Maryland Grier-Union brings more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, focusing on improving health and health care. She has directed and managed: program development and management, community engagement, community-based participatory research, public policy, and marketing communications. Before joining CCPH, Grier-Union served as the senior community engagement and communications officer for two health philanthropy organizations raising community voices to advance health equity. She also held several positions at a community-based research institute, including project director of a federally funded community outreach HIV/AIDS prevention research project, evaluation coordinator for an AIDS prevention education project, and associate director of communications. The Fulbright Fellow researched cultural studies at the University of Ghana, West Africa while also directing an NEA-funded statewide community development training program. The Hartford Business Journal recognized Grier-Union for “Giving Voice to Health Disparities.” She received a bachelor’s degree in Marketing/Business Administration from the University of Maryland and completed graduate-level coursework at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and Emerson College in Boston.  

Melvin Jackson has over 35 years of experience in community engagement, public health research and program coordination. Beyond his work on Clinical Scholars, he is the Public Health Advocacy Coordinator/Local Improvement Advisor with the Alexander YMCA SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation) Program.

In this role, he leads the Southeast Raleigh (SER) Pacesetters Collaborative. The Collaborative is a part of the transformative redevelopment initiative called the Southeast Raleigh Promise, a community that will become a vibrant and vital link to elementary education, affordable housing, health and wellness, economic opportunity and leadership development in Southeast Raleigh. He served as Program Director at Strengthening The Black Family (STBF), Inc., a community-based organization with a 33-year history of serving the targeting Southeast Raleigh. Melvin has served as a community partner on many research projects in collaboration with the UNC-CH. More recently, he has served as Co-PI on a CBPR study piloting an HIV prevention intervention for African American youth in faith-based settings and, PI on a similar project implementing an evidence-based intervention in public housing communities and youth-serving organizations in Southeast Raleigh.

Al Richmond, MSW, Executive Director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), is a global thought leader advocating for the increased role of communities in research and public health. In his role as Executive Director of CCPH, Al is advancing the organization’s commitment to social justice and health equity. His interest in research ethics and its influence on community engagement was broaden through a 2016 fellowship at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland. The Residency program resulted in the creation of guidelines for the conduct of community engaged research (CEnR). In August 2017, he launched the inaugural session, Structural Inequality: An On the Ground View. This was a highly experiential session. It provided a look through the lens of equity to develop and expand the understanding of structural and historic factors contributing to racism in America.

Al serves as principal investigator of Patient Engagement: Enhancing Culturally Responsive Research funded by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and as Co-Principal Investigator of Ensuring Ethical Community-Engaged Research: Elevating the Role and Impact of Community-Based IRBs and Research Review Committees funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. In addition, Al provides leadership to multiple academic research projects. Al’s leadership interest seeks to deepen CCPH’s focus in emerging issues impacting our nation including: education, immigration, diversity and culture.

As a founding member and past chair of the Community Based Public Health Caucus and the National Community Based Organization Network, he helped to foster effective partnerships focused on community-identified health concerns and partnerships that integrated local leaders in the decision-making process.

Al completed the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, a 2-year leadership program for North Carolina residents in 2016. This experience has expanded his commitment to provide leadership to improve race, class and gender relationships in North Carolina and beyond. For the past decade he has served as field instructor and supervisor to over 20 students.  Many are currently early public health practitioners and scholars.

He holds a Master of Social Work from The Ohio State University. Al is a certified facilitator for the Poverty Simulation, Intercultural Developmental Inventory and ToP Facilitation Methods.

Fatima Z. Guerrab, MPH, CHES®, based in Durham, NC, is a solutions-oriented researcher, practitioner, and consultant. She has experience assisting organizations across the globe foster innovative methods to influence policies across systems to maximize health outcomes for all utilizing a racial equity lens and a community-based participatory research approach.

With a BS in Public Health Education from North Carolina Central University and an MPH in Health Behavior from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fatima holds a wealth of experience in program planning and evaluation, partnership building, and training and facilitation.