We’re excited to announce the second iteration of our year-long leadership institute.

In early 2017, we received over 50 recommendations of emerging leaders from health departments across the country for the Institute. We interviewed 35 outstanding candidates — and based on these interviews — identified 18 individuals from local health departments, both large and small, to join our year-long program. Each candidate offered a lot to the program, making it a very hard selection process!

Between June 2017 and May 2018, we at Human Impact Partners will curate space for 18 Leadership Fellows to dive deeply into strategies that advance racial and social justice in public health, data-driven framing, and levers for systems change.

Learn more about our Health Equity Awakened Leadership Institute.

Sign up for email updates to get looped into updates about the next cycle of the Health Equity Awakened Leadership Institute.

Welcome 2017 – 2018 Leadership Fellows!

Meileen Acosta – Solano County Public Health Department, Fairfield, CA

Katie Balderas – Long Beach Department of Health & Human Services, Long Beach, CA

Nicki Britten – Berrien County Health Department, Benton Harbor, MI

Manuel Carmona – City of Pasadena Public Health Department, Pasadena, CA

Debbie Edokpolo – Ingham County Health Department, Lansing, MI

Martha Friedman – Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT

Rujuta Gaonkar- Multnomah County Health Department, Portland, OR

Sarah Grosshuesch – Adams County Health and Human Services Department, Friendship, WI

Kiran Joshi – Cook County Department of Public Health, Oak Forest, IL

Sabrina Lakhani – NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY

Javier Lopez – NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY

Elsa Mendoza Jimenez – Monterey County Health Department, Monterey, CA

Tram Nguyen – Alameda County Public Health Department, Alameda, CA

Heather Jue Northover – Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA

Alia Stevenson – Public Health Madison & Dane County, Madison, WI

Evonda Thomas-Smith – Department of Health and Human Services, Evanston, IL

Justin Watkins – San Mateo County Health System, San Mateo, CA

Carolyn White – Health Department, City of Kansas City, MO

Are you a public health or medical professional working in California?

Sign on to our letter of support and forward widely to other health professionals in your network!

The money bail system locks up tens of thousands of Californians who have not been convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t afford to pay bail. This system is unjust, and it also harms public health (for more, see also a recent op-ed by Dr. Lello Tesema).

The CA Money Bail Reform Act would reduce the number of people held simply because they can’t pay bail, and establish pretrial services agencies to guide court decisions and ensure people return for court dates. For more information, read a summary of the legislation from the CA Budget and Policy Center.

Riverside, CA — In the face of federal-level rollbacks on civil rights and a call to “law and order,” criminal justice advocates and public health researchers are committed to showcasing that community safety and health are achievable goals with the right mix of programs to prioritize accessibility to housing, better health outcomes for all, reducing harm while offering treatment for behaviors that are typically criminalized, and holding people accountable to their actions without excessive punishment.

Our newest report, Healthy and Safe Riverside County: Investing in What Works (PDF), tells the story of how investing in evidence-based interventions both inside and outside of the justice system can improve the health and well-being of Riverside County residents while protecting community safety and saving money.

This report is part of a HIP collaborative effort with the ACLU of Southern California, Starting Over Inc., and Straight Talk Inc.

Top Recommendations

1. Offer more programs for people at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system outside of the criminal justice system.

a. Increase housing options for people returning from jail and prison.

b. Increase access to employment services for those re-entering from prison and jail.

c. Increase treatment and services for youth and families.

d. Increase health care (mental and physical) and substance use treatment services.

2. Identify and publish savings and saving re-investments from Prop 47.

3. Increase the transparency of the county budget process.

4. Annually publish county funding of programs that prevent crime and create healthy communities.

Join us on Tuesday, February 28 from 10:00 to 11:00 am Pacific Time as we discuss immigrant rights and the connections to health equity.

On this webinar, you’ll learn about:

• Specifics of how the President’s immigration policy agenda is a threat to public health

• The personal experiences of people affected by unjust immigration policies

• Community organizing for immigrant rights in this era

• Specific examples of what you can do within public health and as a private citizen/resident with public health knowledge

Speakers will include:

• Sal Cervantes, Regional Organizer for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement

• Kica Matos, Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change

Space is limited, so register today!

This event is the first in a webinar series hosted by Public Health Awakened.

Public Health Awakened is a group of public health professionals organizing for health, equity, and justice, formed in response to the Trump administration. We work with social justice movements on strategic and collective action to resist the threats faced by communities of color and low-income communities and to create a world in which everyone can thrive. We are calling on public health nonprofits, government agencies, academics, and others to courageously step up and use their power — their evidence, expertise, voice, and resources — to protect and promote people’s lives and communities. Join us.

Oakland, CA — Even with Proposition 57 passing this past November, it’s clear that the fight is not over. Charging youth as adults is a harmful practice that’s still possible in California, and across the country. 

Our new health impact assessment report (PDF) “Juvenile InJustice: Charging Youth as Adults is Ineffective, Biased, and Harmful” is a collaboration with the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice. It centralizes the experience of incarcerated youth of color, formerly incarcerated individuals, and their families. Our research shows the harmful effects of this practice on youth and their families, and our report provides recommendations for increased community investment and restorative justice-oriented solutions to improve health outcomes for everyone.

Key Findings

• The justice system is biased against youth of color — youth of color are more likely to be tried as adults than White youth, even when being charged with similar crimes. In California in 2015, 88% of juveniles tried as adults were youth of color.
• The adult court system ignores developmental science and environmental contexts — the context of a young person’s life, especially in low-income communities with a history of disinvestment, is largely ignored by the adult court system.
• Youth and families are resilient despite the negative impacts they must deal with — exposure to violence, stress, stigma, and isolation are all examples of common experiences. Despite these challenges, youth and families of color are often gathering and organizing to change the system.

As a society…do we want young people to be left to a specific, certain fate in prison…or do we want a process of education, a process of healing, a process of insight to support them to understand how they got there, a process of growth? What do we want?

– Malachi, charged as an adult at age 15

Read the full report

We’re excited to announce that Nashira Baril is our newest Project Director

Nashira is a Boston-based public health leader with 15 years of experience in community-based and organizational approaches to advance racial justice. She’s joining the team at Human Impact Partners to facilitate a national capacity-building program for health equity leaders, a program in which she previously participated. She is leading the design process for Boston’s first freestanding birth center, an effort to offer a wide range of options for individuals and families throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. With experience in strategic planning, workshop design and facilitation, and leadership development, she also freelances with organizations to deepen their equity work.

Previously, Nashira spent 12 years at the Boston Public Health Commission, the city’s health department, and was one of the founding directors of the Center for Health Equity and Social Justice. There, she led the CDC-funded REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) initiatives, and helped convene the New England Racial Justice Collaborative, a group of organizational leaders from across the region. She most recently worked part-time at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health providing career support to graduate students. Since 2003, Nashira has been on the Board of Directors at the Hyde Square Task Force, a youth and community development organization in Jamaica Plain. Nashira earned her BA in Women’s Studies and Legal Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a MPH in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University School of Public Health. She is a Connecticut native and resides with her husband and toddler in Dorchester, Massachusetts.