Projects
Below are a list of initiatives I'm actively working on and in the works.
Current Projects
Founder and Executive Director
Freedom Community Clinic is centered on Whole-Person Healing, prioritizing the healing of Black, Indigenous, Brown, and undocumented communities. All offerings are held in English and Spanish and are for free or at community sliding scale. Starting out in the streets and growing rapidly in only 3 years, FCC has served 5,500+ people, opened two Community Healing Sanctuary brick and mortar locations in Oakland, established 50+ community partnerships, and held 350+ community healing clinics, workshops, and programs in the Bay Area and beyond.
Through our Whole Person Healing framework combining strengths of both Western biomedicine and holistic healing, we aim to provide the services and infrastructure to (1) lessen the burden of chronic disease, psychological stress, and spiritual disconnection faced disproportionately by Black, Brown, and immigrant people and (2) empower the next generation of Black, Brown, and immigrant healers. Since our founding, we have impacted 5,500+ people, with 90% of the people we have served identifying as a Person of Color and 80% of services received by Black and/or Latinx communities. Moreover, 70% of the people we have served have never tried a holistic healing modality before due to financial/access barriers, racism, and/or lack of trust. As such, we aim to challenge the medical-industrial complex and holistic wellness industrial complex by re-introducing and affirming the healing practices of our ancestors especially to Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, and People of Color communities. Through its example, FCC is creating the new standard of Community Medicine.
Part-Time Faculty
I currently teach one undergraduate class per semester at the Institute of Holistic Health Studies. In spring 2023, I am teaching HH670: Alternative Health Practices. In summer 2022, I taught Global Perspectives in Holistic Health.
Healing to the People is a show centered on the intersections of healing and social justice. We are here to affirm why healing is critical to social justice movements. Beyond the self-care/wellness industry and beyond our profit-based medical system. We hope to re-define medicine and reclaim healing as the birthright of every person, especially those that have faced injustices and oppression in society. And knowing that healing is not something we do alone, but must do in community with others. Releasing shows every Thursday/Friday starting October 5. Subscribe on Spotify and learn more here.
Co-Founder
Primary Author, Towards the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice
The Institute for Healing & Justice in Medicine is a research institute that works towards a new medicine that is centered on healing, community, and justice. It published the inaugural report Towards the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research, and Practice, which spurred national advocacy to eradicate racism from clinical algorithms affecting patient care in medicine and public health. As a result, major academic medicine institutions, professional associations, and hospitals nationwide such as Harvard, UCSF, UW have modified their algorithms for kidney disease, lung disease, and chronic disease. Activism has led congressmembers Warren, Wyden, Booker, and Lee to propose legislation and national reviews on the use of race-based clinical algorithms in standard medical practices.
Projects in the Works
Herbal Medicine Apprenticeships at Soul Flower Farm School of Earth Medicine & Indigi Golden Herbals Academy
I'm participating in two herbal apprenticeship programs for BIPOC at Soul Flower Farm in El Sobrante, CA and with Indigi Golden Herbals Academy. Strengthening my connection with Mother Earth and its medicine has been incredibly nourishing and has allowed me to become a better healer and human. Most of all, herbalism has brought me closer to nature, to slowness, and given me a deeper understanding of the wonders of our body. Currently, I am in the process of creating my own line of herbal teas and protection sprays to help with trauma, anxiety, and depression.
Music
In my free time, I enjoy producing and making music. I am a huge audiophile -- everything from classical, to Bay Area hyphy, to salsa/bachata/merengue, to Afrobeats, to EDM/house. I am in the works of producing an upcoming piano meditation EP that mixes sounds of the Diaspora with classical music that is set to be released in Winter 2024.
Past Projects
Founder and Co-Host
Woke WOC Docs is a podcast about the lives of womxn of color in medicine/health justice, including their unique experiences, viewpoints, and struggles in medical education, research, and practice. We want to reveal the insights we as womxn of color uniquely have on how medicine can transform to end health injustices and be a better institution of health, well-being, and healing.
Founder
The Freedom School for Intersectional Medicine & Health Justice is a community of students, professors, and community members involved in medicine, public health, and health justice work. We are dedicated to creating an intersectional medicine and public health that is community-centered and advocates for the collective liberation and healing for all people, especially those most vulnerable and marginalized in society.
