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Our Staff

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Sume Ndumbe-Eyoh

Executive Director

Sume Ndumbe-Eyoh is the Executive Director of the Black Health Education Collaborative and an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Public Health Division at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

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Sume provides strategic consultations to organizations as principal of Another World Lab. She holds a Master of Health Sciences in Health Promotion and Global Health from the University of Toronto. Hailing from Cameroon, she is grateful to live, work and play in Turtle Island and is committed to  working towards decolonial futures. 

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Raha Mahmoudi

Program Specialist

Raha Mahmoudi holds a Master of Public Health from McMaster University. Her research interests in the social determinants of health, health equity, and justice are informed by community work and research in child and youth mental health, food security, belonging, and culturally responsive healthcare.
 
She is driven to collaboratively transform health education, research, services, and systems in ways that advance Black flourishing and wellness.  

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Javiera-Violeta Durán Kairies

Program Coordinator

Javiera-Violeta is an undergraduate student of Latin American descent at the University of Toronto pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Toronto with majors in Biology and Medical Anthropology.​

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Her research interests include cultural safety and social determinants of health, She has worked on projects that aim to educate health professionals on decolonization and anti-racism to provide just and equitable healthcare services. 

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Christiane Ndedi Essombe, PhD

Program Specialist

Chris (she / her) is an Afro-cosmopolitan: not really from here or there, she lives and questions the manifestations of the colonial status quo wherever she is. Chris has a master’s in public health from the University of Montreal School of Public Health and a PhD in psychology from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

 

She has worked with several Black populations experiencing marginalization such as migrating people at the border between the US and Mexico, survivors from the Colombian armed conflict and refugee claimants in Montreal. Her research focuses on coloniality and its manifestations in different social contexts. 

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Nkwanzi Banage

Research Assistant

Nkwanzi Banage is a final-year undergraduate student pursuing an Honours B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Economics at McGill University, where she serves as the President of the Black Students’ Network of McGill.

 

She is of Ugandan and South African descent, and her research interests lie in sub-Saharan politics and Africana studies, with a focus on public policy, health equity, anti-racist frameworks, race relations, and Black advocacy.

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The Black Health Education Collaborative acknowledges with gratitude the Indigenous and Afri-Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island who continue to thrive and resist colonial violence while striving for self-determination and decolonial futures. We live, work and play in various territories including the lands of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississauga’s of the Credit River; Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, the Anishinaabe, and on the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation; Kanien:keha’ka and Mi’kmaq.

 

We remember our ancestors, forcibly displanted African peoples, trafficked into Turtle Island as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the histories and legacies of colonialism and neo-colonialism which continue to impact African Peoples and the descendants of the Black diaspora across the world.

 

We recognize that racial colonial violence harms Black, Afri-Indigenous and Indigenous Peoples through both common and distinct logics and actions. We recognize our responsibility and obligations as African Peoples to be good guests on these lands. We offer thanks to our elders and communities from whom we learn. May your wisdom inform our actions towards a more just future.

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