Our Team

Abriel Johnny is Cowichan (father’s side) and Tlingit (mother’s side). She was born and raised in King County. She is the Board of Directors Chair for United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. She has a Nonprofit Management Professional Development Certificate and a Bachelors of Arts in Law and Policy, both from University of Washington and a Master’s in Political Management from George Washington University. She is a cultural knowledge holder, a teacher, an artist, an athlete, an advocate, political strategist, a healthcare systematic oppression disruptor, and Decolonizer/Indigenizer. In 2020, she was named one of the Gates Foundations 100 local Changemakers Awardees. In 2021, she was awarded the Adaline Garcia Community Service Award as a Future Leader honoree. She was also a key contributor to the development of the “Wrestling with the Truth of Colonization” training curriculum and is a certified trainer of the curriculum. She currently works for HealthierHere as a Community and Tribal Engagement Manager with a primary focus on Tribal health. Her work focuses on equity within Healthcare policy and implementation for all communities with a special focus on Urban Indian and Tribal Nation’s health. In her personal life, she is an artist of multiple mediums including beadwork and clothing design. Her designs focus on blending and honoring historical cultural traditions with modern fashions.

Alexis Desrosiers has been with HealthierHere since 2018 and has over 10 years of experience managing data-focused initiatives with nonprofit and public organizations in a variety of sectors, including housing, community-based counseling and advocacy, public health, and emergency and supportive shelter programs. Alexis’ area of focus is building systems and capacities that enable organizations to effectively utilize and leverage data as a tool to support their work and their community - including strategies such as developing and implementing creative data collection and analytic strategies, identifying relevant and meaningful measures and ways to track those measures, and inclusive cross-sector data partnerships.  Outside of her work with HealthierHere, Alexis is lucky enough to have a wife and two young children to keep her very busy.

Bethlehem completed her Bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the UW. She has worked in community health helping community members enroll in Medicaid and Qualified Health Plans and navigate healthcare access while at HealthPoint through the AmeriCorps program. She has also served as a mental health case manager at DESC. Most recently, she comes to HealthierHere following the completion of an MPA in Health Policy and Management at NYU, as well experience in working in healthcare operations at the Weill Cornell Medicine at New York Presbyterian where she applied her education, project management skills, and interests in continuous improvement. She brings a wealth of lived experience and expertise to HealthierHere and is committed to equity, social justice, and addressing health disparities.

Catherine Seneviratne comes to HeathierHere with extensive experience in operations, administration, and community-based improvement networks. Catherine most recently worked at a talent development and executive search firm, where she led a portfolio focused on political organizing and movement building, health equity, and community-serving organizations in Washington and across the country. The majority of Catherine’s career was in global health supporting program growth and operations. She was part of the Malaria Control Program at PATH where she oversaw field operations, shared learning, and staffing, and supported the pilot of a health information systems in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Catherine is a lifelong South Seattle resident where she lives with her husband and 5-year-old son.

Cherie was born in sunny San Diego, CA and currently resides in the beautiful Pacific NW. One of her greatest passions includes serving the community. Her father was a youth leader for various low-income communities in southern Cali, and alongside him, she volunteered on a daily basis to serve those in need. Cherie is happy to say that she still carries on that tradition by always lending a helping hand to those in need. Her professional background includes over 10 years of accounting, administration and community service experience. She is currently a p/t student at Seattle Central Community College focusing on her Accounting degree, but her real passion is Social work, as compassion is one of her greatest strengths. Cherie's long-term goal is to explore that side of her talent by benefiting the community, to work with people from all walks of life.

Christine’s background includes financial reporting, audit, and individual and corporate taxation. Christine’s focus includes internal and external financial reporting, the coordination of contract and grant requirements, as well as contract analysis.

Graeme (he/him) brings a passion for harnessing storytelling as a tool for social justice, equity, and holistic community wellbeing to the HealthierHere team. He has spearheaded social impact communications strategy and multimedia campaigns for organizations and documentaries around the world. A working documentary filmmaker and photographer, his projects examine issues of health, social movements, education, and justice and have shown at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Afropunk Festival Johannesburg, New York African Film Festival, Durango Independent Film Festival, and more. A born and raised Seattleite, Graeme loves exploring the cultural and natural wonders of the PNW.

Hannah brings a diverse background of clinical patient care and is excited to embrace combining public health and clinical healthcare to HealthierHere. She loves spending quality time with her family and is always searching for a way they can all be active together enjoying the outdoors or playing a sport of some kind. Her two dogs keep the whole family busy and outdoors rain or shine!  A family favorite for everyone is traveling up to Lopez Island and enjoying the Island life when they have an available weekend, prioritizing beach walks and watching the sunsets.

Heeju joins HealthierHere with skills in data analysis and process redesign to make internal business processes easier while lifting health and equity in local communities. Her career experience includes creating reports with SQL and Python, analyzing Medicaid claims and eligibility, and customizing ERP and EHR systems. She studied Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (“MMSS”) at Northwestern University and enjoys learning human and programming languages. She tends an epic garden and the happiest chickens on Earth.

Jaspreet Malhotra (she/her) has years of experience supporting large networks of community partners and ensuring that community partner voice is included in the development of technologies and strategies to provide client-centered services. Before joining HealthierHere, Jaspreet worked with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. There she facilitated partnerships with community organizations across the state, provided the community partner perspective, and applied innovative strategies to strengthen service coordination. She also has experience with the outreach and enrollment program for Michigan health centers. By utilizing change management, process improvements, systems building and community linkages, she helped pioneer the expansion of outreach and enrollment to enabling services for Michigan health centers. Jaspreet is dedicated to improving health outcomes by addressing the social determinants of health and working across sectors.

Laila’s most recent experience as a Procurement and Sourcing Analyst brings her to HealthierHere. Her experience has been mainly in project management and contract management for different industries for more than a decade, including for Boeing, Microsoft, and Puget Sound Energy. She will be handling procurement analysis, execution, and monitoring of contract lifecycles. She lives in Seattle with her husband and toddler baby boy.

Lisa Watanabe joined the team from PATH, a global health non-profit, where she managed strategic planning and organizational change across public health and product development programs. Prior to PATH, she worked as a technology product manager of electronic health records systems, software as a service and mobile applications. As a northwest native, she looks forward to strengthening system-wide coordination and collaboration to address some of the troubling challenges in our region. Outside of work, she enjoys music, art, lectures, reading, and the mountains.

Madelyn, BSN, RN, brings a background in clinical and public health nursing to her position at Healthier Here. She has previously worked as a Population Health Nurse providing team-based care to people living with diabetes, experiencing firsthand the importance of preventative healthcare and community-based care coordination. Most recently, she worked as a Public Health Nurse in Snohomish County focusing on reducing health disparities in the maternal child health population. She is passionate about cross-sector collaboration and health systems transformation that emphasizes the social, environmental, and political factors that impact health and wellbeing. Outside of the virtual office, you can find Madelyn cozied up with a good book, baking, knitting, or enjoying a walk outdoors.

Maria comes to HealthierHere with years of specializing in working with diverse and multi-system organizations. Most recently, Maria was working at Sea Mar Community Health Center as a Behavioral Health Coordinator where she worked administratively to deliver high quality, integrated care for BIPOC and underserved communities. Prior to that, Maria spent years providing linguistic and educational support to LatinX agricultural workers, empowering them to navigate L&I claims, and pursue H2A agricultural visa programs. Maria brings incredible expertise and passion for centering equity, transforming systems, and improving health literacy across the region.

Marya Gingrey is a committed Civil Rights and Social Justice Practitioner offering 25 years of successful social justice, equity and human rights experience. She previously served as the Executive Director for the Regional Equity Network. As a transformational leader skilled in vision sharing, consensus building, relational networking and authentic community engagement, Marya has assisted a variety of organizations in their efforts to become more equitable, diverse and inclusive in their programs and service delivery. She has worked to advance Social Justice, Equity and Civil Rights in health, education, housing, employment, transportation and the criminal justice systems. Firmly rooted in the Puget Sound Region, Marya believes in the collective power of community, organizations and institutions working together to create communities where all people can thrive.

Michael McKee has more than 25 years’ experience practicing community and public health education, administration and research in nonprofit, academic and government agencies, serving many diverse communities. Before joining HealthierHere, he was Director of Health Services and Community Partnerships at International Community Health Services. He is passionate about serving those who are often marginalized without a voice at the table and enjoys starting new programs. Areas of interest and experience include: health equity and health disparities for refugee and immigrant populations; community health workers; outreach and enrollment – including health system navigation; culturally and linguistically tailored health education; enabling services; population health and chronic disease self-management.

Monica is the Executive Assistant to HealthierHere’s Interim CEO. She has lived all over the place due to her previous work in the military. Monica holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from ASU and a Masters in International Studies from UW. She hopes to bring over 10 years of experience in the government, civilian, and non-profit sectors to HealthierHere as we all seek to make an impact in our community. In her spare time, she loves to explore local shops and take road trips with my family and to explore all that the PNW has to offer.

Rogelio is an enthusiast in automating and streamlining processes by helping bridge stakeholder needs with technical deliverables. Transitioning from Molina Healthcare of Washington, Rogelio has gained extensive experience with HEDIS measures, tracking, partner/stakeholder support, and streamlining workflows. Prior to Molina, also served as a Health Care Advocate and PCMH Project Coordinator at Sea Mar Community Health Centers where he engaged directly with community members, providers, and payors. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and gardening.

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Tavish Donahue, MPH, MA has close to a decade of experience managing projects and improving processes for healthcare and non-profit organizations. Tavish came to HealthierHere after working in Long-term care and community health, ultimately coming to HealthierHere’s attention while working with Seattle-based affordable and public housing organizations to build a model of embedding Community Health Workers in low-income housing communities with residents from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Early on in her career Tavish was a music writer for an alternative weekly paper in her hometown of Charleston, SC and then spent the early 2000s working in the media/communications world of New York City. She loves the PNW lifestyle and outside of work she can be found frequenting local dog parks, seeing live music, and hiking in the mountains.

Thuy Hua-Ly’s expertise includes extensive state government financial background on Medicaid financing mechanisms, rate setting for Medicaid providers, and working with the state legislature. Her prior position as the Chief Financial Officer for the Washington State Health Care Authority prepared her for the unique financing structure of the Medicaid Transformation Project. Thuy’s focus is to provide excellent financial support, processes and strategies to ultimately support and make a difference in the lives of the clients we serve.

Tony graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with double majors in Marketing and Finance. Before joining HealthierHere, he worked for True Blue Partners, a boutique merchant bank in San Jose as an investment banking analyst during the Summer and serve as an investment analyst for the CPP Bronco Asset Management to help manage the multi-strategy asset portfolios over the years. He’s currently residing in Los Angeles with my family suffering the sweltering summer and will relocate to the PNW. He enjoys playing basketball, hangout with friends, and learn how to paint in his free time.

Zamzam Adem was born in East Africa, Somalia and raised in South Seattle. She has nearly two decades of direct social service experience with many local grassroot non-profits. From an early age she began working with diverse clientele, particularly undeserved, underprivileged youth and families who have barriers to accessing social, educational, and economic resources due to language barriers or harmful systemic disparities. Her hope, in whatever role she is in, is to create a step, path, or bridge to a brighter, healthier, and safer future.

Growing up as a Black, Muslim, Somali American, in a first generation, limited English-speaking household, she naturally developed as an advocate and liaison for the underrepresented, including herself and family. As she tried to navigate the systems that were meant to support individuals, she witnessed those very systems to be oppressive and detrimental to many and believes we need to work together to dismantle these harmful and oppressive institutions.  

In her free time, she loves to travel, spend time with family, and works on her families DNA Peace Project which aims to showcase the closeness and similarities between Somali artisans and Somalis as a whole, aiming to dismantle ostracization and clan wars in East Africa which has ravished the region and its people. She hopes to expand this project to highlight the connection of humanity to promote peace across the globe.

Zamzam holds an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics and a Minor in Non-Profit Management from University of Washington.

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