Mia Keeys is the first Director of Health Equity Policy and Advocacy of the American Medical Association’s Center for Health Equity. She is the former Policy Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and Health Policy Advisor to Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-IL). Previously, Mia has also been a Kaiser Family Foundation Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholar; a Fellow for the City of Philadelphia in the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Health and Opportunity; an HIV/AIDS researcher in South Africa; and a U.S. Fulbright Fellow to Indonesia, where she worked on education and public health initiatives on behalf of youth and their families for three years. The National Minority Quality Forum recognizes Mia as a 40 Under 40 Leader in Minority Health. The National Academy of Medicine features Mia’s children’s book on health equity—titled Cole Blue, Full of Valor—in their 2017 national exhibit, “Visualizing Health Equity.” Her work on youth and the imagination is featured in a TEDx Talk, titled “A Racial Imagination Quotient”.

Mia holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Psychology from Cheyney University, and a Master of Arts degree in Medical Sociology from Vanderbilt University, where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow through Meharry Medical College. She is currently a doctoral student at The Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University. Mia is also a creative non-fiction writer, with training from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. She is originally from Philadelphia, PA and calls Washington, D.C., home.

Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill. She is also a Fellow in the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. She is a health/medical geographer with expertise in measuring and conceptualizing health care access, health and healthcare equity, and spatial epidemiology. Her research and teaching focuses include the application of spatial analytic/statistical/epidemiologic methods to study interactions between health(care) policies, healthcare access and utilization, and underlying, population-level health inequities. Her goal is to identify points of intervention at structural- and system-levels. Her research has been published in Social Science and Medicine, Health Affairs, Journal of Transport Geography, and Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Planey’s ongoing research includes collaborative studies of birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth weight) among Black immigrants in segregated neighborhoods, spatial mismatch by race and gender among workers in US metro areas, and the disparate effects of rural hospital closures on acute care access. At the core of her research agenda is equity in access and outcomes. Dr. Planey earned her Ph.D in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, after earning her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. She was previously a predoctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars program.

Alicia Boyd is a Computer Science Doctoral Candidate at DePaul University in Chicago, IL, set to defend in May 2021.  She has been named a 2021 NCWIT Collegiate Award finalist for her work on Intersectional Quantitative Analysis of the #MeToo Movement. Alicia considers herself an Intersectional Data Scientist who re-centers data from marginalized people using alternative quantitative methods. In her work, she uses the Intersectional framework to critique prevailing data science processes by reconfiguring existing quantitative methods to illustrate new approaches to data collection, analysis, and interpretation.  Alicia has earned both her Masters in Mathematics and Higher Education from the University Missouri-Saint Louis.

H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams, Ph.D., M.Ed (all pronouns) is a cultural studies scholar, sexologist, systems theorist, cultural worker, and interdisciplinary sociocultural scientist whose work operates at the intersection of race, culture, sexuality, and spirituality. A practitioner of tai chi chuan, chi kung, hatha yoga, and pranayama, Dr. Herukhuti has taught wellness and embodied health practices for decades. She is a past recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health-funded graduate research assistantship that included training in sex research, HIV prevention research, and socio-clinical research methodology at the HIV Center for Clinical Behavioral Studies at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Herukhuti is also a human rights and social justice activist who has participated in the decolonization movement and intersectional politics for three decades. He is the coordinator of the sexuality studies program at Goddard College where is a professor of decolonial, interdisciplinary studies and socially engaged art and adjunct associate professor of applied theatre research in the School of Professional Studies at City University of New York. Their work has been published and presented in various venues including Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships and Journal of Bisexuality, where they are a member of the editorial boards. 

Dr. Monica Peek is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, where she provides clinical care, teaches and does health services research, with a focus on health disparities.  Dr. Peek is the Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research, the Executive Medical Director of Community Health Innovation and the Director of Research (and Associate Director) at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Her research pursues health equity and social justice, with a focus on promoting equitable doctor/patient relationships among racial minorities, integrating the medical and social needs of patients, and addressing healthcare discrimination and structural racism that impact health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, COVID-19).

Gabriela Zapata-Alma, LCSW, CADC, is the Director of Policy and Practice at the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health, as well as a Lecturer and Director of the Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor Training Program at the University of Chicago. Gabriela brings over 15 years of experience supporting people impacted by structural and interpersonal violence through evidence-based clinical, housing, and resource advocacy programs. Currently, Gabriela authors best practices, leads national capacity building efforts, and provides trauma-informed policy consultation to advance health equity and social justice.