Staff
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Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD Founding Director
Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD Founding Director
Renée Boynton-Jarrett is a practicing primary care pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, a social epidemiologist and the founding director of the Vital Village Community Engagement Network. Through the Vital Village Network, she is supporting the development of community-based strategies to promote child well-being in three Boston neighborhoods. She joined the faculty at Boston University School of Medicine in 2007 and is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. She received her AB from Princeton University, her MD from Yale School of Medicine, ScD in Social Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health, and completed residency in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her work focuses on the role of early-life adversities as life course social determinants of health. She has a specific interest in the intersection of community violence, intimate partner violence, and child abuse and neglect and neighborhood characteristics that influence these patterns.
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Erica Pike, MS Communications and Policy Manager
Erica Pike, MS Communications and Policy Manager
Erica Pike believes that through listening and leveraging the strengths of individuals and communities, we can achieve positive health, education, and economic outcomes together. Her experience in public health has always been in partnership with community members, valuing both grassroots driven change & systems-level change. She now serves as the Communications & Policy Manager for the Vital Village Network at Boston Medical Center. With a Masters in Applied Nutrition from Northeastern University, Erica envisions a just, equitable future that ensures the best outcomes for all children and families.
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Yusuf Ali Network Coordinator
Yusuf Ali Network Coordinator
Yusuf Ali grew up and has worked professionally in the communities of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan over the last 8 years. Yusuf graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from Florida A& M University in 2008. Yusuf is passionate about holistic healthy lifestyles and has focused his work towards empowering and providing families & individuals with resources in the areas of access to wealth, food access, and civic engagement.
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Desiree Hartman Community Partnerships Program Coordinator
Desiree Hartman Community Partnerships Program Coordinator
Desiree (Desi) Hartman graduated from Colorado College in 2016 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Global Health. Reflecting on her own life as an infant adopted from the Philippines who grew up in America, Hartman used her undergrad experience to understand how early childhood experiences impact one’s developmental trajectory and grappled with the larger social barriers that impact children. As a part of GlobeMed--a global health undergraduate student organization--Desi advocated for and interned with the group’s long-term partnership organization located in Kenya, the Western Organization for People Living with HIV/AIDS (WOPLAH). Desi also conducted field research on infant attachment at the institution she was adopted from in the Philippines, the Children’s Shelter of Cebu. Hartman is dedicated to fighting for a world that actualizes every child’s right to health and believes meaningful, cross-sector partnerships will help us achieve system-level change.
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Ronda Alexander, MA Director of Operations - Project NOW
Ronda Alexander, MA Director of Operations - Project NOW
Ronda Alexander is a native Detroiter dedicated to working with communities to reach their desired goals by aligning and leveraging their resources. Ronda joins us from the United Way for Southeastern Michigan where she served as the Director of Corporate and Community Alignment on the organization’s College and Career Pathways team. In her role at United Way Ronda worked to help external corporate partners find meaningful ways to engage with both students and educators; as well as worked across teams within the organization to align and leverage resources. Prior to joining United Way Ronda worked on the premier education initiative of Ford Motor Company Fund – Ford Next Generation (Ford NGL) for nine years. While at Ford Fund Ronda served a variety of roles including Professional Development/Technical Assistance Specialist and Program Manager for STEM initiatives. In all of her roles with Ford Fund Ronda worked with and supported multiple communities across the country as they worked to transform their communities through education.
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Diana Austria Rivera, MSW, MPH Senior Program Associate - Project NOW
Diana Austria Rivera, MSW, MPH Senior Program Associate - Project NOW
As a public health social worker, Diana is committed to advancing racial, economic, and health equity ensuring that our most vulnerable communities thrive in healthy communities of opportunity and are at the forefront driving policy and systems-level change. Born in the Philippines and raised in Houston, Texas, she graduated with a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University in 2008 and a dual Masters in Social Welfare and Public Health from University of California, Berkeley in 2015. Prior to joining the Vital Village team, she engaged in research, capacity building, and policy advocacy to build equitable food systems and inclusive health workforce policies at PolicyLink. Diana also brings experience in school-based health research, health career pathway programs, youth leadership development, community engagement, and immigrant health.
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Soojin Min, PhD Data Coordinator
Soojin Min, PhD Data Coordinator
Soojin is a public health professional who is passionate about advancing equitable health policy, promoting health education, and addressing health disparities and inequalities. Her expertise includes environmental health and health service research incorporating spatial information to provide evidence-based policy implications. Soojin previously worked as a Summer Research Associate at RAND Corporation and, prior to that, as an intern at UNESCO in Paris, France. Soojin earned her PhD in Public Policy and Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Master’s degree in International Educational Development from Boston University."
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Clare Viglione, MPH, RDN Research Coordinator
Clare Viglione, MPH, RDN Research Coordinator
Clare graduated from Columbia University in 2013 with an MPH. At Columbia, Clare worked in the Population and Family Health Department on the Getting Ready for School project and on SKIP!, the toddler physical activity intervention in Early Head Start. Clare has also held research positions with Harvard Prevention Research Center and New York University in addition to health education roles with Harlem Children’s Zone and the Department of Health. Clare also recently completed a Dietetic Internship at Brigham and Women's Hospital to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). Clare ultimately plans to pursue a PhD to develop cost-effective familial interventions targeting social-emotional development and childhood obesity.
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Maria Del Sol De Ornelas Research Associate
Maria Del Sol De Ornelas Research Associate
Maria Del Sol (Marisol) De Ornelas graduated from Boston University in 2017 with a B.S. in Health science and Public Health and is currently pursuing her masters degree in Public Health Nutrition at Boston University. During her time at Boston University, Marisol became committed to getting involved in her local community and joined Health Leads, a national healthcare organization that screens families for social determinants of health. Marisol has worked at the Boston Medical Center as a Clinical Research Coordinator since 2016, specifically working on innovative and intergenerational models of cancer prevention among vulnerable populations. Marisol’s passion for public health began while growing up in her home country, Venezuela, and experiencing first hand the devastating consequences of health inequity. Marisol's long-term public health goals are to develop innovative mental health and nutrition prevention models that are both culturally competent and focused on maternal and child health.
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Mesa Merritt Community Mobilization Coordinator - AmeriCorps VISTA
Mesa Merritt Community Mobilization Coordinator - AmeriCorps VISTA
Mesa Merritt is driven to promote accessibility in education, and opportunities for lifelong learning. Graduating from the University of Vermont, Merritt holds a B.S. in Human Development & Family Studies and a minor in Psychological Science. Having both gone through and guided service-learning endeavors, Merritt joined the Network with the belief that impactful growth is cultivated through creating rich and diverse connections and mutual respect. During her time volunteering and conducting research in the public school system, Merritt became passionate about creating inclusive and nurturing environments for young children, which allow them to be supported on their own developmental pathways. Merritt is excited to work with young leaders in their pursuit to create sustainable change in their own communities, and inspire other leaders and learners to become involved.
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Amita Wanar Community Mobilization Coordinator - AmeriCorps VISTA
Amita Wanar Community Mobilization Coordinator - AmeriCorps VISTA
Amita Wanar is passionate about promoting health and economic justice and empowering communities by highlighting local voices. She recently graduated from Barnard College with a B.A in Neuroscience and Behavior. During her time in New York City, Amita’s work with prenatal patients and incarcerated students energized her to continue using education to promote sustainable change. She is excited to bring her experiences in community health education and maternal health to the Boston Breastfeeding Coalition.
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