Speakers
Jameta Barlow, PhD, MPH
Jameta Nicole Barlow, PhD, MPH, is a community health psychologist and an assistant professor of writing at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Dr. Barlow utilizes decolonizing methodologies to disrupt intergenerational trauma, chronic health diseases and structural polices adversely affecting Black girls' and women's health. She has spent nearly 22 years in transdisciplinary collaborations with physicians, public health practitioners, researchers, policy administrators, activists, political appointees, and community members in diverse settings.
Lisa Hunter
Lisa Hunter is the Director of Government Affairs and Alliance Engagement at Better Medicare Alliance. She combines her Medicare policy expertise, consulting background, and public service experience to drive legislative and regulatory strategy and leads BMA’s recruitment and engagement efforts with Ally organizations. Prior to joining BMA, Hunter was a Director with Avalere Health where she played a critical role establishing the firm’s Health Plans & Managed Care Practice that provided clients with strategic advisory services and analyses on the impact of the Affordable Care Act and helping clients anticipate and operationalize regulatory changes around quality, risk, and innovation under Medicare.
From 2007-2008, Hunter served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Guyana.
Tamara A. Henry, PhD
Dr. Tamara A. Henry serves as a Teaching Assistant Professor in Prevention and Community Health and as the Practicum Director for Health Promotion students at The George Washington University.
Dr. Tamara A. Henry provides health care consultation services to a number of community based organizations that address health disparities as it relates to HIV/AIDS and Diabetes in the African American community in Washington, DC. Previously, she was a special projects coordinator for the District of Columbia Department of Health where she worked on special initiatives in the Director's office. Additionally, Dr. Henry has worked for local/state government in New Jersey as well as abroad in both South Africa and her native country of Jamaica, W.I. teaching HIV/AIDS education.
Leah Varga
Leah Varga is a Public Health Analyst and the HIV Services Planner at the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Administration (HAHSTA) at the District of Columbia Department of Health. Drawing upon 20 years of experience in health research with minority populations, she participates in developing and implementing plans to increase HIV services in underserved areas and conduct needs assessments to identify gaps and determine funding priorities for services. She has had the opportunity to be involved in HIV prevention and testing initiatives with at-risk adolescents, injection drug users, men who have sex with men, migrant workers, Latinas, club-drug users, and most recently, street-based sex workers.
Maranda Ward, PhD
Dr. Maranda Ward is an assistant professor at The George Washington University. Her research is translated into practice as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Promising Futures.
Working as a community educator with program development, evaluation, grant writing and management experiences, her presentations span from urban youth identity and maternal mortality to teaching empathy to health professionals and combating the social conditions that produce structural violence. Mayor Muriel Bowser has appointed her to fill the Ward 8 seat on the DC Commission on Health Equity.
Mackenzie Copley
Mackenzie Copley is a co-founder of One Tent Health, an organization that provides free HIV screening for residents of DC. Washington, DC is in the midst of an HIV epidemic. Launched in October 2017, One Tent Health now has over a thousand college-aged, pre-medical volunteers who go into the poorer neighborhoods of Washington, DC and provide free HIV testing and prevention services to people in need from a 10' by 10' canvas tent.
Melinda Hasbrouck
Melinda developed a passion for advocacy, including mental health advocacy from her own experiences healing from her serious mental illnesses utilizing the D.C. mental/behavioral health system and her law school’s counseling center. Melinda is the Principal Consultant of RoyHas LLC and focuses on transforming systems into human experiences and language. She has a passion for all things public health, including policy, education, and advocacy. In addition, she is the former Executive Director of a new consumer-focused activity center, Our Door Community Wellness Center and is a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health.