Alex Briscoe, Principal

Alex Briscoe was appointed director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency in 2009 where he led one of the state’s largest public health systems, overseeing health and hospital systems, public health, behavioral health, and environmental health departments with an annual budget of $700 million and 6,200 FTE contracted and civil service staff. Before joining the county, he was the director of the Chappell Hayes Health Center at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, a satellite outpatient center of Children’s Hospital and Research Center. Mr. Briscoe’s work has helped design the nexus of public health and public education. He has designed and administered a number of mental health and physical health programs and services in child serving systems, including home visiting programs, programs for medically fragile children, and clinical and development programs in child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood settings. Mr. Briscoe has served on the Alameda County First Five Commission, The Alameda Alliance, and The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and The Uninsured, as well as a number of other public and private boards and commissions. Mr. Briscoe is a mental health practitioner specializing in adolescent services and youth development. He has advised or collaborated with a number of local and national foundations including The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, and most recently with Tipping Point Community. He has specialized in Medicaid policy and administration, emergency medical services, youth voice and crisis counseling, and safety net design and administration. Email Alex

Rhea W. Boyd, Senior Advisor, Strategy and Equity

Rhea W. Boyd, MD, MPH is a pediatrician and child and community health advocate. She works clinically at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and serves as the Chief Medical Officer of San Diego 211. She teaches students and trainees about the relationship between structural inequality, poverty, racism and health and is active in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), serving on the board of California Chapter 1, and as a member of the AAP’s national Executive Committee on Communications and Media. Over the past 5 years, Dr. Boyd helped organize a group of public health officials, clinicians, community advocates, and funders to evaluate and address the impact of harmful police practices and policies on child and public health. She also worked with a San Francisco-based tech non-profit to increase access to social services across the Bay Area as a means to improving child and community health. Dr. Boyd is the author of the blog Rhea.MD (rheamd.wordpress.com), where she critically engages the intersections of health and justice. Dr. Boyd earned an M.D. at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at University of California, San Francisco, where she participated in the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved Program. In 2017, Dr. Boyd graduated from the Commonwealth Fund Mongan Minority Health Policy Fellowship at Harvard University’s School of Public Health where she received an M.P.H. Email Rhea

Jevon Wilkes, Director of Youth Engagement

For nearly 15 years, Jevon Wilkes has dedicated his career to the non-profit sector, focusing on disconnect, runaway and homeless youth. Jevon’s passion for serving youth comes from his lived experience with homelessness, the foster care system, and being a disconnected youth himself. Positive adult role models and mentors were crucial to Jevon’s many successes and accomplishments that opened the door to his role as Executive Director with the California Coalition for Youth (CCY) in 2018. Before joining CCY, at the age of 16, Jevon used his voice and homeless experience to advocate for youth and secure much-needed funding, programs and supports at the state level. Today Jevon serves as an appointed member of the California ChildWelfare Council, California Department of Health Care Services Behavioral Health Stakeholder Advisory Committee & Proposition 64 Advisory Group. His appointments stem from his passion for addressing the needs of youth experiencing homelessness and youth service providers aligned with making youth homelessness rare, short-lived, and nonrecurring. Jevon feels a calling to utilize his education, talents, passion, and lived experiences to serve as an example of what is possible for youth when they receive support and leadership opportunities. Email Jevon

Aimee Sueko Eng, Director, Strategy and Education Partnerships

Aimee Sueko Eng is an education leader and public servant with over 15 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors focused on children, youth and families. Aimee works to ensure philanthropy can strategically leverage resources to improve systems and services for our community’s most vulnerable populations. From 2011 to 2018, Aimee was a Program Officer, Senior Program Officer and Vice President of Programs at the Thomas J. Long Foundation where she led a $90 million grantmaking program and developed and launched over ten multi-million dollar initiatives and private-public partnerships.  Aimee is also in her seventh year serving as an elected School Board Director representing District 2 on the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education. She was elected by her peers to serve as Board President in 2018, and again in 2019, to lead the Board at a time when the district faced multiple fiscal and performance challenges. Aimee holds a B.A. in American Studies from Wesleyan University and a M.A. in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University. Email Aimee

Reed Connell, Director, External Affairs

In nearly 20 years working in foster care, mental health, housing, and special education settings, Reed Connell has developed a sophisticated knowledge of children’s policy development at all levels of government. For the past several years, Reed has worked with statewide and national coalitions to design, pass, and implement a range of important children’s legislation, including AB12, California’s implementation of the federal Fostering Connections to Success Act. From 2009 to 2013, Reed served as the Executive Director of the Alameda County Foster Youth Alliance, an effective and highly visible local advocacy agency. In 2014, Reed co-founded Social Change Partners, LLC to support the effectiveness of California nonprofits and government agencies that seek to support our state’s most vulnerable children and families. Reed has worked with advocates, providers, and coalitions throughout the state on issues related to local control and flexible financing, the impacts of Realignment and Health Care Reform on child and adolescent mental health systems, and the development of accountability infrastructure. Reed holds an MSW degree from UC Berkeley with a concentration in Management and Planning. Email Reed

Nancy Netherland, Director, Parent and Caregiver Engagement

Nancy Netherland is a mother to, and advocate for her two daughters, both former foster children living with rare, chronic medical complexities.  Nancy founded Kids and Caregivers; a nonprofit supporting families, caregivers, and providers of chronically ill children through wellness and navigation resources, coaching, and peer-based activities.

Nancy has extensive professional experience with the healthcare safety-net through her work as a consultant with  public health, community and school-based health centers. Earlier in her career Nancy interned for her MFT through the University of California San Francisco AIDS Health project, worked at California Pacific Medical Center in the Planetree Unit, and with Continuum HIV Day Services as part of integrative medicine health teams.  She also worked with the YMCA and the Community Network for Youth Development designing and implementing evidence-based health education and health advocacy training, outreach, and wellness programs for youth and families. Nancy serves on a variety of committees including; the State of California’s Medicaid Children’s Health Advisory Panel (MCHAP), the Cal-AIMs Workgroup for Foster Youth and Families, the Family Advisory Council at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Email Nancy

Cynthia Alvarado-Martinez, Program Coordinator

Cynthia Alvarado-Martinez has extensive experience working across various clinical research projects and specializes in project and data management. Previously, she worked at the University of California, Berkeley and the UC Davis MIND Institute where she developed professional experience in implementation science, community-partnered research, and data management/analysis. At UC Berkeley, she managed an intervention-focused study that aimed to improve cognitive behavioral therapy for people with depression and, at the UC Davis MIND Institute, she managed a multi-site study that partnered with school districts and mental health agencies throughout California to train providers in evidence-based practices for children with autism. Overall, Cynthia is passionate about advocating for mental health care access and partnering with communities to develop community-informed interventions. Cynthia holds a B.S. in Human Development as well as in Statistics from the University of California, Davis. Email Cynthia.