Meet Lily Marcellin - Maternal Health Speaker
Lilly Marcelin is a community activist and organizer who has dedicated herself to a lifelong journey around racial and social justice equity. Ms. Marcelin has worked on a broad range of issues from gender-based violence, human trafficking, health and socioeconomic disparities to women’s reproductive health and rights. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Resilient Sisterhood Project (RSP) with a mission to inform and empower women and young adults of African descent about the common diseases of the reproductive system that disproportionately affect them. Ms. Marcelin strongly prefers to work in partnership with–rather than on behalf of–black women to address deeply rooted systemic racism. Ms. Marcelin holds educational degrees from Wellesley College, Tufts University, and Boston University School of Management.
Meet Leigha Mills - Maternal Health Speaker
Originally from Boston, MA, Leigha Mills, MPH attained her bachelor's degree in health science from Spelman College and most recently her MPH in Maternal, Child and Family Health from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Leigha has gained valuable experience through various impactful roles such as being selected as a Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) Fellow with the Centers for Disease Control. Here she gained foundational public health competencies doing groundwork Adolescent/School-Based STI Prevention in Washington, DC. In her academic matriculation, she was selected as a Center of Excellence (CoE) Fellow for the National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center on the evaluation team. Additionally, she held roles as a Research Associate for multiple studies including an Infant and Young Child Feeding, Black Maternal Health Disparities for women in Eastern (rural) NC, and postnatal patient experiences at UNC Hospital. Currently, Leigha serves as the Program Administrator for the MOTHER Lab at the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice.
Leigha's career is driven by a strong commitment to improving health outcomes for marginalized communities, particularly in the areas of maternal and child health.
Meet Felipe Jain - Tech and Mental Health Speaker
Felipe A. Jain, MD, is Director of Healthy Aging Studies in the Depression Clinical Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is also a faculty member of the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Sciences and Technology program, where he serves as Associate Director of the Psychopathology and Introduction to Clinical Psychiatry course for second-year medical students. Dr. Jain graduated from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology with honors in a special field in 2008. He completed psychiatry residency training and a postdoctoral fellowship in psychobiology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. His research focuses on guided imagery and mindfulness skills for the treatment of depression and anxiety, and biomarkers that may be used to personalize treatment. To reduce the accessibility to therapy gap for those living far from psychotherapy sites and to improve overall measurement of behavioral change, Dr. Jain developed the CareDoc mobile smartphone platform, a high-throughput, customizable precision psychiatry platform capable of delivery psychotherapeutic information, obtaining ecological momentary assessments, and monitoring passive behavioral data such as accelerometer and geolocation.
Meet Michael P. Kincade Sr. - Tech and Mental Health Speaker
Michael P. Kincade, Sr., is the Director of Diversity Recruitment at the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease and Research Center. He conducts numerous programs and outreach events to educate and recruit those underrepresented in Alzheimer’s research. From 2005-2013, he served as Chairperson of The Health and Long-Term Care Task Force for the city of Boston. Upon his stepping down, March 13, 2013, was declared Michael Kincade Day in the city of Boston by Mayor Thomas Menino. In 2014 he accepted a seat on the Board of Directors for The Dimock Center and was voted Chairman in 2020. In 2018 The Massachusetts Chapter of The National Association of Social Workers named Michael their Public Citizen of The Year. In 2023 he was selected to be the National host of the internet TV program Brain Info Live!
Meet Arnetta E. Ferguson - Tech and Mental Health Speaker
Arnetta E. Ferguson has been a Dementia Friends of Massachusetts Champion since 2019. In this role, she organizes and leads online and in person educational workshops on dementia for people in the Black communities in the Dorchester and Roxbury areas. She has served as a community leader in the Collaboration for Research Equity, Sustainability, and Trust (CREST) at Tufts Medical Center, and a senior computer trainer for community classes at Technology Goes Home, which aims to increase digital equity in minoritized communities in the Boston area.
Meet Maryanne Tomazic - Health Law and Policy Speaker
Maryanne Tomazic (she/her) is a clinical instructor at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School. She is a public health lawyer, with a focus on health care policy, private health insurance, health care nondiscrimination, and access to gender-affirming and sexual/reproductive health care. Prior to law school, Maryanne worked at the intersection of health care reform and reproductive justice at Raising Women’s Voices (Community Catalyst), served as an elected official on a board of education, and volunteered as an emergency medical technician for many years. Her work is also informed by her experience growing up with an immigrant family and her academic training at Boston University School of Law (Health Law), Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (History and Ethics of Public Health), and Swarthmore College (Biology). She is licensed in New York.
Meet Dr. Deborah Ngozi Odunze - Health Law and Policy Speaker
Dr. Deborah Ngozi Odunze, DNP, MSN, RN, CCM, is a distinguished healthcare executive and the first Deputy Chief Public Health Officer at the Cambridge Public Health Department, Cambridge Health Alliance, and the City of Cambridge. With over 17 years of diverse experience in healthcare, administration, nursing, case management, and public health leadership, she excels in driving strategic initiatives, fostering community engagement, and implementing patient-centered, value-based care systems. A member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and Sigma Theta Tau International, Dr. Odunze is a recognized expert and conference speaker who co-leads a dynamic public health workforce, shaping sustainable solutions to complex public health challenges locally. She holds advanced nursing degrees from Regis College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, along with a culinary degree from the Art Institute of Houston.
Cambridge Public Health Department
Meet Zeinab Bakhiet -
Zeinab Bakhiet joined the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation as a Clinical Fellow with the Health Law and Policy Clinic in August 2024. She previously worked as a child health policy researcher at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and with several community-based organizations in Houston and Chicago on issues related to health, housing, economic development, food access, and community violence. She advocates for an expansive and holistic view of health and wellness and is particularly interested in using art, community organizing, and restorative justice to advance racial equity. Additionally, she is a certified mediator and has conducted pro bono mediations through the Center for Conflict Resolution.
During law school, Zeinab was a capital habeas intern with the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas and an intern with the Incarcerated Survivors Program, a joint initiative between Ascend Justice and the Women’s Justice Institute. She served as the president of Northwestern Law’s Student Mental Health Alliance and co-founded the International JD Support Group. She received Northwestern Law’s Service Award, given by the graduating class to the student who has shown the greatest dedication and commitment to public service and the practice of law.
Zeinab holds a JD from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and a BA in Public Health Studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Meet Vivien Morris - Community Health and Nutrition Speaker
Vivien received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, a Master of Science degree in nutrition from Framingham State University, and a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University. She received an honorary Public Health Doctorate from Merrimack College in 2021. She is a dietitian and public health professional with extensive work in Boston’s communities. She is a founder and chair of the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, an organization that she is most proud of. She is a founder of the Boston Organization of Nutritionists and Dietitians of Color (BOND of Color). BOND of Color is a professional organization devoted to increasing the number of African American and Afro Caribbean nutritionists and dietitians and providing nutrition education in the community. Vivien coordinates the Kennedy Community Garden and chairs the Edgewater Neighborhood Association, both utilizing the passions of local residents to make the Edgewater neighborhood a wonderful place to live. She serves as chairperson of the Advisory Board of Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, a statewide effort working towards a sustainable and equitable food system. Vivien has been a community activist throughout her life and gets the greatest joy from seeing the coming together of community members of all ages to strengthen relationships and use collective power to improve our village.
Vivien M. Morris, MSN,MPH,LDN, Honorary Doctorate of Public Health
Meet Darian Leta - Community Health and Nutrition Speaker
Community Preservation Committee Member
Darian Leta, MPH (She/Her/Ella) is an Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican community health advocate born and raised in Boston. A Community Health Worker by training, Darian currently serves as the Senior Manager for Substance Use Disorder and Recovery Initiatives, supporting Community Health Centers in building capacity for equitable substance use service delivery. She is committed to providing the best health services in Boston, nationally and globally, focusing on infectious diseases, community health education, and patient-centered program development. Her community work includes coalition building around food insecurity, affordable housing/anti-gentrification, violence prevention, abolition, and other social determinants of health. Darian was selected as an at-large voting committee member to the Boston Community Preservation Committee,e providing affordable housing, open space, and preservation projects for the city, and most recently voted as the Co-President of the Dorchester Food Coop Board.