Friday common lunches with an extra space for you
Prevention Institute Staff
Executive Director: Larry Cohen
Manager of the Executive Office: Anna Realini
Managing Directors: Rachel Davis, Leslie Mikkelsen, Manal Aboelata
Program Directors: Sana Chehimi
Program Managers: Jeremy Cantor, Carolina Guzman, Virginia Lee, Annie Lyles, Xavier Morales, Linda Shak, Juliet Sims
Administrative Manager: Justin Probert
Senior Advisor: Rea Pañares
Program Coordinators: Dalila Butler, Menaka Mohan, Nicole Schneider, Ben Simons, Benita Tsao, Sandra Viera, Lily Swartz
Bookkeeper: Linda Benson
Financial Coordinator: Roger Cox
Program Assistants: Victoria Benson, Ilana Blum, Tony Dang, Phebe Gibson, Edward-Michael Muña, Janet Pan, Shayla Spilker, Sarah Verst
New Sector Resident: Maggie Barnes
Financial Administrative Assistant: Leslie Dinh
Administrative Assistants: Perla Camacho, Hannah Moore, Sundos Sharaf, Jessica Vetterli
Staff emails are available with individual staff bios.
Larry Cohen, Founder and Executive Director, MSW
larry-at-preventioninstitute.org
Larry Cohen, founder and Executive Director of Prevention Institute, a non-profit national center dedicated to improving community health and equity through effective primary prevention: taking action to build resilience and to prevent illness and injury before they occur. With an emphasis on health equity, Larry has led many successful public health efforts at the local, state, and federal level on injury and violence prevention, mental health, traffic safety, and food and physical activity-related chronic disease prevention. Larry helped to define violence as a preventable public health concern, and developed one of the nation's first courses on violence prevention. Prior to founding Prevention Institute in 1997, Larry formed the first U.S. coalition to change tobacco policy and created the nation's first multi-city smoking ban. He established the Food and Nutrition Policy Consortium, which catalyzed the nation's food labeling law. Larry also helped shape vehicle safety policy, including strategy to secure passage of bicycle and motorcycle helmet laws, and strengthen child and adult passenger restraint laws. Larry has received numerous awards, including the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section Public Service Award from the American Public Health Association. He received his MSW from SUNY Stony Brook. Learn more about Larry.
Anna Realini, Manager of the Executive Office
anna-at-preventioninstitute.org
Anna Realini, Manager of the Executive Office at Prevention Institute, is the principal contact for the Executive Director and provides support to the organization in all program areas with an emphasis on communications, outreach, writing and editing. She coordinates consultation services to government agencies, community collaboratives, nonprofit organizations, and foundations on sustainable strategies to improve health and health equity. Anna also serves as liaison to the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2007, Anna was Membership Director for Media Alliance, a national media justice organization where she directed a health program for independent media workers. Anna's background is in legal services and social justice policy and advocacy.
Rachel Davis, Managing Director, MSW
rachel-at-preventioninstitute.org
Rachel Davis, Managing Director at Prevention Institute, oversees management of projects related to prevention violence, community health and reducing inequity, and mental health. She creates tools and materials to support local and state initiatives and educates government agencies, foundations, and community groups throughout the country. Rachel serves as Project Director for UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth through Violence Prevention), Prevention Institute's CDC-funded national initiative to strengthen and support the largest U.S. cities in more effectively preventing violence. Rachel co-developed THRIVE (Toolkit for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments), an interactive web-based tool to help identify and foster factors in the community environment that improve health outcomes and reduce inequity. She has written numerous publications, including First Steps: Taking Action Early to Prevent Violence. Rachel also co-authored A Time of Opportunity: Local Solutions to Reduce Inequities in Health and Safety, Health for All: California's Strategic Approach to Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health, and Good Health Counts: A 21st Century Approach to Health and Community for California. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 1997, Rachel had extensive experience as a social worker for the San Francisco Unified School District. Rachel received her MSW from UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare. Learn more about Rachel.
Leslie Mikkelsen, Managing Director, MPH, RD
leslie-at-preventioninstitute.org
Leslie Mikkelsen, Managing Director at Prevention Institute, advances the conceptual work of the organization and supervises the Supporting Healthy Eating and Active Living projects and team. She develops tools and materials to support local and state initiatives, and guides government bureaus, foundations and community organizations throughout the country on effective environmental approaches, coalition building, and interdisciplinary partnerships. Leslie is the co-founder and Project Director for the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a statewide advocacy network involved in creating healthy food and physical activity opportunities. Her research and publications had aided in the development of ENACT (Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool), and the ENACT Local Policy Database. She is also a Policy Consultant to the national Convergence Partnership, where she directs research and helps shape national strategy related to policy priorities that support healthy food and activity environments. Leslie has written many articles, including Setting the Record Straight: Nutritionists and Health Professionals Define Healthful Food and Where's the Fruit? Fruit Content of the Most Highly Advertised Children's Food and Beverages. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 1999, Leslie worked for the Alameda County and New York City Food Banks. Leslie is the winner of the American Public Health Association Food and Nutrition Section 2008 Catherine Cowell Award for Excellence in Public Health Nutrition. She received her MPH from UC Berkeley. Learn more about Leslie.
Manal Aboelata, Managing Director, MPH
manal-at-preventioninstitute.org
Manal J. Aboelata, Managing Director at Prevention Institute works collaboratively to improve access to healthy foods, prevent injuries, and increase access to physical activity opportunities. Her work emphasizes policy and community-based approaches, and demonstrates an overarching commitment to working with under-resourced communities to foster health and safety. Manal coordinates the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a statewide advocacy network involved in bringing healthy food and physical activity opportunities to all Californians. She chairs the Joint Use Statewide Taskforce (JUST), whose mission is to increase community access to playgrounds through the policy of joint use agreements between school districts and local governments. Manal is principal author of The Built Environment and Health: 11 Profiles of Neighborhood Transformation, Mapping the Movement for Healthy Food and Activity Environments: Organizational Snapshots, a contributing author for Cultivating Common Ground: Linking Health and Sustainable Agriculture, and co-authored Emerging Issues in Improving Food and Physical Activity Environments: Strategies for Addressing Land Use, Transportation, and Safety in 3 California-Wide Initiatives, which was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health. She also is a contributing author on Community Engagement in Design and Planning, a chapter in "Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-Being, and Sustainability." She is certified as a California Walkability Expert by the California Department of Health Services and CalTrans. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 1998, Manal received her MPH in Epidemiology from UCLA, where she was inducted into the Iota Chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in 2001 and into the UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Hall of Fame in 2009.
Sana Chehimi, Program Director, MPH, 
sana-at-preventioninstitute.org
Sana Chehimi, Program Director at Prevention Institute, oversees projects related to healthy eating and active living, developing tools and strategies to promote healthier, more equitable food environments. She manages Prevention Institute's technical assistance and training work for Communities Creating Healthier Environments, a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supporting diverse, community-based organizations and tribal groups in developing local policies that build food and recreation equity and address social injustice. Sana oversees national media advocacy efforts supporting prevention and health reform. She provides guidance and support for Strategic Alliance, and its statewide Rapid Response Media Network, providing tools and resources for effective media advocacy to promote healthy eating and active living. Sana is co-editor of Prevention Is Primary: Strategies for Community Wellbeing, one of the first academic texts on primary prevention. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2003, Sana worked in the HIV field. She speaks fluent Swedish and French as well as conversational Tunisian. She received her MPH in Health and Social Behavior from UC Berkeley.
Jeremy Cantor, Program Manager at Prevention Institute, oversees projects related to health equity, community health, land-use and health, and health care reform. Jeremy coordinates coalitions and partnerships, consults with government and community agencies, and does writing and editing. Major projects he manages include a health equity training series he's developing for community advocates around California, the statewide Healthy Places Coalition, and a community-driven livability initiative in Alameda County. Jeremy is involved in building the economic case for prevention and has co-authored numerous publications, including The Imperative of Reducing Health Disparities through Prevention: Challenges, Implications, and Opportunities, Laying the Groundwork for a Movement to Reduce Health Disparities, and Reducing Healthcare Costs through Prevention. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2006, Jeremy was Program Director for Destination: College, an AmeriCorps program that trains and supervises undergraduate advisors placed in under-resourced schools. Jeremy received his MPH in Health and Social Behavior from UC Berkeley.
Carolina Guzmán, Program Manager, MPH
carolina-at-preventioninstitute.org
Carolina Guzmán is a Project Manager at Prevention Institute, where she works on projects related to health care reform, health equity, land-use and health. Carolina has designed and implemented evaluation and strategic plan projects on domestic violence, criminal justice, children's health, mental health, and education. She has expertise working in technically and logistically complex projects that incorporate community-driven strategies to build capacity and promote sustainability. Prior to joining Prevention Institute, Carolina worked at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency a national non-profit organization that promotes effective, humane, fair and economically sound solutions to family, community and justice problems where she worked on issues of race and justice, mental health in the juvenile justice system, and provided support to the Latin Youth Development Center. Carolina also served as a Senior Epidemiologist at the San Francisco Public Health Department, Environmental Health Services, where she led the evaluation and research of land use, economic development and labor safety projects. Carolina is an immigrant from El Salvador and has a graduate degree in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Annie Lyles, Program Manager, MSW 
annie-at-preventioninstitute.org
Annie Lyles, Program Manager at Prevention Institute, oversees projects to prevent violence, including community and street violence, violence against women, and sexual assault and exploitation. She manages UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth), and she develops and hosts Prevention Institute's contributions to the webinar series PreventConnect. Annie is an advisor to STRYVE, the national violence prevention initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and to the California State Department of Public Health's Teen Dating Violence initiative. She coordinated the Ms. Foundation Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Project and trains participants in the Catholic Health Initiatives Rural Violence Prevention Grant Program. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2008, Annie was a program specialist in the County of San Diego Office of Violence Prevention, and an adjunct professor at San Diego State University. Annie has more than 15 years of experience coordinating and providing direct services to families and adolescents through local government, community clinics, juvenile detention facilities, and school-based initiatives. She holds a BA in Social Policy from Northwestern University and a MSW from University of Washington with a concentration on social justice models in multi-ethnic practice.
Xavier Morales, Program Manager, Ph.D.
xavier-at-preventioninstitute.org
Xavier Morales, Program Manager, works in the areas of promoting health equity and preventing violence. He manages the Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE) initiative and is also a manager for Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY). Xavier has extensive experience in community-led prevention initiatives including youth development, workforce/employment development, education/college access programming, prisoner reentry, alternatives to detention, community development, and art focused recovery and rehabilitation programs. He also has a strong track record authoring/designing proposals to support community-led prevention initiatives as well as experience conducting evaluations for federal, state, local and foundation supported programs. Xavier's current focus is working with multi-sectoral community-led collaborations to address social determinants of health inequity and to prevent violence. Xavier received his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and his B.A. in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.
Linda Shak, Program Manager at Prevention Institute, oversees projects related to healthy eating and active living, sustainable food systems, and mental health. Linda provides training and consultation to local government, foundations, and community collaboratives nationwide, helping them develop quality prevention policies and practices. She has worked with the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, Kaiser Permanente's Healthy Eating Active Living communities, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grantees. Linda has served in an advisory capacity to Health Care without Harm and is responsible for constituency building for the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments. She also manages the ENACT Local Policy Database, which provides policymakers and advocates with examples of nutrition and activity related policies that have been adopted in local jurisdictions. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2005, Linda was instrumental in developing the St. Louis Healthy Youth Partnership, a regional collaborative working to increase healthy eating and physical activity among children. Linda received her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and is a graduate of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs.
juliet-at-preventioninstitute.org
Juliet Sims, Program Manager at Prevention Institute, supports projects related to healthy eating and active living, with an emphasis on local, state, and federal policy initiatives aimed at increasing access to healthful food and limiting marketing practices that promote unhealthy food. She collaborates with agencies and organizations across the country, providing training and consultation to incorporate prevention strategies into their efforts. Juliet also provides staff support for Strategic Alliance, California's statewide network of food and activity advocates, including coordination of its Rapid Response Media Network, which fosters effective media advocacy to advance food and activity policy and practice change. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2008, Juliet worked in clinical nutrition. She is a Registered Dietitian, and received her MPH with an emphasis in Nutrition from UC Berkeley.
Justin Probert, Administrative Manager at Prevention Institute, oversees financial management, human resources, technology, administration, and facilities management. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2006, Justin was Operations Director for a statewide youth-led advocacy organization that connects school-based gay-straight alliance clubs to each other and to community resources as part of the safe schools movement. He was Director of Operations for A Home Away From Homelessness, which provides educational, social, and recreational opportunities to homeless and formerly homeless families in San Francisco and Marin counties. He spent eight years at the Tides Center, the national leader in fiscal sponsorship services to hundreds of nonprofit organizations. Justin has served on many local and national boards of directors, reflecting his ongoing commitment to community service. He received his BS in social science from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
rea-at-preventioninstitute.org
Rea Pañares is currently a health policy and philanthropy consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a Senior Advisor with Prevention Institute, she works on projects to advance community prevention in health reform implementation and health care settings. At The California Endowment, Rea works on projects related to program development and capacity building with a racial equity lens. Most recently, Rea served as Director of Minority Health Initiatives at Families USA, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all. Previously, Rea lead efforts in the areas of racial and ethnic health disparities for Grantmakers In Health (GIH). She was also involved with projects related to foundation support for public policy and advocacy, public health, and environmental health. Rea has held positions at the National Business Group on Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Rea holds a master's degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley in molecular and cellular biology.
dalila-at-preventioninstitute.orgDalila Butler, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, works in the areas of healthy eating and active living, health reform, and health equity. She also supports projects focused on the intersections of violence and chronic disease. She works with public health departments, community organizations, and foundations to provide training, technical assistance, and consultation for developing strategies to promote healthier and more equitable communities. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2009, Dalila worked in cancer prevention research. She brings to Prevention Institute knowledge of advancing health equity and experience working in several different sectors, including healthcare and nonprofit organizations. Dalila received her Masters in Public Health with an emphasis in health promotion from San Diego State University.
menaka-at-preventioninstitute.org
Menaka Mohan, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, works in the area of health equity and supports the development of the Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE) initiative. She also supports the preventing violence team. She works with local community groups, public health departments, and federal agencies to provide training, technical assistance, and consultation to develop strategies that create healthier and more equitable communities. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, Menaka worked at Active Living By Design as a graduate assistant where she supported the Healthy Kids Healthy Communities (HKHC) grant-making process and developed resource guides to help HKHC grantees change the built environment to promote healthy eating and active living. Before working at Active Living By Design, Menaka worked at Sustainable South Bronx where she organized everything from walking clubs and social marketing campaigns to coalition-based political advocacy and land use planning strategies related to a proposed highway decommissioning and a new greenway system in the South Bronx. Menaka received her Masters in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Education and Health Behavior, and a Masters in City and Regional Planning with a focus on transportation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
nicole-at-preventioninstitute.org
Nicole Schneider, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, advances community prevention through policy and systems changes. She specializes in redesigning communities to support healthy behaviors, such as healthy eating and physical activity. She provides support around building collaboratives between different disciplines and stakeholders to help multiply collective accomplishments. Nicole provides technical assistance and consultation to national initiatives such as Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) and Convergence Partnership. Prior to joining Prevention Institute, Nicole worked to incorporate health language into municipal codes and general plans, especially language supporting urban agriculture and bicycle and pedestrian accommodation, at Public Health Law & Policy. Nicole also worked on updating the Alameda Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan as a Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator at the Alameda County Transportation Commission. Nicole earned her Master of Public Health and Master of City Planning degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and her bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Southern California.
Ben Simons, Program Coordinator, MA
ben-at-preventioninstitute.org
Ben Simons joined Prevention Institute as a Program Coordinator in June of 2011. He works on efforts to reform the health system in the U.S. to shift the focus from the treatment of injury and illness to community prevention and promoting health and wellbeing. Ben supports projects advocating for health care institutions to play a greater role in community prevention efforts, such as the Community Centered Health Homes work, and assists in developing the economic case for prevention. Prior to joining Prevention Institute, Ben focused his efforts in food system analysis and food justice advocacy, including working with several community-based non-profits on healthy food access, sustainable agriculture, and youth development projects. He has traveled to South America and Cuba to conduct research on urban space and the development of urban agriculture. Ben received a Masters of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and a BA in Geography from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Lily Swartz, Program Coordinator, BA
lily-at-preventioninstitute.org
Lily Swartz, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, provides coordinates Prevention Institute's communications work, including maintaining the organization's social media presence. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2009, she worked as an Assistant Teacher in a Pre-School at the People's Regional Opportunity Program in Portland, Maine. She has also worked as a Counselor, Retreat Coordinator and Gender and Sexuality Training Consultant at Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps in Plymouth, Vermont. In her college career, Lily was a founding member of Students Organizing Against Racism and Activist Resource Center, as well as Director of the Queer Resource Center. Lily received her BA in Sociology with minors in Art History and Women and Gender Studies from Brandeis University.
Benita Tsao, Program Coordinator, MPH, CHES
benita-at-preventioninstitute.org
Benita Tsao, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, works on initiatives that prevent violence and promote safety and health equity. She primarily supports Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) and helps develop training tools for organizations and communities to effectively prevent violence before it happens. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2010, Benita oversaw communications for the Asian Pacific Fund, a San Francisco Bay Area community foundation. She has coordinated youth programs and public education projects, and she contributed to the award-winning disaster preparedness handbook Protecting Your Family From Earthquakes, which is available in five languages. Benita is a certified HIV test counselor and interned with the Los Angeles County Immunization Program. She earned a master's degree in community health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health, and received her bachelor's degree in sociology from UC Berkeley.
Sandra Viera, Program Coordinator, BA
sandra-at-preventioninstitute.org
Sandra Viera, Program Coordinator at Prevention Institute, works to promote safe and healthy communities through projects focused on improving the built environment, preventing unintentional injuries and increasing equitable opportunities for physical activity and play. Sandra provides support to the Healthy Places Coalition, a statewide coalition seeking to advance public health involvement in land-use and transportation planning, and coordinates the Joint Use Statewide Task Force (JUST) whose mission is to increase community access to playgrounds through the policy of joint use agreements between school districts and local governments. Sandra provides technical support to four communities working to advance joint use on behalf of the California Convergence Partnership. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2010, Sandra was the Associate Director of Policy at Latino Health Access, a non-profit based in Santa Ana, California where she coordinated multi-sector healthy eating and active living initiatives. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach where she majored in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Policy.
Linda Benson, Bookkeeper
lindab-at-preventioninstitute.org
Linda Benson, Bookkeeper at Prevention Institute, handles the financial aspects of Prevention Institute's work, including grant budget reporting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and organizational compliance. Linda feels privileged to have witnessed the impact the Institute has made in the public health sector. Prior to joining Prevention Institute shortly after its inception in 1997, Linda spent over fifteen years in the accounting industry, working with CPAs and focusing primarily in the nonprofit sector.
Roger Cox, Financial Administrative Coordinator
roger-at-preventioninstitute.org
Victoria Benson, Program Assistant, BA
victoria-at-preventioninstitute.org
Victoria Benson, Program Assistant, works on projects related to preventing violence, and supports Managing Director Rachel Davis. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, she participated in the Coro Fellows Program, an experiential leadership training program, where she completed rotations in seven different sectors of public affairs, including: the San Francisco Mental Health Board, the Lampert Family Foundation, Redwood City Parks, Recreation and Community Services, and the California Labor Federation. Throughout college, Victoria led a student-initiated volunteer group that taught dance and free movement to under-resourced elementary and middle school students to provide positive active living opportunities. She presented her thesis at the APHA National Meeting in 2010, which examined an existing oral health community initiative for Mexican-American families and children. Victoria received her BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, with a minor in Human Biology from Stanford University.
Ilana Blum, Program Assistant, BA
ilana-at-preventioninstitute.org
Ilana Blum, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, supports projects related to preventing violence. This includes the Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) initiative and efforts to prevent sexual and domestic violence. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2012, Ilana worked at the Minnesota Department of Health through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Associate Program. She helped create the Minnesota State Plan to prevent and reduce teen dating violence, and she coordinated an inter-agency initiative that addresses adverse childhood experiences and their longer-term health effects. Ilana earned her BA in public health at the University of California, Berkeley.
tony-at-preventioninstitute.org
Tony Dang, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, assists with advocacy efforts related to advancing community prevention and health equity within the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He supports Prevention Institute's Health Reform implementation team in research, writing, communications, and outreach. Tony also provides administrative support for Program Director, Sana Chehimi. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, Tony supported social justice advocacy and impact litigation at the Impact Fund, where he worked on employment, gender, and race discrimination class action cases. He has also interned at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law working on voting rights issues, as well as the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Tony received a BA in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity from Stanford University, focusing on conceptions of race and ethnicity in law and politics.
phebe-at-preventionintistitute.org
Phebe Gibson, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, supports efforts related to healthy eating and active living, and most recently worked on the publication Claiming Health: Front-of-Package Labeling of Children's Food. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2010, Phebe was engaged in work around eating sustainably and locally. She managed a weekly farm stand at Stanford, worked as a research assistant on a child nutrition study, and worked for the 2010 Eat Real Festival in Oakland, an annual celebration of fresh, regionally-sourced, and sustainably produced food and food craft. Additionally, she has spent summers abroad teaching English and leading youth leadership workshops in under-resourced communities in Thailand and India. Phebe received her BA in Human Biology, with a concentration in Child and Adolescent Development, from Stanford University.
edward-at-preventioninstitute.orgEdward-Michael Muña, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, assists with projects related to preventing violence and supports the Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) initiative. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2012, Edward initiated educational campaigns to counter Anti-LGBT bias and prevent hate crimes. He has led outreach activities to connect Pacific Islander high school students with mentoring and resources, and he has experience coordinating successful community events that foster leadership, unity and activism. Edward holds a BA in Political Science and a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Janet Pan, Program Assistant, BA
janet-at-preventioninstitute.orgJanet Pan, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, provides content support and assists Managing Director Leslie Mikkelsen. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2009, Janet worked as a student director and tutor for Berkeley United in Literacy Development, working with K-5th grade youth to increase their literacy and math skills. She also worked with UC Berkeley's Global Medical Brigade to provide a mobile medical clinic and public health workshops to under resourced communities of Honduras. Janet received her BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley.
shayla-at-preventioninstitute.org
Shayla Spilker, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, supports projects related to community health and health equity, including the Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE) initiative. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, Shayla worked on a variety of health related projects in communities facing inequities. In 2010, she worked in Santiago, Chile on a research project providing low-income, high-school students with STI and HIV prevention education, and she supported an NIH-funded research project with Chilean clinics to increase access to healthcare services. She currently volunteers at the Berkeley Public Health Clinic, providing HIV and STI post-test counseling to uninsured clients in the Bay Area. Shayla received her BA in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sarah Verst, Program Assistant
sarah-at-preventioninstitute.org
Sarah Verst, Program Assistant at Prevention Institute, provides communications and consultation support to Prevention Institute's work. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2012, she worked as a Communications Assistant at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, supporting the Communities Putting Prevention to Work, Farm to School, Active Schools and Active Early initiatives. She has also assisted in the development of a range of environmental education materials for early childhood and K-12 settings. Sarah earned her BA in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maggie Barnes, New Sector Resident, BS
maggie-at-preventioninstitute.org
Maggie Barnes, New Sector Resident at Prevention Institute, supports projects related to preventing violence, including the UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth) peer learning forum. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, Maggie spent a summer in Bangladesh working with BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities) to provide communities with economic and social programs that empower them to become agents of change. She also worked as an associate for Ashoka's Africa Diamond Team in Washington D.C. Maggie received her BS in Commerce with concentrations in International Business and Finance from the University of Virginia.
Leslie Dinh, Financial Administrative Assistant
leslied-at-preventioninstitute.org
Leslie Dinh, Financial Administrative Assistant at Prevention Institute, oversees Administrative Assistants task management, is part of the Ambiance Team, and assists Financial Administrative Coordinator by providing finance, facilities, technology, and other administrative support. Prior to joining Prevention Institute in 2011, Leslie taught a decal, Art as a Form of Resistance in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities, at UC Berkeley and was a mentor and co-coordinator for TAL, a mentorship program that fosters leadership skills and promotes higher education for Oakland and Richmond under-represented and under-resourced high school students. She also was a co-coordinator for SASC-SI, a summer institute that addresses the social injustices, economic inequalities, and political under-representation that Southeast Asian communities face. She also volunteered and did research at local hospitals and worked as a volunteer manager at the Women's Cancer Resource Center. Leslie received her BA in Integrative Biology with a minor in Asian American Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
Hannah Moore, Administrative Assistant
hannah-at-preventioninstitute.org
Sundos Sharaf, Administrative Assistant
sundos-at-preventioninstitute.org
Jessica Vetterli, Administrative Assistant
jessica-at-preventioninstitute.org
