The YTH Live Global 2021 Program Committee is made up of a diverse group of technology experts, health professionals, and youth leaders who help design a cutting-edge conference. Learn more about each of these fascinating committee members:
Gabriel Arteaga
As the CoFounder of Create&, Gabriel Arteaga trains local government agencies, community-based organizations, entrepreneurs, and social impact ventures on various innovation frameworks like Design Sprints, Lean Startup, and Community Experience Design (CxD). He is a bilingual facilitator of Design Sprint and Design Thinking workshops, and created virtual and physical environments that are immersive and interactive to foster creative conversations that develop new products, services, offerings, and strategic plans. His signature framework, CxD, was developed to incorporate the needs of diverse ecosystems, using human-centered design and community organizing tactics to align stakeholders quickly, produce sustainable growth, and deliver meaningful value.
Laura Baines
Laura has been at Girl Effect for over five years, working across their portfolio of projects specialising in digital content and brands. Recently, she’s been leading their global digital programme, Springster, which delivers vital information to girls in the online spaces they’re using and via content they’ll love. Prior to Girl Effect, Laura worked for the BBC in the World Service helping to expand their network of programming for women and young people and before that she worked in advocacy, encouraging students to engage in politics.
Mia Barrett, Med
Mia Barrett (she/her) has a decade of experience in sexual health education. She worked in a range of settings including teaching in public urban schools, providing HIV testing, and offering emotional support to those choosing to terminate a pregnancy, and editing and updating evidence-based curricula. She has provided training, education, and evaluation assistance in sexual health including teen pregnancy and HIV prevention. She has coordinated randomized controlled trials including school-based, community-based, and mhealth/elearning interventions. She has trained other sexuality educators both in-person, virtually and through elearning. Her passion is developing tech-based tools and interventions to further sexual health and wellness for all. Mia currently works at dfusion Inc where she develops mhealth and e-learning training and education tools. Mia Barrett earned her Master of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University.
Leila Dubón
Leila Dubón is a sophomore at Bishop O’Dowd high school in Oakland and is passionate about youth wellness and social justice. Her interest in these topics was reinforced by two major events of 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matters protests. The biophysiological, environmental and social factors of the pandemic challenged youth to adapt to a new lifestyle and Leila is interested in identifying how science and technology can help people move forward and improve mental health. The Black Lives Matters protests reinforced Leila’s commitment to using an equity and justice lens as she explores her interests in youth health and wellness. Leila believes that if improving youth health and wellness is the puzzle, technology is a tool that helps us organize and visualize the pieces to construct and understand the entire picture. Leila is thrilled to serve on the YTH Live Global Program Committee and hopes to contribute to the future of using technology to dismantle health inequities and improve youth mental health.
Richard Dzikunu
Richard Dzikunu is a United Nations award-winning youth activist with a track record for influencing adolescent health policy and proven strategic communications, grassroots mobilization, and advocacy skills. In 2018, he received the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Campaign Award, the first of its kind, from the United Nations at the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn, Germany. Richard has a unique combination of advocacy work experience at the community, national and international level for reproductive health and rights, primary health care, and youth-led engagement. His professional portfolio includes working as a Programs Officer for Curious Minds in Ghana and an Advocacy Associate, Primary Health Care Initiative with PAI in Washington DC. In his position at PAI, Richard supported all aspects of the development and implementation of advocacy and communications strategies to strengthen primary health care systems in seven African Union countries. He also facilitated PAI’s role as the co-convener for the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Financing Advocacy Collaborative, which brings together multi-stakeholder representatives who support the country and global level health financing priorities relating to UHC. He currently serves as a facilitator for the Young Experts: Tech 4 Health. Follow him on Twitter.
Dr. Michael Everett, EdD
Dr. Michael Terry Everett is a proud father and Senior Research Scientist at ETR. A Philadelphia native and graduate of Penn State, Lincoln University and Fielding Graduate Everett has worked 20+ years in Public Health direct service, management, and capacity-building roles. As an expert in providing technical assistance and an advocate for organizational development with a Black health equity lens Dr. Everett has extensive experience working with various communities within the public health workforce. Michael is passionate about innovation and transformation and supporting others on the journey in-between.
Evelyn Everheart
My name is Evelyn Everheart, my pronouns are they / them / theirs, and my work is focused on art, design, and software development. Since childhood, I’ve loved playing video games, and I’ve played games from every genre from action games to puzzle games to narrative games. However, something that always saddened me was that I’ve never seen myself on the screen, that even in the world of fantasy I’m not considered real. So today, I produce art where people of color and people who are LGBTQ+ are the forefront. Currently, I’m creating a comic called “A Tru Day”, a comic showcasing a slice of the lives of three transgender characters, through TruEvolution. I’m also developing a video game called “Bluffworld” about a trans-woman discovering her true self, becoming champion of a nation-wide monster-battling tournament, and saving the world. I’m hoping not only to show the world that we’re real and human and happy to be ourselves, but also to show people of color and people who are LGBTQ+ that we can be heroes, too!
Sarah Fleming
Sarah Fleming is a Senior at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. As a student at Cal, she affects policy and programmatic change as the UC Berkeley student advisor to the UC Office of the President and as the Vice President of Risk Management of Cal Panhellenic. Sarah has more than five years of experience working at the intersection of technology and adolescent health at organizations including Brady, Essential Access Health, and Healthy Teen Network. She has also worked as a crisis counselor addressing sexual violence and mental health since 2019 at Bay Area Women Against Rape and Crisis Text Line. Sarah is passionate about leveraging technology to address adolescent mental and sexual health. Most recently, she co-founded The List, an app launching in Fall 2021 designed to integrate alcohol, consent, and bystander intervention with event management software to create safer college social environments.
Melissa Liu
Melissa Liu, a Junior at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, is passionate about human wellness and pursues related activities with dedication and care. She is on the teen staff of the Sex,Etc. magazine and blog sponsored by Answers, providing accurate information about sexual health and addressing relevant topics such as LGBTQ advocacy, STDs, body image, and more. Last year, Melissa helped found an international mental health app called Magnify Wellness, a social initiative to ensure equal mental health resources for youth. Melissa has researched cognitive behavioral therapy for the app’s chatbot and publishes weekly articles for subscribers; the organization is currently working with Stanford Medicine to verify the effectiveness of applications and terms coded into the app. As a mental health advocate, Melissa also believes that music can uplift lives. Melissa is a committed cellist and founded a nonprofit in her sophomore year, Pitch Out Program, to spread the beautiful gift of music to homeless shelters and other communities. Working with Google and other small businesses, she hopes that she can continue to positively influence lives. Her organization focuses on fundraising, teaching, and performing. Melissa is honored to serve on the YTH Live Global Program Committee and hopes to raise more awareness towards the potential of using technology to combat issues in health.
Justin Lofton
Justin Lofton advocates for adolescent sexual reproductive health, public policy equity, and LGBTQ justice and rights in public education. He is the Program Manager for the Youth Engagement Network, a 3-year OPA funded initiative at ETR that aims to strengthen youth engagement in sexual reproductive health programs, systems, and services. He is also the Executive Director for the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, a grassroots nonprofit that works to create safe and inclusive learning environments for LGBTQ students by building the capacity of young people to lead, championing equitable and inclusive education policy, and developing the skills and abilities of Mississippi education practitioners to support LGBTQ students through professional development opportunities. Prior to this, Justin served as the Director of Youth Engagement and Teen Health Policy at Teen Health Mississippi, where he partnered with Mississippi teens and lawmakers to craft comprehensive sex education legislation in a state where abstinence-based sex education is the standard. He also coordinated six statewide youth programs and helped enhance the sexual and reproductive health advocacy skills of more than 150 youth partners annually. Justin believes that radical systems change in sexual reproductive health and education policy begins and ends with young people not just at the center our work, but as active participants and partners in our work.
Danielle Mullings
Danielle Mullings is a multidimensional Software Engineering student with interests including technology, leadership and the arts. She currently serves as the Caribbean & Americas representative on the Young Experts Tech 4 Health youth council and is the President Elect of the Guild of Students at the University of the West Indies Mona, where she is also a UWI Open Scholar. Said to be ‘one of the field’s brightest young minds’, Danielle believes strongly in the power of tech and innovation in edifying society and would ultimately like to work in areas with civic applications of technology. She aspires to become a world leader in technological representation for the Caribbean and Latin America, focusing on enhancing the Caribbean’s pursuit of the SDGs.
Danielle is also passionate about documentary making which she sees as the gateway to cultural retention and the edification of a regional identity. She aims to advance the Caribbean’s capacity to accurately represent its own stories. Lastly, she has a natural affinity for leadership and youth empowerment and thus serves on youth councils, both locally and internationally, representing the voice of young people in technology, education, national issues and tech for health.
Alda Santana
Alda Santana (she/her) is a trainer and project coordinator for ETR where she partners with government grantees across the state of California providing training and technical assistance to support adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs. She has over 13 years of experience in program design, implementation, and management with a focus on equity and social justice to improve the overall health of communities. Alda has worked with public, private, and government entities to deliver programs that leverage community and organizational assets. Alda co-founded an adolescent health collaborative and launched a peer education program to support youth through an anti-racist framework in order to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Alda continues to implement these concepts, framework, and goals in her work. Alda holds a Master of Science in Social Work with a concentration on Administrative and Policy Practice, a Portfolio on Non-Profit Management from the University of Texas at Austin. Alda enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with loved ones whenever she gets a chance.
Gillian Silver
Gillian Silver, MPH, CHES, is a project coordinator at ETR who works to develop organizational strategies to improve the reach and scope of ETR’s research in multiple areas of health equity and education. Gillian holds an MPH in Community Health Sciences from UCLA with a specialization in Health Education/Health Promotion. As a student, Gillian supported the creation of a gender-affirming sexual health program for trans and nonbinary youth at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Center for Transyouth Health and Development and helped create organizational change driven by staff members of trans experience. Gillian earned their MPH after several years of work in the fields of sexual health education and intimate partner violence prevention and intervention. They are dedicated to supporting individuals achieve the sexual health and relationship outcomes that they desire, and to uplifting LGBTQIA communities and all people with marginalized identities. Gillian is thrilled to support the Program Committee at YTH Live Global this year and to see the innovative changes that presenters and panelists are making at the intersections of youth, technology, and health!
Natasha Sunderji
Natasha Sunderji is the Global Health Lead for Accenture Development Partnerships – an innovative business unit at Accenture that works to address the world’s social, economic and environmental issues.
Natasha has 15+ years of experience advising multinational companies, private foundations, NGOs, and multilateral agencies on growth strategy, business model design, digital health, and cross sector partnerships. She has worked with leading nonprofits to design patient centric solutions, supported health impact investors to strengthen their portfolios, and advised policy makers on the regulations and investments needed to develop robust digital health ecosystems. She has written multiple articles and reports on the future of healthcare and the challenges in scaling leading solutions in collaboration with Devex, the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, IFC, and others. She was named one of the Top 50 Innovators in 2020 by the World Summit AI community.
Natasha earned a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from University of Toronto, and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.
