Our Team

  • A smiling woman with gray, curly hair wearing a white collared shirt and silver earrings.

    Vanessa Grubbs, MD, MPH

    FOUNDER & PRESIDENT

    Dr. Vanessa Grubbs is a double board-certified nephrologist and internist, published author, physician scientist with over fifteen years in academic medicine, and kidney donor. Her first book, HUNDREDS OF INTERLACED FINGERS: A Kidney Doctor’s Search for the Perfect Match (Amistad, 2017), tells her story of becoming a kidney donor, then nephrologist, and her experiences with ethical and controversial topics in nephrology. Black feminist scholar, author and activist, Angela Davis, describes Dr. Grubbs’ latest book, NEGLIGENT BY DESIGN: Anti-Blackness in American Medicine and How to Address It (North Atlantic Books, 2025), as “a major contribution to continuing efforts to acknowledge and rectify medical racism in its many forms.” 

    thenephrologist.com

    Photo credit | Bethanie Hines Photography

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    Stacey Senat, MPH

    PROGRAM MANAGER

    Stacey Senat earned her MPH in Health Promotion and Education from Loma Linda University. She has over a decade of experience implementing health equity strategies and advocating for underserved communities across multicultural environments. She has an extensive background in renal clinical research, public health curriculum design, program planning and program management.

  • A woman smiling with shoulder-length black locs, wearing a beige striped button-up shirt, standing against a plain white wall.

    Alyissa Sagoes

    DIGITAL STORYTELLER

    Alyissa Sagoes is a multidisciplinary designer, Black radical herbalist, and organizer. She earned her BA in Nonprofit Administration from Cleveland State University’s Levin School of Public Affairs & Education. She leverages her creativity as a tool for liberation and systemic change, reflected in her extensive work in racial and gender equity, Reproductive Justice, digital equity, and federal grants management.

Our Board Members

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    Melanie Tervalon, MD, MPH

    SECRETARY

    A pediatrician by training, Dr. Tervalon’s seminal article on cultural humility* together with her hands-on leadership with public, private, and nonprofit organizations has helped to change the way professionals, service providers, institutions – and entire fields – approach their work in the community and within institutions and organizations.

    In her current role as an independent consultant, Dr. Tervalon tailors services and products anchored in the principles and practice of cultural humility for clients in both the public and private sector, spanning the disciplines of health care delivery, public health, education, public service and advocacy.

    * Cultural Humility versus Cultural Competence:  A Critical Distinction in Defining Physician Training Outcomes in Multicultural Education, Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 1998.

    www.melanietervalon.com

  • Robert Phillips, MPA, MPH

    TREASURER

    Robert Phillips is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Baywell Health (formerly West Oakland Health Council), the only predominantly Black community-serving Federally Qualified Health Center in California. Robert has spent over 25 years empowering communities, addressing health and race equity issues, and working to improve people’s health and lives. Robert specializes in race/gender equity, social health and health care service, and community health and development initiatives. Before joining Baywell Health, Robert was a CEO and founder of a social technology firm, an executive director at Kaiser Permanente, managing director of The Center at the Sierra Health Foundation, a managing director at The California Endowment, and served in various roles for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. He has a BA from Morehouse College, an MPH from the H.T. Chan School at Harvard, an MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse, and is ABD from UNC Chapel Hill.

    www.linkedin.com

Our Project Advisory Committee includes representation from national organizations and subject matter experts

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Logo of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) with a caduceus symbol.
  • Smiling woman with vibrant beaded jewelry, wearing a colorful headwrap and black blazer, against a white background.

    Naomi Nkinsi, MD, MPH

    Family Medicine with Obstetrics

  • Pamela J. Simms-Mackey, MD, FAAP

    DIO & Chief of Graduate Medical Education Chair of Pediatrics | Alameda Health System

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    Joel Bervell, MD

    Resident Physician

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    Adaira Landry, MD, MEd

    Assistant Professor | Harvard Medical School

  • A woman with long, wavy dark hair, wearing a black dress and a pearl necklace, smiling against a gray background.

    Nikki Perez

    President | EP Healthcare

  • A woman with short curly hair, wearing a white coat and smiling outdoors with a brick wall and green foliage background.

    Monique Hedmann, MD, MPH

    Director of Adult Medicine, Family Physician & Geriatrician | Baywell Health

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    William McDade, MD, PhD

    Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology | Rush Medical College

  • A smiling African American woman wearing a white coat with the Honeycomb Clinic logo, standing outdoors with a blurred background of a building and parking lot.

    Tisha Rowe, MD, MBA

    Chief Executive Officer | Honeycomb Clinic

  • Portrait of a smiling middle-aged African American man in a suit and tie against a plain background.

    David P. Lisbon Jr. M.D, FACEP

    Program Director

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    "Mika" Micaela Godzich, MD

    Residency Program Director | Vice Chair of Education | Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine | UC Davis School of Medicine