The Power of Music
Our Mission
We harness the transformative power of music, culture and behavior change science to create resources that deepen health literacy and improve health outcomes for young people of color in underserved communities.
Our Vision
Youth and families around the globe are living with the knowledge and skills to make healthier choices, inspire health and healing within their communities, and achieve health equity.
OUR RESEARCH
We are committed to an iterative cycle of program evaluation, academic research and resource refinement.
WE ARE A COLLECTIVE
Board of Directors

Fresh’s peers have dubbed him “The World’s Greatest Entertainer,” for his unrivaled ability to electrify any crowd, of any age, race or gender, night after night. Pre-pandemic, Fresh averaged 200 live performances per year for 20 straight years – a rare feat for an any artist, especially one whose career has remained active for nearly four decades, thanks, in part, to his cultural classics, “The Show,” and, “La Di Da Di,” both released in the mid 1980’s, when he was a teen, as duets with fellow rap legend Slick Rick. To date, “La Di Da Di” holds the unique honor as one of the top five most sampled songs of all time.
On and off the road, Fresh is a lifelong activist, with a proven commitment to using his talents and resources to unite and inspire social justice. He is the founding artist and honorary board member of Hip Hop Public Health, a non-profit dedicated to inspiring health behavior change and achieving health equity in communities of color through the power of music, art, culture, and science.
After these past two years of unthinkable tumult and tragedy, Fresh seeks to sonically transport people to happier times and unite hip-hop and go-go audiences with his newest full length album, “This One’s For Chuck Brown.” Ever reverent to those who have inspired him and ever ready to use his art to uplift, educate, and ignite positive change, Doug continues to be an ever so Fresh breath of air.

Dr. Williams is the Founder and Board Chair of Hip Hop Public Health, an internationally recognized organization that works with iconic Hip Hop influencers to uses art, music, and science to promote healthy behaviors, health literacy, and health equity. He is a board member of the Partnership for a Healthier America whose honorary chair is former First Lady Michelle Obama, where he helps guide health equity-related activities. Dr. Williams is an expert on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in communities of color and COVID-related health disparities. He has received many prestigious international, national, regional, and local awards. These include the European Stroke Research Foundation Investigator of the Year award, two-time Columbia University Outstanding Teacher of the Year award, American Heart Association’s Trailblazer Award, and a National Humanism in Medicine award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Dr. Williams has been named on Fast Company Magazine’s 100 Most Creative People list, Root 100’s most influential Blacks in America list, Advertising Age’s Creative 50 list, and consecutive New York Magazine's Best Doctors list.

Before joining HHPH, Lori served as Vice President of Healthy Lifestyles at the YMCA of Greater New York, spearheading all aspects of the preventative health and wellness portfolio for the largest YMCA in the United States with a key focus on health innovation, development of youth fitness programming and scaling chronic disease prevention programs to meet the diverse needs of New York City's communities. Lori was the principal architect of the award winning Y-MVP Teen Fitness Challenge – an innovative program blending fun fitness activities with an interactive mobile app designed to recognize, reward and motivate NYC's young people to increase their daily levels of Moderate to Vigorous Physical activity.
Prior to joining the Y in 2011, Lori served as the Executive Director of the Office of School Wellness Programs at New York City’s Department of Education, established under the Bloomberg administration in collaboration with NYC’s Health Department. She implemented policies and designed initiatives to increase the quality and quantity of physical and health education for 1.1 million students in 1,700 public schools. Highlights under Lori’s tenure include the creation of a city-wide sports and fitness league for hundreds of middle schools, introducing classroom-based physical activity curriculum, launching school wellness council grant programs, and spearheading the implementation of NYC FITNESSGRAM, an annual student fitness assessment, which is now one of the country’s largest web-based longitudinal data base on childhood obesity and physical fitness.
Raised in Brooklyn, Lori attended New York City’s public schools and earned a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Communications and Graphic Design, and a M.A. in Physical Education from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, where she is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Exercise Science, Health Studies, Physical Education and Sport. Lori personally embraces physical activity and her love of music into her daily life as a yoga enthusiast, an aspiring DJ and a spinning instructor who still teaches a weekly cycling class at Crunch Fitness in Brooklyn.


Gillian credits her personal and professional life to strong family support, her parents and four siblings. “My parents are my role models and champions. They taught us that the quality and depth of the footprints that you leave are as important as those that you choose to follow. I hope that the footprints that I have left so far can help others and make my family proud.”
Gillian is the former vice president of the Aetna Foundation where she conceptualized and led national and international investments in community wellbeing, quality health care and health equity. Gillian’s work in philanthropy also includes the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where she worked to improve the health of vulnerable and low-income populations. There she held responsibility for impact and evaluation for the foundation’s investments in health and special cross-sectoral initiatives. Her professional experience includes a leadership role within the Pan American Health Organization, the regional body of the World Health Organization. In this role, she worked to strengthen health systems with governments, policymakers and non-governmental organizations across multiple sectors including education, health, human services and finance.
Beyond her experience in philanthropy and government, Gillian has taught at the Harvard School of Public Health and currently teaches in the graduate leadership program at the School of Public Policy, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She completed her postdoctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, along with a doctorate in public health from Harvard University with concentrations in policy and the social determinants of health. She holds a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan, a doctorate in dental surgery from the University of Detroit Mercy and completed her practice residency at New York Hospital. Her undergraduate degree was earned at the University of the West Indies. She is also an active member of national, state and local boards and working groups committed to promoting health, health equity and economic development.

Eric began his career as a specialist in comprehensive health education and coordinator of the history-making Safe Schools Program for LGBT Students with the Massachusetts Department of Education. He later served young people throughout New York City as the Coordinator of Arts & Media Education Programs with the NYC LGBT Community Center. Eric then spent seven years supporting 1700 schools and one million public school students via the New York City Department of Education and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, serving as Comprehensive Health Education Coordinator for Manhattan and the Bronx, Deputy Director of Fitness & Physical Education for the five boroughs, and Founding Director of the city’s first Youth Development Resource Center. During this period, he co-authored the U.S. National Standards for Health Education (2nd Edition) and served as an adjunct professor of health education at Hunter College, City University of New York. After completing an MBA in Management & Organizational Behavior, Eric became Director of Organizational Talent Management and Development for the Department of Education before joining London-based leadership strategy firm YSC Consulting.
Eric is also a graduate of Tufts University (American Studies / Peace & Justice Studies) and a member of the Dramatists’ Guild of America. He is the author/co-author of a wide range of published academic, creative, and professional works, including award-winning case studies on diversity and leadership and a theatrical parody for adults of children’s television cartoons. Eric lives in Brooklyn, New York, where years of coaching around the world and teaching throughout the northeastern U.S. have nonetheless left him largely unprepared for his role as father of three awesome, adorable, and mischievous kids.

Since completing his training, Dr. Joseph has worked in academic surgery for his entire career. He has had the opportunity to serve as a visiting professor for the Colombian Association of Surgery and as an advisor to Governor Abbott (Texas) regarding emergency and trauma services. He was also the Vice Chair of Surgery at Texas Tech, where he was instrumental in establishing the residency in the Permian Basin and an acclaimed rural surgery training program. Dr. Joseph serves on the editorial board of six journals and is a reviewer for numerous others. He was the editor for a recently published book on Point-of-Care-Ultrasound for First Responders. Recently, he established the ACGME accredited general surgery residency at Valley Health System in Las Vegas NV and serves as an Associate Professor of Surgery.
Dr. Joseph has worked with numerous healthcare businesses and private equity bankers, raised money for charitable organizations, and travelled to 3rd world countries to expand medical education and outreach. His goal is to use technology and innovation to enhance healthcare delivery, prevent illness, and save lives throughout the world.

Hip Hop Public Health matches perfectly with Jim’s commitment to using innovative, inclusive, and highly effective strategies to galvanize lasting healthy lifestyles and engagement by our youth, of all ages. As a former professional percussionist, he has long known the power of music to be used for a higher good.
Based in Indianapolis, IN, Jim currently is CEO of an expanding portfolio of health-based NGOs, such as the International Society for Sports Psychiatry, as well as an incubator for organizations that innovatively use technology to advance health and performance and economic development in the sectors of worksite, healthcare, and sports.
Jim previously served in the public sector in Washington, DC as Director of an HHS national health institute. Before that, he was the historically successful and long-term CEO of the American College of Sports Medicine, headquartered in Indianapolis, making it the world’s largest international organization dedicated to the broad and multi-faceted field of sports medicine and exercise science.
Earlier, Jim was an executive with the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery in Washington, DC, and was a principal with an association management firm that specialized in health and science NGOs and political candidates at the U.S. federal level.
Jim has led, created, or co-founded numerous start-up organizations and initiatives that have become established and successful enterprises, such as the Datalys Center on Sports Injury Research and Prevention, the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science, the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, and the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion.
He also has served as consultant and adviser to more than 100 organizations, including Disney Imagineers, World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, United Nations, NATO, United States Olympic and Paralympic Olympic Committee, World Bank, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jim is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he earned degrees in organizational development and medical history and policy.

Prior to joining Invo, Andrew served as a classroom teacher and school site administrator in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, an Assistant Superintendent in Duval County Public Schools, and the President of Catapult Academy. In Duval, Andrew was responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring the innovative programs and schools including an Overage Academy, an Early College Career Academy and a contributor to the creation of dedicated public schools for students with both Autism and Dyslexia. Andrew was successful in leading processes that resulted in dramatically increasing the district’s overall and African-American graduation rates, college readiness reading and math rates, and high school accelerated coursework participation and performance rates; all historic highs for the district.
Aside from his work within the school district, Andrew founded a 501(c)(3) non-profit which infused literacy and sports to increase students’ chances at achieving academic and social/emotional success through programming in the United States and Jamaica. Andrew holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Secondary Education from the University of Miami.
Staff Members

As the Director of Special Projects, Sittra provides support across the organization for a range of projects, including development, gala and board development work, as well as systems and database management. Sittra understands that the core of organizational growth depends on nurturing relationships between people. It also depends on airtight systems critical in building a culture of philanthropy that touches every part of the fundraising process. Sittra is passionate about Hip Hop Public Health’s work because she has seen first hand the change that access, equity, and education can make in a young person's life and the trajectory of their family’s lives for generations to come.
When Sittra is not at her desk you can find her rooting for Penn State’s Nittany Lions, helping out in her family’s Ethiopian restaurant, or on a spin bike!


Cherie is a Principal at Reality Investor Capital LLC, a real estate private equity, investment, and advisory firm with a national platform. In 2016, Cherie served as managing director of Trout Sports, a business advisory firm that supports current and retired professional athletes to build long term career capacity. During her 16 year career as President of Hill Ventures, Inc., Cherie established the sports marketing and investment management of the company’s $150 million real estate portfolio, and spearheaded the strategic launch of a $200 million mezzanine growth fund while providing complete oversight of all business and philanthropic activities.
Cherie was a three-time First Team All-American lacrosse player at the University of Virginia, where she led the Cavaliers to NCAA Championships in 1991 and 1993, was named Team Captain and NCAA Defensive Player of the Year in ‘94, and became the first lacrosse athlete in the university’s history to have her jersey retired. She also played 14 seasons with the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse team, winning three Gold Medals in the World Cup Championships, including MVP honors in ‘97 and 2001. In 2009, Cherie was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, an honor which was also given to her late father, NBA Hall of Famer and one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time, Hal Greer. This makes the Philadelphia native a four time Hall-of-Famer as a member of the Pennsylvania Lacrosse HOF, Virginia Sports HOF, Philadelphia Sports HOF, and National Lacrosse HOF. In 2017, she received the Tewaaraton Legend Award. Cherie currently serves as a Board of Director Member for USA Lacrosse, the governing body of Lacrosse in the US.

Prior to joining Hip Hop Public Health, Lindsey served as Executive Director of the New York City Department of Education’s Office of School Wellness Programs, where she developed and implemented large-scale initiatives to increase equitable access to Health Education, Physical Education and wellness programs for New York City’s one million students. She established policies and practices, paired with practical and accessible resources, to revitalize Health and Physical Education instruction in grades K-12, and to embed sustainable transformation at both the school and system levels. Lindsey embraced opportunities for organizational change and led the Office of School Wellness Programs through an unprecedented expansion from a team of 25 to more than 100, providing a comprehensive and strategic suite of support structures for New York City’s 1,600 public schools, including professional learning, curricular materials, and programs for students, educators and school communities. Lindsey’s career has also included stints in marketing, development, public relations and communications. Lindsey was a founding member of the NYC Mayor’s Sexual Health Education Task Force and served as its Co-Vice-Chair.
Lindsey loves travelling -- especially if it involves some combination of ocean sunrises, mountain-top star-gazing, and good food and wine -- and she also loves coming home to Brooklyn where you can find her doing hot yoga, reading at her neighborhood cafe, and hosting friends for dinner.

Even when Patrice is not working, she is still kind of working, as she is committed to helping others become healthy in mind, body, and spirit by creating healing experiences for those living through trauma. Patrice resides in DC and enjoys spending time volunteering as a foster for the Humane Rescue Alliance, exercising with her Peloton BGM crew, and collaborating with friends to create trauma healing experiences.

In 2020, as the pandemic created unprecedented challenges, Melinda shifted her focus to create unprecedented solutions. Recognizing racism as a public health crisis and the life-threatening consequences of health inequity on communities of color, Melinda’s work with Hip Hop Public Health combines the power of culturally appropriate and accurate healthcare messaging with access to corporate workforces to create a new model of public/private partnership. Melinda’s mission is to bring together the power of corporations and philanthropy to amplify Hip Hop Public Health’s work.
Melinda’s entrepreneurial background includes co-founding PlumParty.com, a celebrations site that disrupted the party store concept and was credited with revolutionizing how online retail interacted with consumers. Prior to PlumParty.com, Melinda was a Vice President at Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. where she helped structure and execute $3 billion of taxable and tax-exempt healthcare financings, including the first ever financing for the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. She was a Founding Board Member/Chair of Children’s Hope Foundation, an innovative non-profit serving the needs of children with HIV/AIDS. A decade-long volunteer at Sanctuary for Families serving the needs of victims of domestic violence, Melinda was most recently Co-Chair of the Family Council, developing age-appropriate ways to engage children and foster volunteerism at a young age.
Melinda is a native New Yorker, a proud mom to Charlotte and Oliver, and a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School.

Liliana has a B.A. in Communications and French from Rutgers University, and a MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and her dog, Beau. She is fluent in Portuguese, conversational in Spanish, and welcomes any opportunity to practice her rusty French.

Abe enjoys working with nonprofits that contribute to the greater good of the community. He has been privileged to work with several such nonprofits throughout his career, including the Town Hall Foundation and The Culture Project. Abe has a degree in Accounting and Business Management from Brooklyn College. He looks forward to contributing to Hip Hop Public Health’s continued growth and expansion.
When he’s not working, you can find Abe playing video games, watching sports, or managing his Fantasy Football team. He also enjoys movies and TV shows, and appreciating life one day at a time.

Before joining HHPH, Lori served as Vice President of Healthy Lifestyles at the YMCA of Greater New York, spearheading all aspects of the preventative health and wellness portfolio for the largest YMCA in the United States with a key focus on health innovation, development of youth fitness programming and scaling chronic disease prevention programs to meet the diverse needs of New York City's communities. Lori was the principal architect of the award winning Y-MVP Teen Fitness Challenge – an innovative program blending fun fitness activities with an interactive mobile app designed to recognize, reward and motivate NYC's young people to increase their daily levels of Moderate to Vigorous Physical activity.
Prior to joining the Y in 2011, Lori served as the Executive Director of the Office of School Wellness Programs at New York City’s Department of Education, established under the Bloomberg administration in collaboration with NYC’s Health Department. She implemented policies and designed initiatives to increase the quality and quantity of physical and health education for 1.1 million students in 1,700 public schools. Highlights under Lori’s tenure include the creation of a city-wide sports and fitness league for hundreds of middle schools, introducing classroom-based physical activity curriculum, launching school wellness council grant programs, and spearheading the implementation of NYC FITNESSGRAM, an annual student fitness assessment, which is now one of the country’s largest web-based longitudinal data base on childhood obesity and physical fitness.
Raised in Brooklyn, Lori attended New York City’s public schools and earned a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Communications and Graphic Design, and a M.A. in Physical Education from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, where she is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Exercise Science, Health Studies, Physical Education and Sport. Lori personally embraces physical activity and her love of music into her daily life as a yoga enthusiast, an aspiring DJ and a spinning instructor who still teaches a weekly cycling class at Crunch Fitness in Brooklyn.
Research & Development Team




Sandra received her bachelor's in chemistry from Wagner College in Staten Island. Sandra's undergraduate research focused primarily on global public health issues, particularly contamination and nutrition projects in Bangladesh and Kenya. In addition to her research, she continued tutoring and teaching children in various disciplines in NYC.
After graduating, she worked in CUNY Start, a program that prepares underserved NYC youth to become college-proficient in writing and math. She then continued her community work at Rutgers University in an environmental injustice research project. Now, in order to pursue her passion for empowering NYC youth, she proudly joins the HHPH team as a research assistant.
In her free time Sandra enjoys traveling, listening to live music, reading poetry, doing Sudoku puzzles, and of course, educating NYC’s youth.


Madeleine works on the Old SCHOOL and TASHE research projects at CUMC as well as administers the educational programs for HHPH including the Hip Hop Youth Physical Education (HYPE) and supporting HYPE The Breaks Program. Previously, she worked with the Taub Center interviewing people with dementia and their caregivers with the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. In all her work, Madeleine has focused recruitment of Latino participants and educating economically disadvantaged minorities on public health principles.
Madeleine assists with HHPH by overseeing the daily operations of the non-profit including reviewing budgets, managing costs, overseeing inventory, and social media. Madeleine is a published author in the Journal of Neurology. In her spare time, she enjoys running outdoors and has completed the NYC Triathlon twice. As a native of Queens, NY, Madeleine enjoys giving back to her community through volunteering and exploring the NYC music and food scenes.

Ewelina’s research interests involve a hybrid of psychology, public health, music, social justice, and innovation. She is passionate about the role of multidisciplinary fields, media, arts and music in effective health education and behavior change. Together with Dr. Olajide Williams, she has developed the Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model – a theoretical framework focused on innovative, culturally sensitive, and evidence-based health education. Ewelina is a recipient of several awards, including Fulbright Scholarship and International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the Australian Government. She also received the Innovative Leader in Magazine Media Award from Yale University for her work on Lifelab – a project that aims at bringing the science of psychology from academia to our daily lives.
Whether it is through her research, previous clinical work, or personal interests, Ewelina enjoys exploring new ideas and connections between them. She often immerses herself in the cultural landscape of NYC – jazz, ballet, museums, and random science lectures. And this exploration informs her work, too.
Join the Collective
Join our diverse community of educators, entertainers and health professionals empowering youth with the transformative power of hip-hop. Get special access to free resources, videos, music, and other perks through our ambassador program!
“I get to interact with the next generation. I get the opportunity to share information that can help change their lives.”
Easy ADDirector of Hip Hop Educational Programming
“Do you know what are GO, SLOW and WHOA foods? My students know! Thank you Hip Hop Public Health for teaching healthy eating and living in such a fun way!”
Eileen TiradoAdaptive Physical Education Teacher, West Palm Beach, Florida
“The Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. program exceeding all of our expectations. I think you have tapped into a way to connect with our students and will make a positive impact in their eating choices. ”
Nicholas StavolaPhysical Education Teacher, NYC
“The National Fitness Foundation believes in the power of music to motivate students to be fit for life. That's why we are so proud of our partnership with Hip Hop Public Health.”
Chris WattsExecutive Director, National Foundation on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.
Chuck D
Darryl DMC McDaniels
John Allegrante, PhD
Dana Austin
Alexandra DeSorbo Quinn
Tony Drootin
Pete Colon
Our Advisory Board
Jonathan Fassberg
Mindy Feldman Hecht
Kelly Fogel
Valentina Nicolette
Ian Ellis James
Raymond Javdan, Esq.
Ana Cepin, M.D.
Monique Hedmann-Maxey, MD MPH
Dr. Olugbenga Ogedegbe
James “Jimmy” Maynes
Terry Nelson
Maibe Ponet
Rob Shepardson
Scott Silverstein
Student Advisory Board
A group of dedicated, insightful and thoughtful 4th and 5th graders from:
Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School in Manhattan, NYC
and
PS 16 in Brooklyn, NYC