurologist and Neurohospitalist
University of Colorado
Denver, CO
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Karen Orjuela is a fellowship-trained vascular neurologist, neurohospitalist, assistant professor and clinical researcher studying acute neurological care and associated outcomes at the University of Colorado. She completed her medical school training at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in her hometown Bogota (Colombia) then, she moved to the United States where she graduated as a neurologist and vascular neurologist from Loyola University of Chicago. She earned a master’s degree in clinical research from the University of South Carolina and began participating in industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated research studies. Noting the lack of representation of minorities in cardiovascular disease research coupled with their overrepresentation in her clinical practice, Dr. Orjuela is actively seeking to address this disparity.
Karen is also the Co-Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Neurology at her institution. She is a member of international neurological societies and scientific journal's editorial boards. She is an emerging leader in neurohospitalist education and community-based participatory neurology research.
Amaziah Coleman, MD, FAAAAI, FAAP, MBA
Medical Officer, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation (DAIT)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Gaithersburg, MD
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Amaziah Coleman is a Medical Officer in the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation (DAIT) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to the NIH, Amaziah served as an Attending Physician in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s National Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. Her clinical and research interests have been centered around understanding the health disparities that exist for people living with allergic and immunologic disorders and finding effective ways to improve health outcomes for those communities.
Amaziah received her medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, MS). She completed pediatric residency training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/Arkansas Children’s Hospital (Little Rock, AR) and allergy and immunology fellowship training at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (Madison, WI). Within NIAID, Amaziah is a leader in organizational change focused on addressing health inequities in clinical trial research networks.
Class of 2023
Alicia Hardy, LCSW, MBA
CEO at CommuniCare+OLE
Napa, CA
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Alicia is the CEO of OLE Health, a federally qualified health Center that provides comprehensive primary health care services to low-income children, families, and individuals in Napa and Solano Counties. She develops OLE’s strategic priorities, ensures the delivery of high-quality services, and participates in advocacy, fundraising, emergency, and disaster response to ensure that all members of the community have access to high-quality care. In October 2023, OLE Health is merging with another federally qualified health center in Yolo County, which will allow for more service expansion across three counties, serving roughly 71,000 patients per year.
Prior to joining OLE in 2009, Alicia worked with vulnerable communities in Peru and Nigeria and co-founded a charter school in the South Bronx. She is an LCSW by training and has provided behavioral health care at both the VA Hospital in San Francisco and OLE Health. Since being promoted to CEO in 2018, Alicia has expanded OLE Health’s mobile outreach services and opened three additional clinic sites. She continues to pursue expansion opportunities that will increase access to care, address social drivers of health and advance health equity in our communities.
Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD, FAAFP, DiplABLM, MBA
Family Physician
STRIDE Family Health Centers
Denver, Colorado
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Tamaan K. Osbourne-Roberts, MD, serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Vice President of Health Strategy for Colorado Access, a Colorado-based non-profit health plan serving more than 675,000 Medicaid and CHP+ members. Previously, he served as CMO of Colorado Medicaid and concurrently as CMO of Colorado’s All-Payer Claims Database, as well as served as a regional medical director with the value-based care startup Aledade. A former member of the Colorado Public Health Service Corps, he continues to practice clinically, and has spent the majority of his career meeting the needs of underserved low-income Spanish-speaking communities throughout urban and rural Colorado. Additionally, he holds policy development roles with the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, where he has co-authored policy on support of the Affordable Care Act, excessive use of force in policing, and data infrastructure. He speaks six languages, three fluently.
Dr. Osbourne-Roberts completed his B.A. in English/Biology at Williams College and his M.D. and family medicine residency at the University of Colorado. He enjoys Trinidad Carnival, capoeira, mountaineering, freediving, spearfishing, cooking, and time with his wife and children.
Nia Heard-Garris, MD, MSc, FAAP, MBA
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics & Attending Physician at Northwestern University/Ann & Robert H. Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Chicago, IL
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Dr. Nia Heard-Garris is a pediatrician and a physician-investigator at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She examines the influence of social adversities in childhood and resilience on child and adolescent health. She is the founding chair of the Section on Minority Health, Equity, and Inclusion at the American Academy of Pediatrics, boasting 1,000 members. She hopes to combine her knowledge of medicine, science, and policy with her emerging knowledge of business to promote health equity.
Steven Starks, MD, FAPA, MBA
Behavioral Health Medical Director
Community Health Choice
Houston, Texas
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Steven is a geriatric psychiatrist who serves as behavioral health medical director at Community Health Choice, a Houston-based, non-profit, safety net managed care organization that serves communities across Southeast Texas by providing person-centered initiatives that address a wide array of health, social, and holistic needs. Prior to this role, he had been on the faculty at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. There, he served the college with roles in admissions, curriculum development, community partnerships, and student learning communities. Steven has a steadfast commitment to mental health advocacy and elevating communities that have been marginalized by social and structural factors; his scholarly work addressed racism and inequity in medical education, organized medicine and mental healthcare.
Previously, he had been 2018-2019 Health and Aging Policy Fellow and American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in the Office of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and contributed to the design, drafting and rollout of the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. He started his early career as a faculty member of the BCM Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorder Center and as a staff physician at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center where he designed programs that integrated mental health practice into home-based care, long-term care and primary care settings to ensure individuals with mental health and substance use disorders received compassionate and effective psychiatric care and treatment.
Class of 2022
Fatimah Loren Dreier (Muhammad), MBA
Vice President, HRiA / Executive Director, KP GVRE / Executive Director, HAVI
Washington, DC Metro Area
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Fatimah serves as Vice President of Health Resources in Action, a Boston-based public health institute. In this capacity, she also serves as the inaugural Executive Director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education (GVRE) and Executive Director of The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI). The KP Center for GVRE is a $25M initiative which seeks to elevate the value and impact of health-focused solutions to gun violence through research grants and national education initiatives. The HAVI is a healthcare organization that has developed and scaled a model of care, called HVIPs, to treat violently injured patients. The HAVI has a presence in 85 markets in the United States.
Fatimah currently involved in initiatives to support the Biden Administration on healthcare policy, spearheading the securing of over $10B of federal investments as well as reimbursement mechanisms for HVIPs. She has attracted notable supporters of the HAVI, including Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot.
Fatimah’s work and thought leadership has appeared in numerous media outlets including CNN, Washington Post, NPR, TIME, NY Times, Health Affairs, Politico, AP, and more. Her work has also appeared in Nature, Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, American Journal of Public Health and more. She is a psychotherapist by training and a proud Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mikah Owen, MBA
Co-Prinicipal Investigator, UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN)
University of California – Davis
Elk Grove, California
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Prior to joining the University of California, Davis, Mikah was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine–Jacksonville. In Jacksonville Mikah’s work focused on building a system of care for children and adolescents from marginalized and vulnerable backgrounds. Clinically, Mikah is a primary care pediatrician and medical director for a federally qualified health center. In this role Mikah provides direct patient care and oversees the clinical operations for two pediatric health centers. While in Jacksonville Mikah has led and participated in numerous initiatives aimed at improving the health and well-being of children at the local, state and national level. This work includes quality care initiatives aimed at improving healthcare delivery for youth in the child welfare system, extensive advocacy efforts aimed at improving health and well-being outcomes for youth involved with the justice system and working to establish Jacksonville as a Child Friendly City where all children have an equitable opportunity to reach their full potential.
Class of 2021
Cecelia “Cece” Calhoun, MD, MPHS, MBA
Assistant Professor, Hematology; Medical Director, Adult Sickle Cell Program; Associate Chief of Operations
Yale School of Medicine; Smilow Cancer Hospital
New Haven, Connecticut
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Cecelia Calhoun, MD, MPHS, MBA, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine where her clinical and research expertise center on the care of persons with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) She also serves as the Medical Director of the Adult Sickle Cell Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital
Dr. Calhoun uses mixed methods to find solutions to the educational and healthcare obstacles critical to the longevity of adolescents with sickle cell disease. She has dedicated her career to the design and implementation of evidence-based interventions that promote successful transition from youth to adult care for the sickle cell population. As an NIH funded investigator, she collaborates with her hematology colleagues across the nation to use Implementation Science methods to improve outcomes for patients with sickle cell disease throughout their lifespans.
Dr. Calhoun graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Afro-American Studies and Medical Doctorate from Wayne State University. She continued her training at Michigan State University as a pediatric resident, then fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine where she also completed a Master of Population Health Sciences. She received her MBA as one of three, inaugural Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellows in Minority Health Leadership at Yale University School of Management.
Crystal Yates, MBA
Deputy Managing Director, Health and Human Services
City of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Crystal Yates is the Deputy Managing Director of Health and Human Services for the City of Philadelphia. She oversees the city’s health and social services portfolio for the sixth largest city in the nation. The HHS portfolio includes the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Office of Homeless Services, Office of Domestic Violence Strategies, and Mayor’s Commission on Aging. The mission of Philadelphia's HHS team is to ensure the health and wellbeing, safety, and appropriate supports for all Philadelphians, particularly the most vulnerable children and adults.
Crystal has over 23 years of experience in the fire and EMS industry. She previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Administration and Finance and Assistant Deputy Commissioner of EMS, gaining extensive leadership experience. In 2014, she led the effort to launch the EMS Community Risk Reduction and Mobile Integrated Health Unit which pursued innovative strategies to use patient-centered, mobile resources to reduce unplanned hospital visits and connect patients with substance use disorder to necessary care.
Crystal is a long-time partner of the FIRST Center. During her time at PFD, she mentored the Firefighter Injury Research, Epidemiology, and Evaluation (FIRE) Fellows each summer, providing insight on EMS work from her time as both a paramedic and an EMS leader at PFD.
Her healthcare background is diverse and includes prehospital care, health insurance experience, and strengths-based family coaching. Crystal is passionate about health equity and has served on a structured community action team focused on reducing maternal mortality. She was a member of the Advisory Committee for Cities Changing Diabetes in Philadelphia. She participated in the Philadelphia Resilience Project and OD Stat overdose mortality review committee. She also served as an EMS consultant for Primary Maternity Care in Milford, Connecticut.
Crystal received a BS in Professional Study from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She also completed a certificate program at the Thomas Jefferson University Municipal Innovation Academy. She is a Philadelphia Leadership alumna.
Dr. Kennetha Gaines, RN, DNP, MBA, MA, PHN, CNL, CLEC
Nursing Consultant
Office of Population Health – UCSF Health
Los Angeles, California
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Kennetha's extensive background shines through as she brings forth robust clinical leadership and expertise, with a specialized focus on maternal and newborn infant care. Her dedication is particularly evident in her emphasis on perinatal outcomes for women of color.
Across a spectrum of care settings, Kennetha's professional journey encompasses both nursing and management leadership roles within diverse metropolitan hospitals and community clinics. Presently, she occupies the role of a nurse consultant at UCSF Health within the Office of Population Health, contributing significantly to the enhancement of clinical support systems.
Kennetha's proficiency extends to the management of comprehensive services spanning reproductive health, family planning, behavioral health, and disease management and prevention. She firmly believes that nursing has granted her a unique platform to harmonize community-based experience with the fundamental principles of science and evidence-based delivery of nursing interventions. Notably, Kennetha's unwavering commitment to serving underrepresented communities stands out prominently.
With a remarkable academic journey, Kennetha boasts three master's degrees from UCLA in African American Studies, Urban Planning, and Nursing. Furthermore, she has achieved the pinnacle of her education with a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the Yale School of Nursing.