Our Mission
Providing people with knowledge, skills and strategies to make social systems and policies more equitable for Black people and communities.
Our Vision
To organize individuals, families and the organizations that serve them, into communities empowered with skills to advance social equity and justice, with a focus on Black individuals and families.
What We Do
Founded in 2013 by Vicki Alexander, MD, MPH, Healthy Black Families works at the intersection of public health, community empowerment, and cultural connection.
Our programs are shaped by the voices, histories, and lived experiences of Black families—and grounded in trust, cultural pride, and mutual care.
We bring our mission to life through three core areas of work:
1.
Community Support & Direct Services
We work hand-in-hand with community members to provide resources, guidance, and support that meet their real, day-to-day needs. Our approach is personal, compassionate, and rooted in respect for every individual and family we serve.
2.
Culturally-Rooted Programs
Our team designs and leads programs that reflect the wisdom, creativity, and resilience of our community. Every initiative is informed by community voices and built in ways that celebrate Black culture, history, and identity.
3.
Collective Action & Policy Change
We bring people together to spark dialogue, collect stories and shape policies that advance health, equity, and well-being in real-time. Through collaboration and advocacy, we turn community insight into meaningful, lasting change.
Our Core Values
Human dignity
We are conscious of and actively support the basic right of every human being to have respect and to have their basic needs met.
Health/Healing
We promote the wisdom of mind and body soundness that flows from meeting spiritual, emotional and physical needs through self-awareness and preventive discipline.
Community
We foster depth and commitment as we engage people individually and in groups so that both independent creativity and interdependent cooperation are maximized.
Expressiveness/Joy
We create spaces that allow people and communities to express self openly, cooperatively in ways that and stimulate thoughts and imaginations. Through these spaces, we encourage open expression of ideas and opinions to bring conflicts into the open and resolve disagreements collaboratively.
Efficiency/Planning
We think about and design systems, acts and purposes in an efficient manner before implementing them.
Accountability/Ethics
The ability to enrich others by addressing their conduct in relationship to their value systems. This ability flows from one’s personal awareness of one’s own system of moral principles. This ability assumes the capacity to understand another’s level of ethical maturity.
Our Staff
Wilhelmenia Wilson, Executive Director
Wilhelmenia Wilson is a descendant of the African Diaspora. Her ancestors arrived, as enslaved people, at Somerset Plantation in Creswell, North Carolina on July 10, 1786 from West Africa on a ship chartered by Josiah Collins, the plantation owner. Leveraging human resilience, using education as a means to create personal and community agency and law/policy to dismantle state sanctioned oppression, her lineage has ascended in the United States through 6 generations. Wilhelmenia holds a BBA in Accounting with a concentration in Information Technology from Georgia State University and a Masters in Leadership from St. Mary's College of California She lives in Northern California and is the proud mother of two adult children.
Akilah Shaheed, Communications & Strategic Business Associate
Akilah is an author, birth-worker, and full-time mother, born and raised in the East Bay Area of Northern California. From a strong family of enslaved Africans and Indigenous Americans, she continues the family tradition in advocating for the rights of herself and others. Her career in community work began in the City of Hercules with the Teen/Youth Council at age fifteen. Using her voice for more opportunities for youth, she was an active organizer for events such as Clean Up Day, Multi-Cultural Festival, and the annual Mother’s Day Fashion Show.
Blossoming into a frequently requested workshop facilitator and motivational speaker she continues her journey of self-discovery. It is Akilah’s passion to share the importance of expression for populations that are systemically silenced. Utilizing her experiences with systemic racism and societal microaggressions, she intentionally shares information for healing modalities; with the intent of passing generational healing instead of trauma. Joining the Healthy Black Families, Inc family in December 2018, she can continue to be part of the change she seeks in the world through HEALing THY Black Families.
Kameka Goodwin, Program Coordinator - Sister Together Empowering Peers (STEP)
Kameka Goodwin is a born and raised Berkeley Girl to the heart. As a community Health worker and a preschool teacher, Kameka strives everyday to empower her community to thrive and live a full life. Having an entrepreneur as a mother has exposed Kameka to first hand community and self advocacy work. Preparing children for the future is something Kameka is passionate about with her family as well as her wonderful community.
Deborah Hailu, Program Coordinator - Telling Our Stories (TOS)
Deborah Hailu is centered in and fueled by ideology and work centering emancipation of the Black diaspora from systemic constructs which she knows to be the insidious masking and morphing of justified enslavement. Constantly seeking and co-creating spaces where “we are free from the gaze of the oppressor so that we can work for us, by us, on us”, she is non-compromising in her love of her people. She considers herself lucky to have been raised in the shadow of revolution abroad and to have been under the tutelage of revolutionary elders in the United States.
Her work at Healthy Black Families, Inc is one offshoot of liberation rooted work in which she engages. While laying the foundation for the Telling Our Stories program, she encapsulated her thoughts around the importance of the program with, “If we do not tell our truths ourselves, others will define our truths”.
Raheemah Nitoto, Program Coordinator - Thirsty 4 Change (T4C!)
Raheemah Nitoto has devoted her life researching human wellness. She is a Holistic Health and Nutrition Educator with a B.A., in biology with an emphasis in human biochemistry from Mills College. She has also studied at La Casa de Saude in Capim Grosso, Brazil; a nonprofit clinic focused on nutrition, natural healing and herbal remedies and certification in naturopathy and holistic nutrition at the Global College of Natural Health. It’s Raheemah’s dream to help people decrease the incidences of chronic disease in their lives and communities through nutrition and other natural means. For eight years she has been honored to work in partnership with Alameda County Nutrition Services and Allen Temple Baptist Church, serving our East Oakland community.
Ayanna Davis, MS, Strategic Advisor
As the fifth generation of her family to live in Berkeley and the East Bay, “Mama Ayanna” is passionate about our community’s health and wellbeing. Ayanna comes to HBF as a knowledgeable health and wellness practitioner with a background in radio journalism, activism, organizing, leadership development, birth justice advocacy, legal research, event, and natural wellness program management. She received her Master of Science degree from ACHHS in Oakland, with a major in traditional medicine and an emphasis on holistic health. Ayana is an experienced small businessperson, a passionate community leader who has a history of educating, empowering, and advocating for marginalized peoples, and is dedicated to the work of eliminating health inequity. As former Internal and External Wellness, and Wellness Center manager for Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, she provides organizational leadership through implementation, facilitation, and supervision of HBF’s program activities and services, as she works with collaborative partners and consultants; builds relationships with community organizations, key community members and stakeholders; and participates in coalition building.
Our Board
Jylana Sheats,Ph.D.,
MPH Board President
Jylana is a behavioral scientist, educator, and public health leader who works across sectors to drive behavior change and address complex societal challenges. A systems thinker who values both rigorous science and lived experience, Dr. Sheats bridges public health, civic science, and community-rooted practice—using community-driven approaches like storytelling, local data collection, and collaborative problem-solving to help communities and organizations rethink how they support healthier, more equitable lives. A champion of public and community engagement, she works to strengthen the relationships between science, policy, and the people most impacted by inequities—ensuring that solutions are co-created, culturally grounded, and informed by those with lived experience. A proud Spelman alumna, Dr. Sheats also holds degrees from Tulane University and Indiana University-Bloomington and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine. She serves in advisory roles for organizations including the Open Research Community Accelerator, Stanford’s Research Fellowship Program in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and the Climate Mental Health Network. As Board President of Healthy Black Families, Dr. Sheats brings her long-standing commitment to centering Black and historically marginalized communities, co-creating solutions, and building systems of care that are just, community-led, and designed to support joy and collective well-being.
Sitar Moody Scott, Vice President
Sitar Mody Scott is a mental health professional affiliated with Sankofa Holistic Counseling Services Inc.
Brian Sullivan, Secretary
Brian is currently the Director of Technology KIPP Public Schools Northern California. Brian is an IT professional with over 18 years of experience. He has managed a wide array of diverse technical networks. Throughout his career, he has provided technology solutions for over 40,000 students and helped to launch the technical infrastructure of over 50 Schools. Perhaps one of his proudest accomplishments was connecting four technically underserved Memphis schools directly to a California Data Center, nearly quadrupling their internet speed and server performance. He most recently joined KIPP Northern California as their Director of Technology. A proud SF Native, and UC Berkeley Alumnus, Brian is passionate about technology and its potential applications to improve the lives of African Americans. Specializing in Cyber Security, Data Center Design, and Data Science and Visualization, Brian hopes to help Healthy Balck Families adopt a renewed interest in utilizing Data best practices to analyze, improve and ultimately enrich the lives of our families. He Firmly believes, Data is power.
Codany Holiday, Board Member
Codany Holiday is an acclaimed vocalist and performing artist. As a youngster growing up in the Bayview Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, Holiday’s love for music provided him with a vehicle to explore his inner self. This self-knowledge led him to discover a deep love and appreciation for self that has provided him a grounding that has supported and continues to sustain and give focus and direction to his life. Adept in recording, writing, and music production, Holiday has honed a talent that has enabled him to travel the world and share his soul-stirring vocal talent to enlighten and inspire hundreds of thousands.
As a young man, Holiday was a single parent; having gained custody of his daughter when she was very young. He considered it his primary and most valued responsibility to create a whole and grounded woman. She has now become a mother and, in so doing, extended his parenting spectrum as a grandfather to her two girls.
Perceiving the needs of children and young people in our communities, Holiday is passionate about guiding young people to experience a level of self-knowledge and self-love that he discovered as a young man in hopes that it will provide a grounding force of power for their lives as well. To begin addressing this calling, Holiday recently registered as a volunteer at the Alameda county probation department and is actively creating other avenues to be of service.
Rosalind Welch, Board Member
A results-oriented self-starter, Rosalind has successfully developed and executed marketing communication campaigns that increase voice, audience and revenues. In the past, she has been a vital part of organizations such as Glide Foundation, East Bay SPCA, Office of the President-University of California, Kaiser Permanente, YWCA of San Francisco. Currently, Rosalind holds the position of Senior Director of Marketing & Development at RCF Connects (Richmond Community Foundation), while maintaining her position as founder of a marketing agency (Sienna Communications). Ms. Welch regularly consults with small business clients assisting up-and-coming businesses with message development, social media strategy and reputation management.
Shawn Granberry, Board Member
Mr. Granberry is founder and CEO of HipHopTV, LLC and has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. He started his career in the A&R department at Tuff-E-Nuff Productions. 2-Tuff-E-Nuff productions worked with such artist and companies as Toni, Tone', Tony, En Vogue, Madonna, Club Nouveau,Con Funk Shun,Timex Social Club, Regina Belle, Alexander O'neal, BET Networks, ABC and Fox Networks. In high school Mr. Granberry also teamed up with Shakir Stewart to produce some of the biggest parties Oakland, CA has ever seen for high school students. While attending UC Berkeley, he continued his entertainment career by creating several very popular club nights and concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. After college, Mr. Granberry worked as a close confidant to Shakir Stewart and also continued to produce events like, Def Jam's, "How To Find A Mega Star". Mr. Granberry also worked very close with famed movie producer, Robert Watts at Transformer Entertainment. While working with Stewart and Watts, Mr. Granberry began researching the new broadcast model now known as Over the Top broadcasting (OTT). After returning to UC Berkeley to fully study this model, Mr. Granberry founded Watch Now Networks, Inc. Mr. Granberry's passion in working with inner city youth so he also founded The Scholar Athlete Union and Bears Youth Basketball with help from childhood friend Jason Kidd and works very close with Stanford and UC Berkeley faculty to help young people achieve a college education and survive the dangers of the streets.
Cynthia Joseph, Board Member
Cynthia Joseph J.D., is the Vice President and chief Administrative Officer for Whittier College. She has successfully developed and implemented new programs, policies, and procedures that have increased employee morale and decreased enterprise risk, company liability, and legal exposure. She oversees the Human Resources, Campus Security, Facilities, auxiliary contracts, legal matters, and risk management for the College. She is responsible for implementing new strategic programs that support the College’s mission and vision including expanding employee development and training, succession planning, and programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Cynthia has a longstanding career in higher education and vocational academic program development and management, as well as in Human Resources management.
Cynthia is also an accomplished Grammy nominated Jazz vocalist with several jazz albums and compilations. She has sung studio and background vocals for various artists including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Tramaine Hawkins, and Andraé Crouch. She also contributed lyrics for the movie soundtrack for Down In The Delta.
Cynthia has been an artist manager and concert promoter, managing various artists, and negotiating talent for the San Jose Blues Festival, the Monterey Jazz, and the Monterey Blues Festival.
Ms. Joseph is also an author and screenwriter, who has written and co-produced a soon-to-be-released Feature Film, entitled “Caught Between”.
Healthy Black Families’ History
“Data coming out of the City of Berkeley’s 1999 Health Status Report found that Berkeley had the worst Black-White low birth weight disparity of any city of comparable size in the nation.”
“The doors to the Black Infant Health (BIH) program opened in 2001 with funding from the State of California.”
“In 2002, the Berkeley Health Division established a Community Advisory Board (CAB) for BIH to provide community-led direction, evaluation, advocacy and on-going support.”
“That same year, the Sisters Together Empowering Peers (STEP) program was inaugurated as part of BIH.”
“Less than ten years later, the Mayor of Berkeley issued a proclamation commending BIH for its work in lowering the Black-White low birth rate ratio from 4:1 to 2:1.
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“When the CAB was disbanded in 2013, its members founded Healthy Black Families, Inc. (HBF) as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization independent of the Berkeley Health Division.”
“In 2013, the STEP program officially made its permanent home with Healthy Black Families, Inc.
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