Deborah M. Austin, MBA is a writer with over 20 years of management experience in the beauty industry. Her skills include working as a Qualified Mental Health Specialist within the non-profit sector, co-founding and acting as creative consultant for a performance arts company, working as editor and writer for a local monthly publication, and working on freelance projects including blogs, grant writing, stage plays, film, magazines and home décor. She loves spending time with her family and circle of friends and travels near or far to stay connected.
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Laura Rodriguez-Carbone, MPA is currently the Community Outreach Coordinator for Lifebanc, a non-profit organization working to facilitate transplants. She works to grow community partnerships with organizations, healthcare agencies, governments, schools, and faith-based establishments to help raise awareness about, and advocate for, the need for more organ, eye, and tissue donors in multicultural communities. Laura was recently elected to Ward 1B in Lakewood as a member of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Central Committee, serves on the Lakewood Wellness Foundation Planning Task Force and is the vice-president of the Young Latino Network.
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Kimberly Dudley, MPH is a certified Community Health Worker working at Metrohealth as a lay health advisor with a hypertension research study. She most recently worked for Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Center (NEON), through the Mom’s And Babies First Ohio Black Vitality Program and has also worked in early childhood education. She is a leader on the Emergency Medical Response Team at Affinity Baptist Church, and a member of the American Public Health Association, Ohio Public Health Association (OPHA), and the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHM). Kimberly enjoys reading, arts and crafts, writing, nature, and spending time with her family.
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Carey Gibbons works as the Crisis Intervention and Resource Coordinator for the May Dugan Center, serving the LGBTQ+ populations in increasing culturally-specific and trauma-informed service delivery to this population. She was also a Community Research Scholar at the Center for Health Equity Engagement Education and Research, working to build research infrastructure and enhance the research capacity of the LGBT Center. Carey’s past includes serving in the Americorps National Civilian Community Corps. During her year of service, worked in New York City immediately after 9/11, built three miles of trail on the Continental Divide, and worked as a teacher’s assistant for an alternative-learning school in Colorado.
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Ebony Hood is a Community Relations Specialist with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. She coordinates the District’s communication efforts across the region including scholastic outreach to schools and community groups. She is also a board member of the Environmental Education Council of Ohio and leads her own community-based youth group called See You At The Top. Ebony enjoys listening to audiobooks and traveling to new destinations.
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Bobbie Hurley has a degree in criminal justice administration from Chancellor University and has worked in the social service sector for more than 20 years. In this capacity, she serves those with mental illness, families and children, and marginalized populations. Bobbie’s interests extend beyond this to include infant mortality and reducing health disparities. She has been married for 16 years and lives with her husband and five children in South Euclid.
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Whitney Long Jones, Community Engagement Specialist, is the founder and CEO of Aesthetics Squared, a company created to assist youth with math and science skills by incorporating visual art concepts. She also works with Ohio City to increase opportunities for resident engagement and equitable allocation of resources. Mrs. Long Jones is a board member of the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District, a member of the City of Cleveland’s Climate Action Advisory Council, and a volunteer for the Greater Cleveland United Way Health and Education Community Impact committees. She lives in Shaker Heights with her husband and two children, and enjoys nature, volleyball, and drawing.
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Jennifer A. King, PhD, works as a community health fellow in the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation, where she is studying social determinants of health at the neighborhood-level to better understand the impacts of community development on community health. During her doctoral program she served as the Graduate Student Trustee on the Board of Trustees and aided in the development of the university-wide health initiative, the Kent State of Wellness. Jennifer’s personal research interests includes food insecurity, the stigmatization of public service use, the impacts of health inequity. She is married and much of her time is devoted to her new baby.
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Da’na Langford, MS, is a trained Certified Nurse Midwife currently employed with University Hospitals providing healthcare to women. She has worked in the past with vulnerable populations and has practiced at Federally Qualified Health Centers in Georgia and Florida. Da’Na currently serves as the Chair for the MacDonald House Maternal and Infant Mortality committee, Diversity Champion for the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, a member of the Diversity committee, an Executive Board Member of The Ohio Chapter of Babies Need Boxes, and President and Founder of BHS Black Alumni Association.
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Jennifer Lumpkin is founder of Creative Community Builders in 2016 where she conceptualized her social capital networking platform, My Grow Connect (formerly Grow DC). This was a direct result of her community organizing work in Cleveland and Washington, DC. In the last four years, Jennifer has worked as an urban agriculture consultant and freelance gardener/faciliator, and also created an urban agriculture after-school program, mobilized a pop-up farmer’s market concept integrating black female entrepreneurs (scientists, herbalists, artists and farmers), as well as creating strategies to connect various groups in redeveloping communities.
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Michael Martin is the founder of Spellmaster Corporation which designs and creates programs, educational materials, and products that challenge children to think critically and enhances the development of essential problem solving skills. He is also an alumnus of Neighborhood Leadership Institute and in 2015, became a Community Health Ambassador and a member of Creating Greater Destines (CGD). Mr. Martin has also worked with the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods as a healthy food retail (corner store) resident expert and as a farmer’s market resident expert. He is a single father raising two sons.