Critical Futures

Denise Octavia Smith, MBA, CHW, PN is the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Community Health Workers, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care Program in Global Primary Care and Social Change, Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow, and a Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leader. Denise envisions a culture of health where individuals have self-determination and dignity, where communities meaningfully contribute to system design and governance and where societies eliminate structural barriers to well-being. Denise led development of the first National CHW Policy Platform, 2021 National CHW Workforce Survey, and is a co-founder of the Community Based Workforce Alliance and the Vaccine Equity Cooperative.

Highlighted Work:

• “NACHW, Partners in Health, and National CHW and Promotora Organizations Gather for Historic Congressional and Capitol Hill Visits in Washington, DC”
• NACHW Letter to HELP Committee
• “A Strategy to Address Racism and Violence as Public Health Priorities: Community Health Workers Advancing Equity and Violence Prevention” (American Public Health Association Policy)
• NACHW National Policy Platform
• “Full Report: An Environmental Scan to Inform CHW Strategies within the Morehouse NCRN”

Abdul Hafeedh bin Abdullah was born and raised in San Bernardino, California during America’s war on drugs and mass incarceration era. Abdullah first experienced incarceration at age 9 and by age 17 he was sentenced to prison as an adult for 8 years. While incarcerated Abdullah was inspired to shift his world view and began to tenaciously pursue a journey of self and community healing and restoration.

In 2011, Abdullah was trained to implement the CDC funded Multnomah County Health Department, Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere initiative. In 2017 he adapted the program to be community led inside North Carolina Cape Fear Region now titled a Community-Based Public-Health response to Violence and being scaled in other parts of the country.

Highlighted Work:

• Sokoto House
• Quality Life Blueprint
• Community Healing through Activism and Social Mobilization (CHASM)
• Community-Based Public-Health Response to Violence (CPrV)

Rumana Shams Rabbani, CHW-VPP, MHA, received her Master’s in Health Administration (MHA) focusing on strategic management. She is currently a Doctoral student in the Health Policy & Management Department minoring in Implementation Science at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rumana is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar. Rumana has been the PI for the past eight years focusing on sustainable and equitable pay for the CHW workforce. She serves as the Chair of the Policy Committee for the Community Based Workforce Alliance and one of the principal authors for the APHA CHW Policy statement 20227.

Highlighted Work:

• “A Strategy to Address Racism and Violence as Public Health Priorities: Community Health Workers Advancing Equity and Violence Prevention” (American Public Health Association Policy)
• Community Health Workers in Violence Prevention Professional Training (CHW-VPP)

The National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) is the national voice for Community Health Workers, unifying CHWs across geography, ethnicity, sector and experience to support communities in achieving health, equity and social justice. We amplify CHW professional identity, leadership and capacity, and promote strategies, innovations and policies that respect, protect and authentically partner with CHWs and their Networks.

Website: https://nachw.org/

Community Healing through Activism and Strategic Mobilization (CHASM) is a Community-Based Organization (CBO) of strategic learning that aims to build capacity for Community Health Workers (CHWs) and CBOs within historically marginalized communities (HMCs), and neutralize systemic inequities in order to enhance harmony within the ecology of our society.

Website: https://chasmnetwork.org/

The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity (the Institute or IHJE) aims to eliminate disparities caused by systemic oppression and to improve individual and community health and well-being through systems change and deep community partnership. As part of these core goals, IHJE created a panel of content experts, community advocates, and organizations called the Anti-Racism Consortium. Each consortium member has a history of working to:

• develop and advocate for anti-racist health policy;
• address the root causes of health inequities; and
• develop programs and interventions that address multiple levels of medical racism, structural racism in health and the health care system.

In the Critical Futures podcast series, Consortium members describe their work and perspectives related to anti-racist health policy as well as structural racism in the healthcare system. These interviews are also conducted with a community partner that the members have worked alongside — with the goal of highlighting how to deeply work with community in a way that shares power and that moves us all towards liberation.