MEET OUR 2023 COHORT
In 2023, the Healthy Communities Fellowship program welcomed 10 new fellows from Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas, bringing the total number of fellows since the program’s inception to 45. The 2023 cohort includes:
ALEX BAILEY
Outdoor Equity Advocate and Youth Mentor
San Antonio, Texas
Alex Bailey, Founder of Black Outside, Inc., is an educator and third-generation outdoor enthusiast, who uses his radical imagination to re-envision outdoor programming for Black youth. He began his educational career as a camp counselor, witnessing first-hand the transformative power the outdoors can have on youth while also recognizing the lack of diversity in the summer camp industry. Today, he works to cultivate spaces that meet Black youth and families at the intersection of joy, cultural relevancy, and outdoor exploration. Alex is the founding Executive Director of Black Outside, Inc. and is a proud alum of Teach for America, Echoing Green, and Wild Gift.
VERON BLUE
Mental Health Advocate and Faith Leader
San Antonio, Texas
Veron Blue, Founder and Executive Director of Faith & Community Wellness Center, Inc., is a local pastor, mental health coach and advocate whose passion is to connect faith leaders to the transformative power of mental health treatment and support. Pastor Blue’s work involves equipping faith-based communities of color to educate their congregations and communities, by removing the stigma, shame, and silence associated with mental illness. After being trained as a mental health coach, Veron began to experience the transformative effect of the knowledge of mental health. Transformed people do indeed transform their families, churches, and communities. She is the lead of Rapha Mental Health Ministries, a group of 9 churches who have banded to educate Northeast San Antonio to provide a safe place for healing and restoration for families in our community who are dealing with mental health challenges.
STEPHEN LUCKE
Urban Agriculture Innovator and
Environmental Justice Advocate
San Antonio, Texas
Stephen Lucke, Founder of Gardopia Gardens, is a food systems expert and activist focused on health and environmental justice. He educates and empowers communities, teaching them to lead healthy and sustainable lifestyles through urban agriculture. In his college years, he became aware of San Antonio’s obesity epidemic and climate crises, sparking his journey to help find a solution to declining planetary and population wellness, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC communities. In 2015, Stephen founded Gardopia Gardens to help solve the challenges facing his community by ensuring current and future generations have the knowledge and skills to cultivate a high quality of life for themselves and society, fighting against malnutrition related diseases and environmental degradation.
ALANA PETERSON
Indigenous Economic Leader and
Sustainable Development Visionary
Sitka, Alaska
Alana Peterson, Executive Director of Spruce Root, is an entrepreneur and non-profit leader whose lived experience brings together Indigenous values with western economic systems to build towards a sustainable future. She started her first business at age seven, taking wood scraps from her father’s carving shed and painting them to sell to tourists on the docks. Working with other small businesses deepened her understanding of the transformative power of an entrepreneur’s journey. Alana brings this expertise to her work with Spruce Root, a community development financial institution that is building up a strong small business sector in her home region of Southeast Alaska. She believes that small business is the foundation of a strong community, much like the root system of a healthy forest floor.
JAMAR HILL
Youth Sports Mentor and Racial Equity Champion
Anchorage, Alaska
Jamar Hill, Founder of Gamers Baseball Alaska/RBI Alaska, is a former professional baseball player and current youth coach whose lived experiences empowers him to provide access to athletic resources and experiences that have real world value outside of sports. Jamar Hill works with boys and girls ages 8-18 living primarily in the Mountain View neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. MountainView has been recognized at times as the most diverse neighborhood in America which includes White, African American, Latin American families, Native Alaska, Asian and Polynesians families amongst many other ethnic groups. Poverty, civic design, as well as the geography of Alaska create a condition that blocks access for these kids to participate. Jamar Hill convenes hard conversations involving race and equity that stimulate increasing resources being directed toward sustainable support impacting Anchorage’s most diverse and most underserved kids. Jamar’s experience traveling the country as a pro player and taking on the challenges of creating subsidized sports facilities and programming have offered him a unique perspective of how the issues he’s taking on in Alaska are common systemic problems on a national level.
OMARE JIMMERSON
Birth Equity Activist and Women’s Health Advocate
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Omare Jimmerson, Executive Director of the Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative, is the daughter of a Nigerian immigrant and also a mother of two, who is working to save the lives of Black women in a healthcare system that continually dehumanizes them. As an undergraduate working with teens, she saw young girls being treated as adults and denied their right to childhood. This sparked her interest in making sure young people had knowledge to advocate for their own bodily autonomy. She works to ensure every woman is treated with dignity and respect and, most of all, as a human. By bringing doula care to Black and Brown women, her organization gives them back the power to advocate for their care.
DR. JANEL PASLEY
Nonprofit Equity Champion and Creative Innovator
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Dr. Janel Pasley is a visual artist, writer, innovator, and community advocate who works to strengthen the non-profit sector and challenge existing systems to achieve equity in the funding space. She founded The Astute Creative, LLC as a mechanism to provide authentic and strategic creative services to small business owners seeking to find their creative advantage. Dr. Pasley believes that there is untapped potential in all of us and is committed to helping others realize and visualize their purpose. She currently serves as the Program Officer at Ascension St. John, championing the Community Health Equity Catalyst Strategy (CHECS).
DR. CHRISTOPHER MCNEIL
Medical Education Pioneer and Community Mentor
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Dr. Chris McNeil, Founder of the Youth Medical Mentorship, is an Emergency Medicine Physician and School Board Member at Union Public Schools who is creating pathways to medical education for BIPOC children. Identifying students with an affinity for medicine early, he is able to create a pipeline of mentorship programs, building hospital internships, promoting recruitment for allied health professions, influencing educators, and creating strategic partnerships that extend from cradle to careers. His goal is to create a legacy of guidance for students to envision themselves in medical careers and to increase the number of BIPOC doctors which has been proven to lead to better outcomes for underserved communities.
ASHLI SIMS
Black Wealth Advocate and Entrepreneurship Storyteller
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Ashli Sims is a storyteller who breaks down barriers and opens doors so Black entrepreneurs can build wealth for themselves, their families, and future generations. Growing up in the shadow of Black Wall Street, she only knew of the Tulsa Race Massacre as a tragedy and a cautionary tale. She didn’t learn Tulsa was the epicenter of Black wealth until she left her hometown. As Managing Director of Build in Tulsa, Ashli is helping reclaim the narrative that Black Wall Street is not a history lesson, but a blueprint. She believes the next Black-led billion-dollar company will be based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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