Join Cynthia Gomez of the Health Equity Institute and Gee Roman of The McKenzie Foundation for lunch!
Cynthia and Gee will discuss health equity, behavioral determinants of health and explore ways to eliminate preventable health disparities.
This will be the second, out of a three-part BAHFG Speaker Series. Learn more and register for the December program:
- December 8, 2016- BAHFG Speaker Series: Strategic Partnerships to Move the Mission, A conversation with Ambassador Sally Cowal.
About the Bay Area Health Funders Group (BAHFG)
Bay Area Health Funders Group gathers in common cause toward the well-being of our communities. Funders from a spectrum of interest areas identify shared concerns and areas where they can support each other’s priorities.
Network members fund critical health issues such as access and equity and also welcome partners making investments to help build healthy communities more broadly, including nutritious foods, early childhood education, family services and environmental health.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Cynthia A. Gómez is the founding director of the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University. She previously served as co-director of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California at San Francisco and has been a leading scientist in HIV prevention research since1991. Her work has focused primarily on gender, culture and sexual health, on the development of prevention interventions, and on the translation of science to community practice. Dr. Gómez has served as faculty and student mentor to individuals in multiple institutions across the U.S., particularly among underrepresented minorities.
Dr. Gómez, a native of California and of Mexican descent, grew-up in Ecuador and Puerto Rico. She earned a master's degree in Counseling and Consulting Psychology from Harvard University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Boston University. Prior to her work in HIV, Dr. Gómez spent 12 years working in community health settings, including five years as director of a child and family mental health center in Boston.
Dr. Gómez has been a health policy advisor for over 20 years. She was an appointed member to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS under both WJ Clinton and GW Bush administrations. In 2007 she was appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the first California Public Health Advisory Council and in 2013 was appointed to the first CA Office of Health Equity Advisory Committee. Over the years she has served on national advisory committees including the Centers for Disease Control's HIV and STD Advisory Council; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Advisory Committee on Women's Services; and the Institute of Medicine's Committees on Prisoners and Research, and on Lesbian Health. She has also served on several national boards including Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research, the Guttmacher Institute, and most recently, was elected to the American Psychological Association’s Board of Professional Affairs and is the incoming chair of the board of trustees for Planned Parenthood Northern California.
Gee Roman is the Program Officer at the McKenzie Foundation of San Francisco. The Foundation’s focus is on youth mental health issues. Gee brings corporate sensibilities to her philanthropic activities, seeking to partner with grantees and funders alike to accomplish goals and effect real change in the areas of advocacy, cultural competence and shared resources across sectors addressing youth mental health issues.
A native San Franciscan and graduate of San Francisco State University, Gee applies her creative arts outlook to her work, using colorful language and vivid imagery to illustrate talking points.