Meet our team

Selma Aly (they/she) is a Project Director with the Bridging Partnerships and Strategies team, supporting public health agencies in advancing equitable policies, practices and procedures. Their experience is deeply rooted in local, statewide and national grassroots organizing efforts, which highlighted how systemic oppression, power imbalances and health outcomes are deeply intertwined. They were introduced to the public health field while engaging in prevention and narrative change efforts on the ground. Selma has worked with, trained, and supported many public health departments and government agencies to shift systems, eliminate barriers, and build mutually beneficial partnerships with power-building organizations in their localities. They believe that our greatest power lies at the intersection of grassroots organizing and public health. Selma is committed to radical re-connection of the mind, body, and soul and the collective work of strategic risk, critical discomfort, and transformative healing needed to see the world we envision come to fruition.

Selma has a B.S. in Community and Environmental Sociology and Public Policy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In their free time, you can probably find them hiking deep in the woods or watching Tiktok cat videos.

Renae (she/her) is the Health Instead of Punishment Project Director. She brings a heart-centered eagerness to build capacity within the public health sector to take action towards abolition, to listen to those harmed by oppressive carceral systems, and to facilitate more liberatory, access-centered spaces.

Renae is a public health-trained, social justice entrepreneur passionate about systems change at the root of health inequities. Through co-founding a healing justice collective, Renae collectively envisions the transition to a world where everyone has what they need to heal, and harms are repaired without policing and punishment. Her intention is to support holistic healing practices that intervene on the legacies of violence and oppression among BIPOC folks, people with disabilities, and those with intersecting identities.

Renae lives on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone lands (San Francisco Peninsula) and finds joy frolicking in nature with her partner and kiddo, being an Iyengar-yogi student, deepening her own healing, eating and cooking good food, and shooting hoops.

Sari leads the organizing and advocacy work at HIP and coordinates Public Health Awakened, a network of public health professionals organizing to support social justice movements and resist attacks on our communities. She is passionate about mobilizing people around the issues most important to them and bringing a social justice and equity lens into all spaces.

Sari grew up in the Bay Area and was raised on activism. When not at a protest or organizing meeting, she can be found swimming in cold bodies of water or escaping to the woods.

As Research Program Director, Sukh conducts and elevates rigorous research to advance health equity, with a commitment to true community collaboration. Sukh is especially passionate about addressing racial and economic injustices impacting youth and families — she believes that research is a powerful mechanism to advance change.Sukh is native to the Bay Area. For fun, she enjoys progressing on her bucket list, baking desserts, photography, and traveling with her husband.

Jessi Corcoran provides training and technical assistance and develops resources to support the centering of health equity. Her roots in sexual violence prevention and activism give her a unique perspective and passion for fully integrating public health and social justice movements. She is particularly interested in living and supporting the White anti-racist journey.

Jessi lives on Ho-Chunk land in Madison, Wisconsin with her partner and two sons. In her free time, if she isn’t wrestling her oldest child or snuggling her youngest, she is probably watching reality TV or working on her first novel.

Victoria (she/her) is a  Senior Program Associate with HIP’s Capacity Building Team. As a current master in public health candidate, Victoria is excited to contribute her experience with health equity research and local public policy to HIP, while learning more about systems change to strengthen her skills as a public health advocate. Her work is motivated by the desire to create equitable outcomes for underserved communities.

Victoria grew up in Fairfield, CA and currently lives in Long Beach, CA as she completes her master’s program. Whether she’s going to art galleries, trying a new hairstyle, or even cooking a dish from a different culture, Victoria loves to express herself creatively and find beauty in everyday life.

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Will leads HIP’s Housing Justice Program. He has spent the last 15 years fighting for a world where we all have a roof over our heads, the resources we need to thrive, and the right to determine our own futures. He believes that mass-based, feminist, anti-racist movements get the goods, and has spent his career moving our government institutions into alignment with these movements—with San Mateo and Contra Costa County health departments and BARHII (the coalition of public health departments in the Bay Area). Will’s work has bridged health, housing, land-use, transportation and climate change. He has also served as a trainer and organizational development consultant with governmental and social justice organizations around the country. His research and writing has been published in Progressive Planning and The Informal American City and awarded by the Council of University Transportation Centers.

Outside of work, Will organizes for racial and gender justice, raises a toddler who is convinced she is a feral bobcat, and explores the natural spaces of the Bay Area.

Julian leads HIP’s Bridging Program, which builds partnerships and supports inside-outside strategies between public health agencies and community power-building organizations. Julian was first introduced to public health through climate and environmental justice movement work around diesel air pollution and toxic sites. He then worked for nearly a decade in governmental public health on asthma, air quality, and housing, and had a health equity leadership role in Rhode Island’s COVID response. Julian draws on his experiences of navigating the power dynamics between health department and social movement spaces to help people advance effective inside-outside strategies for health equity and building community power.

Julian grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York and lives in Providence Rhode Island, where he is rooted in community and family with his partner and two kids. He loves gardening, long bike rides, exploring fractal landscapes, and relaxing on the beach with the fam.

Lili co-directs HIP with Solange, and is responsible for advancing the mission and strategic direction of the organization. For nearly 20 years, she has visioned, developed, and implemented policy and systems change to advance health equity in the government and nonprofit sectors, and she’s feeling energized by people’s willingness to talk about race, power and the other root drivers of health. These days, Lili spends a lot of time thinking about and developing novel approaches to activate public health around social justice issues and getting the field more aligned with community organizers and advocates.

Originally from New York, Lili now lives in Oakland and is kept on her toes by her two little kids and an unhealthy obsession with good TV and the Golden State Warriors.

Solange is thrilled to have joined HIP as Co-Director with Lili, and is responsible for advancing the mission and strategic direction of the organization. She has been in public health practice for over 20 years, advancing progressive policy and systems change to improve health, equity, and sustainability with government partners, advocates and organizers, and communities most impacted. Solange is excited about the clarity and vision of the youth climate movement in naming how racism, late-stage capitalism, and the climate crisis are intertwined root causes of inequities, and inspiring a vision of a future that everyone wants to run towards.  

Solange gets joy from playing with her two teenage sons and husband, dancing, painting, gardening, reading, and laying around with her 3 cats.

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Rebekah Gowler (she/her) is a Project Director with the Capacity Building Team. She brings to HIP her experience leading health equity and racial justice efforts at local health departments in New York City and Boston. She deeply believes in the power of the people to create change, both inside and outside systems. Her child reminds her everyday of the power and importance of asking “why?” about what we see and experience in the world. She is excited to lend her learning and support to local health departments across the country to work towards a just, equitable, loving, and liberated future for all.

Rebekah currently lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her partner and child. Outside of work, Rebekah loves hiking, photography, gardening, and seeing the world through her child’s eyes.

As a practitioner of people-centric system and process design, Khalil focuses on the maintenance and development of HIP’s internal infrastructure in his role as Senior Operations Associate. With a multifaceted background that ranges from race and gender advocacy to real estate, Khalil has always been deeply fascinated by the built environment and how it can both impact and reflect the lives of its inhabitants. He envisions a future of urbanism that prioritizes accessible and affordable building for healthy, vibrant, connected communities. At HIP, Khalil has the opportunity to collaborate cross-functionally and devise thoughtful strategies to undergird the workplace needs of the entire team.

Khalil spends most of his time either in his hometown of Detroit or with chosen family in Brooklyn. Concurrently with his role with HIP, he helps to lead a grassroots collective aimed at reimagining expressions of masculinity. He enjoys traveling, loves being in the kitchen, and is a proud member of Beyhive.

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Mariana (she/her) helps lead the Housing Justice program at HIP and is responsible for activating public health partners in support of housing justice advocacy and organizing efforts. She is passionate about racial and economic justice, housing as a human right, as well as creating healthy and equitable communities. She has spent over 15 years leading initiatives to prevent housing displacement, improve public transit and active transportation, and fight for low-wage workers’ rights in Los Angeles. As an urban planner and community organizer, Mariana dreams of inclusive communities where residents live in quality housing, are economically secure, and have all the necessary resources to thrive.

Mariana grew up in and currently lives in East Los Angeles with her 3 young kids. She finds joy in exploring new cities, being in nature, dancing, live music, street art, and flea markets.  

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April Michelle Jean (she/her) is a dedicated social impact leader with over 20 years of experience dismantling systemic racism and promoting equity for BIPOC and historically marginalized communities. For the past decade, she has led capacity-building efforts that have equipped organizational leaders with tools to advance cultural responsiveness, equity, racial justice, and systems-change approaches within organizations and government systems.

In her previous role as Policy Director for the California COVID Justice: Recovery, Response, & Repair Initiative with Public Health Advocates, April developed strategic state and local policy solutions aimed at safeguarding the health and economic well-being of underinvested communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Her strengths in policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning have driven impactful change in critical times.

A sought-after consultant, speaker, and community advisor, April’s influence extends beyond her immediate circles. Her identity as an African American womxn shapes her perspective. It fuels her dedication to advancing social justice, impacting the landscape of social change, and inspiring others toward a more equitable future.

Clara helps guide HIP’s communications and narrative strategy. She brings to HIP her experience in journalism and nonprofit advocacy, through which she’s worked to build community power at the intersection of racial, environmental, economic, and health justice. Clara believes in language as a means of imagining liberated futures and drawing connections between people and the issues that impact us.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Clara considers herself deeply rooted in the Bay Area. She likes fiction, roller skating, and making jewelry. She also runs a tiny business making extravagant cakes.

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Clara Long (she/her) is the Director of Policy and Organizing at Health in Partnership. She is responsible for developing and implementing HIP’s overall strategy for policy, advocacy, organizing and research in support of social movement partners. As a human rights lawyer, her strategies, research and advocacy contributed to campaigns to abolish an immigration detention system in which people are dying because of medical neglect, transform border policies that criminalize and abuse migrants, and bring back people deported to harm in the racially discriminatory deportation machine, among others. She is excited to work with HIP staff to enhance the organization’s capacity to build power with social movements for the intertwined goals of community safety, economic security, housing justice and climate justice. She believes that everything flows from how we show up in relationship, to ourselves and to others, and wants a future of love, care and accountability for all.

Clara is a born and raised Northern Californian who is in awe of the power of redwoods to make their own rain. She finds joy in dance parties with her family and friends, beach hang outs, hikes and picnics.

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Christina (she/her) comes from the Environmental Health and Justice space, but has always been a Public Health person at heart. She spent many years coordinating broad-based coalitions in the climate justice and environmental health spaces to advance local and state-level public policy. She loves supporting her colleagues by providing sound HR and back-of-the-house support and is eager to operationalize diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice through HR.  

Christina has deep roots in Southern California, but has been at home in the SF Bay Area for many years now. She enjoys bicycling around town, music, food, art and the natural world. She has two young, clever and high-energy sons who claim that they can “taste the love” in her cooking.

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Christine is HIP’s Health Instead of Punishment Program Director. She is committed to the work of dismantling carceral systems of oppression and envisioning a world where people and communities have the resources they need to thrive and transform, without relying on policing or punishment as a response to harm. At HIP, she appreciates the opportunity to partner with grassroots organizations doing liberative work on the ground to expose the ways that incarceration and policing are harmful to health and to build what Ruth Wilson Gilmore refers to as “life-affirming institutions” in their stead.

Christine lives in Massachusetts, where she was also born and raised. She organizes with abolitionist coalitions locally and nationally and loves watching the Boston Red Sox, making music, and spending time with her niblings.

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Elana is a Research Project Director at HIP, where she advances economic security through collaborative, community-centered research. Elana believes that policy advocacy, community organizing, and participatory research are powerful tools in service of health and racial equity. She brings 10 years of research experience, which she is excited and passionate about applying toward social justice and structural change.

Elana has roots in both Northern and Southern California and currently resides in Los Angeles. She loves spending time outdoors, trying new recipes, admiring every cat and dog she sees, and creating art projects in her spare time.

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Raymond Neal is a Project Director at Health in Partnership. As a native Wisconsinite, he takes great pride in the opportunity to support the development of healthy communities. Raymond has always sought opportunities to cultivate experiences and relationships, placing a premium on growth and development. Mindful, introspective and honest, Raymond has a personality that thrives in any industry focused on human development. He’s a listener, a thinker, a perpetual learner who isn’t afraid to have difficult conversations.  He is passionately devoted toward creating a more just world and firmly believes that in order to do so, one must first engage in self-reflection to unlearn internalized messages which perpetuate injustices.  He believes the exploration of our relationships with ourselves, others, and the systems we all create and maintain is key to the development of opportunities and spaces for individual behavior shifts and organizational transformation.

Jamie leads communications at HIP. She is passionate about the power of language to build collective action, and brings her background in organizing and strategic communications to work towards a vision of health equity rooted in liberation. She believes that the messages and stories we tell structure the world around us, and are powerful tools that can shift our material realities.

Originally from the east coast, Jamie now lives in Oakland where she spends her time organizing with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, surfing in the ice cold pacific, and dancing whenever possible.

Sophie works on organizing and advocacy at HIP and helps coordinate Public Health Awakened. She is passionately dedicated to building the organizing and advocacy power of public health workers across the country and to bridging health justice work with other social justice movements. She believes that all justice and equity work is ultimately about community health, and that all community health work should be rooted in justice and equity. With a “past life” in radio production and oral history recording, Sophie is particularly passionate about harnessing the power of self-determined community storytelling.

Proudly born and raised in the Bay Area, Sophie has family roots from the Southwest to the Midwest to Puerto Rico. Besides all of the above, Sophie finds joy in dancing, hiking, running, and catching up with family and friends far and wide.

Shannon oversees organizational development, human resources, and finance for HIP, to support the health of staff and the organization overall. She brings nearly two decades of experience working throughout California as a grassroots organizer, coalition builder, fundraiser, and communicator. She is passionate about advancing justice and sustainability in the world through internal systems and practices that reflect HIP’s values and commitment to equity.

Shannon lives with her husband and 2 daughters in Oakland, except when they’re camping, or visiting family in New England or Germany. She loves sharing her favorite things about California with her family: mountains, year-round outdoor swimming, avocados, and activism.

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Stephani designs and manages HIP’s national capacity-building Leadership Institute for individuals working on health equity in local health departments. As a member of the capacity building team, she also facilitates workshops and provides technical assistance to public health organizations seeking to center equity in their practice. Over the last 18 years Stephani has been focused on advancing racial justice practices and supporting communities of color.

Stephani lives with her husband and seven-year-old in Florida. They are a sports loving family that cheer on the Carolina Tar Heels, the Philadelphia Eagles and now the Jacksonville Jaguars. Stephani also enjoys spending time at the beach, hitting the trails, game nights and blerd culture, and serving her community.

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