Help us welcome Angela Franklin to the CCPH team! She is joining our team as an Engagement Lead.
Please help us welcome our newest member to the team, Angela Franklin! Angela joins our team as an Engagement Lead. If you have the opportunity to work with Angela, you’ll learn that she stands by her beliefs that every good partnership needs the power of presence, dignity, and a good belly laugh every now and then.
Angela’s extensive experience as a health equity strategist, working with health providers, businesses, and community influencers, is a testament to her expertise. Her approach, which is culturally appropriate, evidence-based, and community-centered, has consistently led to improved health outcomes for socially vulnerable communities. We are confident that her insights and strategies will greatly benefit our team.
She has worked with organizations such as the Connecticut Department of Public Health, Council for World Mission (UK), Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Alabama Media Group, and other notable organizations that are doing great work. Angela earned her Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs with concentrations in African and Latin American History from the University of Virginia and her Master of Divinity focusing on Africa and Latin America from Emory University.
How did you hear about CCPH?
I found out about CCPH in the most mundane way—I googled it. I was searching for organizations that served historically underrepresented populations through strategic partnerships in the health equity space, and CCPH was one of those organizations. I began searching the website and came across the Principles of Partnership. I knew that if this organization lived its principles, it would be an organization of which I wanted to be a part and to which I wanted to add value.
Why did you decide to join the CCPH team?
I came to CCPH from working with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, where I was part of the team that rolled out its specialized contact tracing program and its mobile vaccine program during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that position, I created partnerships with local health departments, businesses, Faith-Based Organizations, Community-Based Organizations, Community Action Agencies, and school districts, among other stakeholders. From that experience, I learned that partnerships as agents of change can be transformative if done in a way that aligns with the mission, values, and measurable outcomes. This is an integral part of CCPH’s Principles of Partnership. For CCPH, partnerships are built on mutual trust, respect, and accountability. They are created within the framework of identifying and building upon strengths and assets, balancing power, and sharing resources while valuing multiple forms of knowledge and life experiences. These principles align with my experience at DPH in CT and my work in Birmingham, AL, and southern Africa.
You have extensive experience creating strategic partnerships and developing plans and programs to reduce health inequities. What has inspired you to do that work?
My work in southern Africa introduced me to the concept of Ubuntu. It means “a person is a person through other people.” It emphasizes the inherent mutuality of all humanity that inextricably binds us together. Each of our fates and our ultimate well-being can only be achieved through the well-being of the most marginalized. Success is measured by equity in all spheres of life for all people. By decreasing health disparities, strengthening community partnerships, and supporting the work of HBCUs in the field of biomedical research, my work at CCPH embodies the spirit of Ubuntu.
Tell us about the work you’ll be doing and the programs you’ll be supporting in CCPH.
My work at CCPH is with the All of Us HBCU Road Tour. The Road Tour is a series of hybrid events that spotlight health research being done at HBCUs and opportunities to conduct research using the All of Us Researcher Academy and Workbench.
The Researcher Academy is a comprehensive program that provides training and technical assistance for researchers conducting research with the All of Us Researcher Workbench, the cloud-based analytics platform where registered researchers can access data from All of Us participants. The academy supports peer-to-peer learning and network-building among researchers from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical workforce. The All of Us Researcher Academy supports researchers using All of Us data to explore questions about health and well-being. So far, we’ve been to Howard University, Tuskegee University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Fisk University and Meharry Medical College, and we’ll be at Jackson State in April. The partnership between HBCUs to drive health equity is what the All of Us HBCU Road Tour is all about.
We invite you to join us in welcoming Angela to CCPH by leaving a comment below.
