Equitable Recovery Strategies: Investing In Communities

Jimina Afuola currently serves EPIC as their Advocacy Coordinator. As an advocacy coordinator, Jiminaleads EPIC’s policy efforts in CA toward the organization’s mission to promote social justice and increase the political power of NHPI. She is passionate about ensuring that NHPI's are accessing resources and developing a pipeline for the next generation of NHPI leaders. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Jimina and her family later relocated to Sacramento where she attended SCC for 3 years before transferring to UC Riverside. Prior to her role with EPIC, Jimina worked at the API Legislative Caucus as a Senate Consultant.

Ruben Cantu is an Associate Program Director on Prevention Institute’s Safety and Wellbeing Team. He has more than 20 years of nonprofit experience in public health and mental health and wellbeing through an equity and racial justice lens. At PI, he leads initiatives to address and prevent community trauma through application of PI’s Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience framework. He also works on strategies to improve mental health and wellbeing through a focus on community conditions. This recently included managing the Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys initiative, a national community of practice comprising 13 sites across the U.S. implementing upstream, community prevention strategies to build resilience among men and boys of color and military servicemembers, veterans, and their families. Prior to his time at PI, he was Associate Director at the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN), where he managed programs, development, and communications initiatives to inform, mobilize, and advocate for the state’s communities of color. As CPEHN’s lead on mental and behavioral health, he authored the state’s strategic plan for reducing mental health disparities. He serves on several state advisory committees.

Richard Vezina, MPH is a senior program officer at Blue Shield of California Foundation, leading the Foundation's work to align systems with community priorities in order to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence. Prior to joining Blue Shield of California Foundation, Richard was a vice president at Harder+Company Community Research, where he led evaluation and strategy engagements for foundations, nonprofits, and public agencies. In that role, he also led the firm’s business development and communications efforts. Earlier, he worked in wide range of roles at organizations such as amfAR, the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Planned Parenthood, and Greater Philadelphia Health Action. Richard also currently serves on the board of directors for the hunger relief nonprofit, FoodConnect. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a Master's of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco with his husband, daughter, and dog.

Susan Watson is the Program Director for the COVID-19 equity initiative Together Toward Health, the CA4Health community of practice to advance chronic disease prevention and health equity across California, and the California Adolescent Health Collaborative that works to improve wellness of youth across California. She is also managing a Community Health Fellowship program for The Health Trust. Previously, Ms. Watson has worked on projects with local health departments on accreditation and strategic planning, managed PHI’s Community Transformation Grant Initiative, worked at Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) on asthma disparities, and at the University of California, San Francisco and California Department of Public Health, Sexually Transmitted Control Branch on reproductive health issues. Her career has prioritized working on issues related to equity, community health, and the elimination of racial and ethnic disparities. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement in San Francisco. Watson holds a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.

Weiyu Zhang As a public health practitioner, Weiyu (she/her) is committed to leveraging the vision, knowledge, and toolkit of public health to solve racial and social inequities. She advocates for policy and decision-making processes that center community self-determination and expertise for Black, Indigenous and other People of Color communities in California. Weiyu has more than seven years of experience working in public health and social justice, including doing community health education and community crisis response, organizing multicultural coalitions, and analyzing public policy. In 2015, she had the opportunity to work with NGOs during the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, since which she has been dedicated to a rights-based approach in health and public health’s mission in addressing state violence. Weiyu also has a strong analytical background from training as a biomedical scientist and working in clinical cancer research and biopharmaceutical production. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology and Biotechnology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Weiyu is a native speaker in Mandarin Chinese. In her free time, she loves exploring Northern California’s woods andlakes and is always trying new creative hobbies.