Our Staff

Executive Team

Rebecca Onie

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

In 1996, during her sophomore year at Harvard College, Rebecca Onie founded Project HEALTH with Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Chair of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. As Executive Director of Project HEALTH, Rebecca oversaw the organization's growth to Providence and New York City. After attending Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and research assistant for Professors Laurence Tribe and Lani Guinier, Rebecca clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She was also an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland P.C., a boutique law firm in Chicago, where she represented civil rights plaintiffs, health centers, affordable housing developers, and nonprofits. During this time, Rebecca served as founding Co-Chair of Project HEALTH's Board of Directors.

Rebecca returned to Project HEALTH as CEO in February 2006. In 2009, she was honored to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, for "individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." She was also a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award honoring Americans under the age of 40 who are changing their communities and the country with their commitment to public service. She is a U.S. Ashoka Fellow, which recognizes leading social entrepreneurs across the globe who have innovative solutions and the potential to change patterns across society, and received the Jane Rainie Opel '50 Young Alumna Award in 2008 for outstanding contribution to the advancement of women. In 1999, Rebecca received the Do Something Brick Award for Community Leadership, for dynamic young people under the age of thirty with the passion and drive to improve their communities.

Brian Driscoll

Vice President of Advancement

Brian comes to Project HEALTH from Cleveland's Urban Community School, where he has served as Director of Advancement and worked extensively on public-private partnerships within the city. His work at Urban led him to become involved in issues around health, nutrition, and wellness for the families of the near west side of Cleveland. He has worked to bring locally grown produce to the school; been a part of the Mayor's Sustainability Steering Committee; and served on the board of Neighborhood Family Practice, a local health center, in his efforts to address issues around securing a medical home for the families at his school. Before venturing to Cleveland, Brian was Vice President of Development and Alumnae Relations at Regis College and Vice President for Resource Development at Babson College in Massachusetts. He spent the early days of his career at the secondary school level, serving as Campaign Director and Director of Major Gifts at Thacher School in Ojai, California and Director of Special Gifts at Northfield Mount Hermon. Brian has a B.A. in English from Columbia University.

Nell Perlmutter

Vice President of Field Operations and Partnerships

Nell's professional experience and interests include program development and management, leadership development, strategic planning and advising for growing organizations, and the development of successful public-private partnerships. Most recently, Nell has served as the Director of Engagement for the Harvard Initiative for Global Health. In this role, Nell worked closely with the Faculty Director, members of the President and Provost's office, and leaders in global health from around the world to build and maintain strategic internal and external partnerships and programs to support the mission of this multi-disciplinary initiative. Prior to this experience, Nell worked for Citizen Schools, a non-profit which operates a national network of apprenticeship programs for middle school students, connecting adult volunteers to young people in hands-on learning projects after school. There she served both as an interim Director of Civic Engagement as well as a Campus Director at the Grover Cleveland Middle School in Dorchester, MA. Nell has a Masters of Education in Administration, Training and Policy Studies from Boston University and BA in Modern Language and Literature from Ohio University. Out of the office, she is an avid photographer and a fledgling triathlete.

Alexandra Quinn

Vice President of Strategy and Operations

Alexandra was first captured by the idea of service on a national level at the White House where, in her year internship, she served as the Assistant to the Deputy Cabinet Secretary. Later she went on to work at the US Justice Department, first as a Staff Assistant to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and subsequently as the Director of Scheduling and Briefing for the Attorney General. Combining her interest in large-scale system change with advocacy and individual action, in 2001, she joined College Summit, a national non-profit that works in partnership with schools, school districts and colleges to develop a sustainable model for raising college enrollment rates community-wide. As Vice President of Program, Alexandra over-saw College Summit's programmatic scaling from serving 1,000 students to 14,000. In this capacity, she developed and refined overall program growth strategy and managed national and regional staff to ensure successful and consistent creation, delivery, and implementation of College Summit's program. She also drove the introduction and development of College Summit's professional training for educators and Peer Leader-students, as well as the evolution of in-school management tools for Principals and Superintendents and in-school site support. Alexandra holds a BA from Smith College and recently completed 10 years of service to Smith, first as Alumnae Class Treasurer and then as Alumnae Class President.

National

Erika Dowd

Director of Investor Relations

Erika Dowd comes to Project HEALTH with substantial experience working with nonprofit organizations providing services to low-income children and families. Her prior experience includes serving as a Development Associate at Foothill Family Service, a Los Angeles-based family service agency, raising funds for child abuse, teen pregnancy and domestic violence prevention and treatment. She has also worked with several Boston-area nonprofits and foundations on evaluating opportunities for cross-organization collaboration and planning the expansion of a program using college students to help build early language, literacy and social skills in local preschool children. Most recently, she was a Presidential Management Fellow in Harvard University's central Budget Office, where she synthesized budgetary information for the Harvard Corporation and evaluated long-term financial plans in light of strategic priorities. Erika holds a Master's in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with a focus on nonprofit management, and a B.A. in English and French from Grinnell College.

Tom Hamel

Director of Finance and Administration

Tom joins Project HEALTH with over 10 years of experience building finance and administration operations to support growing programs. Before coming to Project HEALTH, he worked for 7 years at Generations Incorporated, host to Boston's Experience Corps program, and was responsible for the organization's finance, administration, HR, and technology functions. As the number of volunteers increased seven-fold, Tom's job grew from Accountant to Director of Operations. He has also worked as Director of Operations for Outdoor Explorations in Medford, MA and at the Blackfeet Youth Initiative in Browning, Montana in similar roles. Tom earned a B.S. in Accountancy and a minor in Sociology from Villanova University, and was chosen as the 2004 AmeriCorps Alums Spirit of Service Award Winner.

Asha Strazzero-Wild

National Director of Programs

Asha joins Project HEALTH with a wealth of knowledge about how to build, manage and support high-quality programs. Before coming to Project HEALTH, she worked at Citizen Schools, where she served in a variety of critical functions related to program management and training. At Citizen Schools, she served as a Teaching Fellow and Campus Director in Framingham, MA. Asha then went on to join the national office as the Curriculum, Instruction, and Training Manager. She later served as a Program Director in Massachusetts, North Carolina and New York City where she supported Campus Directors to lead quality programming at their sites, led national and regional trainings, and designed national program support systems. She now brings this extensive experience to bear as the National Director of Programs for Project HEALTH. Asha earned a B.A from Mount Holyoke College and M.Ed from Lesley University.

Sonia Sarkar

Chief of Staff to the CEO

Sonia graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Public Health and International Studies. She joins the national office from the Baltimore site, where she served as a Program Manager. Prior to joining the Project HEALTH staff team, she served as a volunteer, program coordinator, and campus coordinator for the organization's Baltimore site, as well as a student member of Project HEALTH's Board of Directors. While at Hopkins, Sonia co-developed an undergraduate course on Urban Health and Advocacy, advocated at the Annapolis Statehouse for expanded Medicaid legislation, and conducted research to assess the clinical impact of the Family Help Desk model. A Truman Scholar and Member of the 2008 USA Today All-Academic Team, Sonia has worked as a Mayoral Fellow with the Baltimore City Health Department, where she provided case assistance and studied the effects of inadequate housing on health outcomes in urban neighborhoods.

Hannah Nichols

National Administrative Coordinator

Hannah joins Project HEALTH after working as a volunteer at the Family Help Desk at the Providence, RI site. The time she spent at the desk further reinforced her studies of inequality in social superstructure and her desire to change the workings of the US health care system. Hannah graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in sociology and when she is not working, she is often found outside running in the streets of Boston.

Monica Sawhney

Development Associate

Monica first began her work with Project HEALTH as a volunteer and program coordinator for the Boston site. Her involvement with Project HEALTH motivated her to continue studying disparities in health, particularly among women and children. While pursuing a Master's degree in Public Health, Monica began working as the Administrative Coordinator for Project HEALTH Boston, as well as for the Boston Mayor's Office on a Maternal and Child Health fellowship. Monica also completed a practicum with the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, advocating for policy that empowers pregnant and parenting teens. Monica holds a B.A. in History and Psychology from Boston University and an MPH from the Boston University School of Public Health.

Baltimore

Mark Marino

Executive Director - Baltimore

After graduating from Miami University (OH) with a B.A. in Zoology and a Neuroscience minor, Mark worked in the clinical laboratory setting in Minnesota performing enzyme immunoassays for detection HIV type-1 antibodies. He developed an interest in the effect of disease more than the underlying genetics of the disease, leading him to pursue broader public health issues and their effect on underserved populations as a Peace Corps community health volunteer in Burkina Faso. His projects included HIV/AIDS and malaria trainings and outreach activities, nutrition, hygiene, and sexual education sessions with students, vaccination campaigns and pre-natal consultations at the local clinic, an income generating chicken project with women's group, organic sesame project with agriculture group, coordination of national girls empowerment and education camps, and coordination of national HIV/AIDS educational outreach program called Bike-a-thon.

Alexandria Appah

Program Manager - Baltimore

Alexandria joins Project HEALTH with a passion for delivering quality health care to those most in need. She first worked with Project HEALTH on qualitative research to further programmatic understanding and clinical integration at the Harriet Lane Clinic in Baltimore. Prior to joining Project HEALTH she worked with various non-profit organizations in the areas of reproductive health at the Women's Community Clinic in San Francisco, homeless youth in Oakland and has also worked with intravenous drug users in New Delhi, India. She earned her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has recently graduated with her MPH with a concentration in Community Health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. She is a member of Delta Omega, the honorary society for graduate studies in public health.

Kellie Burns

Program Manager - Baltimore

Kellie joins the Project HEALTH Baltimore site with over 7 years of volunteer and work experience in the Baltimore community. Upon graduating from Loyola University Maryland, she interned at the Caroline Center, a reputable community based organization that provides GED tutoring and job training to vulnerable women. She then took on the position of Volunteer Coordinator for the Maryland for Health Care initiative and helped to manage the Ronald McDonald House. Most recently, Kellie served as a Research Program Assistant at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where she conducted HIV testing and counseling, maintained a resource database for client referrals and administered in-depth interviews to at-risk populations for various CDC funded programs. Kellie earned a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Loyola University Maryland and spent a year studying abroad in Newcastle, England.

Nicole Licato

Program Manager - Baltimore

Nicole is a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she served as a volunteer for Project HEALTH. During her freshman year, Nicole helped to found the Project HEALTH Baltimore program as one of the first volunteers to work at the Harriet Lane Clinic. She later became the Program Coordinator for Project HEALTH at the Harriet Lane Clinic, where she helped to further integrate the Family Help Desk with the clinic. In Nicole's third year with Project HEALTH, she held the position of Campus Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University, and was successful in her work to improve campus/program integration and volunteer engagement. As a Program Manager, she looks forward to applying her years of experience as a volunteer to increase the efficacy of the Family Help Desk model in Baltimore.

Boston

Sutton Kiplinger

Executive Director - Boston

Sutton first joined Project HEALTH as an undergraduate in New York, serving as a volunteer and then a Program Coordinator based out of Harlem Hospital Center. She later joined the PH staff as New York Site Director, and in three years in that position, she drove significant growth at the site, including the establishment of new partnerships with Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University, that resulted in a three-fold increase in the numbers of families the site impacted annually. She most recently served in Project HEALTH's national office as the Director of Programs & Volunteer Engagement, a role in which she spearheaded cross-site work on development of the Family Help Desk program model and new systems for selection, training, and support of volunteers. Sutton holds a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia.

Beth Felker

Program Manager - Boston

Beth joins Project HEALTH with a passion for and wealth of experience in health provision and health promotion project management for underserved communities. Prior to Project HEALTH, she worked in a variety of community health and education arenas, including in numerous roles at a private medical clinic, as a Community Awareness and Prevention Coordinator at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, as a volunteer and then as a Volunteer Training Director for Amigos de las Americas, and most recently as a Project Manager of a Ford Foundation funded child obesity collaborative. From these experiences, she brings her deep understanding of the psycho-social determinants of health, and how to incorporate empowerment and leadership development into her work with volunteers and underserved families. Beth earned a B.A. from Southwestern University and a Master's in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University.

Allison Quinn

Program Manager - Boston

Allison comes to Project HEALTH with a passion for and depth of experience in community-based social justice work. After completing a degree in social work at Gordon College, she worked at Wellspring House, a hospitality-based shelter for homeless families in Gloucester, MA. Through her degree program and work at Wellspring House, Allison became steeped in the philosophy and practice of social change and innovation, while also absorbing the stories of local families living in poverty. She went on to live and work with Creation Care Studies, a social and environmental justice study program in New Zealand and Samoa, piloting and managing an ethical food program for the community of university students and staff. Allison brings this strong background in family-focused work, program development and management, and challenging university students toward thoughtful and creative leadership for change to Project HEALTH in her role as a Programs Manager.

Eliza Wilson

Program Manager - Boston

Eliza comes to the Boston staff after nearly four years as a Project HEALTH Chicago volunteer, where most recently she developed a program to enhance Project HEALTH's partnerships with local service providers. In addition to her experience with Project HEALTH throughout college, Eliza brings a background in case management from the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, where she served as an intern, connecting refugees and their families to a range of support services. The experience propelled her to volunteer with Rape Victim Advocates, providing on-call crisis management and advocacy services to survivors of sexual assault, and deepening her commitment to working at the intersection of health and social welfare issues. Eliza also brings mentorship experience from her time as a Program Coordinator for Summer Links, an intensive social justice internship program for 30 undergraduate and graduate students in Chicago. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

Chicago

Vanessa Askot

Executive Director - Chicago

Vanessa has an MSW and an MBA from The University of Chicago. After graduating from college, Vanessa moved to Washington D.C. to work as a case manager at Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc. At WEAVE, Vanessa assisted teen and adult survivors of domestic violence to access community resources. She also recruited and trained pro bono attorneys to handle clients' family law cases. At Catholic Charities in Chicago, Vanessa again provided case management services to kinship care givers. For ShoreBank, a community development bank on Chicago's South Side, Vanessa created a strategic plan for the bank to attract and retain women of color entrepreneurs as clients. Vanessa has B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Sarah Culbertson Nau

Program Manager - Chicago

Sarah joins Project HEALTH with a strong commitment to and passion for community-based social justice. She began her career in the field of social justice as a grant writer for Boston's Inner City Scholarship Fund, which then prompted her to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA, working to eliminate poverty through literacy in a south Seattle elementary school. Upon completing her year of service, Sarah remained in Seattle and began working as a case manager in an emergency homeless shelter for women with children. She returned to her hometown of Chicago in 2007 to pursue her MSW from Loyola University Chicago. During her time at Loyola, Sarah gained both clinical and administrative experience through internships with Mercy Housing Lakefront, a subsidized housing organization, and Chicago Women's Health Center, the nation's longest operating women's health collective. She currently holds her MSW from Loyola University Chicago with a specialization in Leadership and Development in Social Services and a B.A. in English Literature from Colby College.

New York City

Chinwe Onyekere

Executive Director - New York

Chinwe Onyekere joins Project HEALTH with a keen understanding of how to develop and manage programs that have the potential for far-reaching impact on people's health, the quality of care they receive, and the systems that provide that care. Before coming to Project HEALTH, Chinwe served as a Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). During her tenure at RWJF she focused on reducing health care disparities, reversing the childhood obesity epidemic, and identifying innovative ideas for breakthroughs in health and health care. Before RWJF, Chinwe worked as a research coordinator for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell University project, "Cultural Competence in Health Care." In this position, she worked with a team of health care experts to identify models of culturally competent care, determine its key components, and recommend interventions to improve health care quality. She also has research and program expertise in health care disparities, pediatric chronic care issues, social determinants of health and international health. Additionally, Chinwe has worked on projects with the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health, Management Sciences for Health, and Children's Hospital in Boston. She received an M.P.H. from Columbia University, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, and a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, as well as a Certificate in Business Essentials from Wharton School of Business.

Alexandra Greenfield

Program Manager - New York

Ali is passionate about issues of health and poverty, and she joins the New York team after three years with Project HEALTH Boston. She served as a Family Help Desk volunteer and Program Coordinator at Boston Medical Center while earning a Bachelor of Arts degree at Harvard University, with a major in Social & Cognitive Neuroscience and a minor in Health Care Policy. Besides her direct experience in Project HEALTH program administration, volunteer support, and clinical integration, Ali has been a leader in many non-profit organizations. She was Director of The Crimson Crooners, a vocal ensemble that performs weekly in nursing homes and hospitals, and Director of the Harvard Emerging Literacy Project at three Head Start preschools. These experiences have provided her with a strong foundation of skills for the role of Program Manager with Project HEALTH New York.

Providence

Sonia Rodrigues

Executive Director - Providence

Sonia joined Project HEALTH after five years with Rhode Island Kids Count, a children's policy and advocacy organization. She coordinated the Covering Kids & Families project's health insurance outreach and enrollment strategies in Pawtucket, R.I., most recently serving as project director, responsible for statewide coordination. Before that, Sonia worked at the Urban League of Rhode Island, recruiting and training prospective adoptive and foster parents and at Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center in Dorchester, Mass., as a community organizer. Sonia holds BAs in Internal Relations and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University. Born in Portugal and of Cape Verdean descent, Sonia immigrated to the United States in 1991. She currently lives with her two children in Central Falls, R.I.

Samantha Marder

Program Manager - Providence

Samantha continues her work with Project HEALTH as a Program Manager after four years as a volunteer and Program Coordinator. She brings to the team a passion for data driven work and a deep compassion for the families we serve. Previous to joining the Project HEALTH staff team, Samantha worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Rhode Island Department of Health as a Project Specialist with a focus on healthy and affordable housing. While an undergraduate at Brown University, Samantha studied Community Health with an emphasis on community-based participatory strategies to improve sociodemographic determinants of health. During this time, she received recognition for creating and conducting evaluation processes to improve health-related community service groups and service-learning classes. Currently, Samantha is in the process of earning her MPH at Brown.

Washington, DC

LaToya White

Executive Director - Washington, DC

LaToya joins Project HEALTH with a public health background in HIV, community and minority health, social justice, and health disparities. While earning her Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, LaToya focused her work on the sexual health of African American college students, researching the social and environmental factors that contribute to attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors concerning sex. She also chaired UNC's annual Minority Health Conference in 2007, "AIDS at 25: It's Time to Deliver". The conference brought together top researchers, community leaders, and advocates to discuss the effects of HIV/AIDS among minority communities in the United States. Prior to joining Project HEALTH, LaToya worked with Healthy Carolinians, an office of the North Carolina Department of Health that works to reduce health disparities by supporting community partnerships that address issues such as access to good care, chronic illness, and child healthcare. In addition, LaToya served as a National AIDS Fund AmeriCorps member. During her service, she organized community HIV testing and political advocacy efforts for HIV awareness and comprehensive sex education and managed a teen peer educator group focused on HIV prevention.

Kaitlin Sheedy

Program Manager - Washington, DC

Kaitlin comes to Project HEALTH from the American Public Health Association (APHA) where she served as a Policy Associate coordinating advocacy activities and assisting with various capacity-building grant implementation activities. She also worked on the National Public Health Week campaign coordinating events and outreach to community partners across the country, developing educational tools and marketing materials for public health officials, policy makers, the media, and the general public. Kaitlin served as the Project HEALTH DC practicum intern as part of her graduate program, assisting with grant writing, program evaluation, and program development. She earned a B.A. at Tufts University where she studied Community Health and Anthropology and captained the track and field and cross-country teams. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Public Health in Health Promotion at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Kaitlin is a member of the GWU chapter of Delta Omega, the honorary society for graduate studies in public health.