Senior Program Officer for Embedding Equity
New York Academy of Medicine
FOCUS
Shaneah has leveraged her capacity to innovate systems change, internal and external, to public health organizations by relentlessly approaching her work with an equitable lens through co-creating novel community engagement frameworks; building robust partnerships with city agencies; transforming local resident capacity building approaches; co-leading foundational equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives; and integrating art and advocacy to amplify the hopes and dreams of community members within historically disadvantaged areas. Shaneah activates her vision for change in every aspect of her work. Through intergenerational programming, she embraces, listens, and learns from the innate wisdom of community members and follows their lead to co-design methodology that forces institutions to adhere to community member-identified needs before activating resources and allocating institutional-level, predetermined needs. Local residents are the experts at what they need to achieve their hopes and dreams for their communities.
Shaneah utilizes a spectrum of evidence to implement authentic public health practice, spoken word artistry, and equity advocacy to work across diverse populations within New York City. Shaneah is a podcaster and leverages the diversity and flexibility of designing audio dramas to break down complex topics for a variety of audiences. Shaneah is looking to partner with others who build curriculum and websites that allow community partners to tailor content to their contexts.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Establish a Culturally Relevant Online Platform & App to Promote Youth Leadership in New York City
Youth living in areas impacted by historic disinvestment are often taught from education curriculums that lack representation of their experiences and cultural narratives. I would like to expand a virtual curriculum and include a mobile application presenting an on-demand opportunity for students to experience powerful stories of individuals that have overcome insurmountable adversity. Credible messengers will be filmed in their daily roles as violence interrupters, speakers, and youth advocates. I will strengthen partnerships to implement the curriculum beyond transitional congregate care settings and juvenile justice centers to high schools and community-based organizations across New York City and beyond. Teachers will experiment with the curriculum to increase student comprehension and critical thinking versus relying on resources that might be less culturally relevant. Following the virtual engagement, students will meet credible messengers in person to further explore ideas and discuss pathways to positive health and wellness. The online platform will contain features for students to connect and build relationships with other leaders across the city.
MORE ABOUT SHANEAH
Strengthening partnerships with stakeholders committed to uplifting the community, amplifying youth voices, and emphasizing the historical contributions to existing inequities to pave the way toward healing and restoration fuel her work. Shaneah’s involvement in Culture of Health Leaders has further enhanced her ability to own and embrace her unique contributions to the field of public health as a spoken word artist and researcher. CoHL has galvanized her innate emergent leadership approaches and enabled her to make sustainable change through a commitment to building platforms for systems change across generations. She is a board member of Hi Arts NYC and has transitioned to a role where she is working to embed equity within the American Medical Association enterprise. Shaneah is unafraid of experimenting and applying her training as an adaptive leader to solve wicked problems. She is a champion and member of communities that engage in healing through health promotion, patient navigation, performing arts, and empowering the next generation of health care professionals.
Click here to watch Shaneah’s Legacy Project video.
SHANEAH’S WORK AND VISION