Black Healing Remixed: The Podcast is out now!

Our Team + Board

Get to know our staff and board of directors.

Team Members

Yolo Akili Robinson

Yolo Akili Robinson (he/him)

Founder and Executive Director

Yolo Akili Robinson is an award-winning writer, healing justice worker, yogi and the founder and Executive Director of BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective). Yolo has worked primarily in three areas: Batterers intervention/family counseling with Black men and boys, HIV/AIDS, and healing justice/wellness. In 2018, Yolo was awarded the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "Health Equity Award" for his work. He was also featured at the 2020 BET Awards as an "Empowerful Spotlight," highlighting his work facilitating the vision of BEAM. His writings and work have appeared on Shondaland, GQ, Women's Health, USA Today, Vice, BET, Huffington Post, Cassius, Ebony, Everyday Feminisms and more. He is the author of the social justice themed affirmation book, "Dear Universe: Letters of Affirmation & Empowerment for All of Us" (Michael Todd Books, 2016) and a contributor to Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown's anthology on Black vulnerability and shame resilience, "You are Your Best Thing" (2021, Random House Books).

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Dayo Akinyemi, MPH (she/her)

Director of Communications

Dayo is a listener and a health communicator whose main goal is to make health information accessible and relevant to different audiences, particularly communities of color. She believes that meaningful communications honor the lived experiences of those you are communicating with. Her work has included managing the communications for a large, NIH-funded study focused on queer men of color, and garnering media interest for health and science at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dayo is an avid reader, and primarily reads books authored by women of color. One of her favorite authors is Octavia E. Butler.

Khadijah R. Barber

Khadijah R. Barber (she/her)

Finance and Operations Manager

Khadijah has two years of experience working as a part of an Executive Administrative Support Team for a non-profit and well over 10 years of experience providing administrative support in various capacities. She has also served as an entrepreneur working with her family business, providing support with marketing, expense reporting, scheduling, and data entry. Khadijah brings passion to structure and enjoys creating processes that support growth. She has BA in psychology and a PhD in LIFE — living, learning, unlearning and learning anew. She enjoys reading, traveling with her family, and creating spaces that support calmness, relaxation and healing, specifically for Black women.

Skye Barclay

Skye Barclay (she/her)

Creative Project Manager

Skye is a social media and communications specialist. She is committed to amplifying voices in the Black community and spreading mental health resources to communities of color. After over half a decade of working on numerous wide-reaching marketing campaigns, she has developed a community-oriented approach for creating meaningful content that resonates with people. In her free time, she can be found traveling the world, learning different languages, and roller skating. Skye holds a B.F.A. in Film & Television from Chapman University where she minored in Advertising.

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Marilyn J. Brown, LMFT (she/her)

Facilitator

Marilyn Julia Brown, MA., LMFT, RYT-200, is a licensed psychotherapist, registered yoga teacher, writer, podcaster, reiki master, sound healer, and energy healer residing in sunny Southern California! Marilyn firmly believes in the liberation of all beings and works specifically to liberate Black folks across the globe because she believes none of us are free until we are all free. Her offerings are culturally and LGBTQ+ affirming and Marilyn is committed to decolonizing the mental health field and wellness spaces to bring true equity across all marginalized populations. Marilyn utilizes her talents for writing, music, and speaking to cultivate spaces for healing and liberation. She firmly believes true healing must address the mind, body, and spirit and her mission is to connect each person her work touches to the powerful well of healing energy that lives within them to promote collective healing across the planet.

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LaTryce Butler (she/her)

Grants Manager

LaTryce Butler is a finance professional with nearly 20 years experience supporting the work of innovative thought leaders from academia to private industry. Her work has included lifecycle administration of federal grants, cooperative agreements with regional organizations and industry-funded partnerships. She currently serves as Grants Manager; overseeing grant-focused operations at BEAM. She is energized by understanding and uplifting the "stories behind the dollar" -- connecting the gift with the need and amplifying the voices deeply impacted by it. In her free time, she enjoys singing, spontaneous dance breaks, and all things N. K. Jemisin. LaTryce has been told her superpower is contagious authenticity. If you cross her path, feel free to be your whole self. No judgment; she's weird, too.

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Joëlle Dussek (Lï)

Programs Manager

Joëlle, is a hybrid notion walking through life. Half Haitian, half African American, half from the South - New Orleans, half from the North - New York City. Lï is a Somatic Psychologist as well as a television producer. Lï enjoys travel and dancing to any and all African and Aboriginal genres of music.

RF3RD

Richard Ford III (he/him)

Graphic Designer

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Richard Ford III (RF3RD) works as a visual artist in New York City. Holding a BFA in Illustration from Columbia College Chicago, his work is influenced by the aesthetics of anime and manga, which he compliments with his background in graffiti/ street art, giving his work attitude, dimension, color, and personality. Richard’s work ranges from collaborative large scale murals for Naomi Osaka (Bodyarmor SuperDrink) to animated illustrations for Universal Music Japan’s Wagakki Band (Sakura Rising).

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Donnie Hue Frazier III (he/him)

Community Engagement Specialist

Donnie Hue Frazier III is an actor, filmmaker, creative director, and public health consultant. Having earned a degree in Sociology and Psychology with a concentration in Human Services, Donnie Hue has worked in the field of Public Health as a consultant for organizations serving the LGBTQ+ community. Donnie's primary scopes of focus in this work are sexual health, prevention, and mental health. Donnie is also the founder of Shades of Hue LLC, which was developed as a production company for cultural entertainment, community engagement, and creative consulting purposes.

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Noelle Folden-McDowell (she/her)

Director of Finance

Noelle is an Accounting/Finance superstar with over 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She is committed to uplifting equality for the Black community, and creating work environments where we all have a seat at the table. She received her undergraduate degree at DeVry University in Business/Accounting, and her MBA at Keller Graduate School of Management. During her free time, she loves to travel and spend time with her family.

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Davonte M. Green (he/him)

Community Facilitation Manager

Davonte Green has a proven commitment to working to support the progression of Black people and the communities in which we live. His work includes serving in under-resourced, low-performing schools in South Los Angeles, founding a leadership network and consultancy for inspired Black men, and facilitating an entrepreneurial curriculum within Southern California state prisons. Additionally, he has experience working with local universities to recruit high-quality student success coaches, raising funds to support the homeless epidemic in LA County, and consulting for and speaking for the Department of Children and Family Services.

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Jessica Johnson (she/her)

People, HR & Culture Manager

With over a decade experience in the nonprofit sector, Jessica is an advocate for equity and justice in the workplace and beyond. As a licensed attorney, Jessica’s legal career assisting low-income Texans and survivors of interpersonal violence informs her current work helping nonprofit organizations create cultures rooted in non-violence that welcome generative conflict, growth, and change. Jessica is a facilitator and builder of organizational cultures and processes whose life goal is to help organizations and individuals operationalize liberation. She is also a creative, a former Texas Rollergirl, an audiobook lover, and a travel enthusiast. She received her Juris Doctorate from University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, and her bachelors degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

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MJ Jones, MA (they/them)

Facilitator

MJ Jones, a Southern California native, is a Nationally Certified ASL-English Interpreter, advocate and consultant in Washington, D.C. They earned their B.A. in Deaf Studies (Interpreter Education Program track) and a minor in Queer Studies from California State University of Northridge (CSUN). They earned their M.A. in International Development (IDMA) from Gallaudet University and a year later became the first student to obtain a Certificate in Gender & Sexuality Studies. Their intersectionalities, such as Trans-Masculine, Black, second-generation Filipinx, and hearing identities, provides both a unique and valuable perspective in the interpreting field and the LGBTQ community. MJ is dedicated and compassionate about social justice issues and advocacy for minority LGBTQ folks with diverse intersectionalities. Working in solidarity with the Deaf Queer community, MJ hopes to collaborate ideas to build more space for all folks within the LGBTQ spectrum.

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Beth Killian (she/her)

Facilitation Support Consultant

Beth Killian is a clinical social worker (LCSW), musician, workshop facilitator, and sci-fi nerd with over 20 years of experience in group facilitation, team management, curriculum development, and counseling. She recently co-founded Sonic Connections, a movement that utilizes music and mindfulness as pathways toward personal and community healing. Her previous work has supported the operations of several arts & liberation based programs, collaborating with the Black Mental Health Matters director and co-managing four international facilitation teams. Compassion, curiosity, and creative expression lie at the center of her facilitation and songwriting practices, taking her from community centers to college classrooms, corporate summits, long-term care facilities, hospitals, and the set of The Tonight Show, where she used songwriting to spark conversations around public health.

Allen Lipscomb

Allen Lipscomb, Psy.D., LCSW (he/him)

Facilitator

Dr. Allen Lipscomb is an Associate Professor and Director of Online and Offsite MSW Programs as well as Director of Minority Male Mentoring (M3) and Student Success Allies (SSA) program at California State University Northridge in the Department of Social Work. Dr. Lipscomb is a clinical psychologist by highest degree earned and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of California. Dr. Lipscomb received his doctorate in Psychology (Psy.D.) with a clinical emphasis in marriage, family and child psychotherapy from Ryokan College and his Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Southern California.

Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell (he/him)

Facilitator

Jason Daveon Mitchell is an Asst. Minister at Agape International Spiritual Center, where he manages the prayer ministry, guides the Practitioner Core and is the director for Agape’s Sacred Service Ministry. His years working with at-risk youth and children in the juvenile justice system; and serving in the heart of Los Angeles’ Skid Row Community providing direct services, informed his vision of humanity’s beauty, power and love. For more than 20 years, through teaching, spiritual counseling, speaking, facilitating workshops and for 10 years with Our Daily Prayer Call — a morning devotional session where people from around the world gather in prayer, affirming and inspiring each other — Jason has devoted himself to anchoring a field where all are invited to awaken to the Truth of who they are; liberating ourselves and courageously living this truth without apology! 

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Shawn J. Moore (he/him)

Facilitator

Shawn has worked in higher education and student affairs for over 10 years, specializing in leadership development, training/program design, and workshop facilitation – with a particular focus on diverse populations.  Reckoning with his own contemplation of burnout, purpose, and alignment, Shawn transitioned out of his role as Associate Dean of Student Life & Leadership at Morehouse College in the fall of 2021 to focus more on mindfulness and stillness-based training programs and workshops. 

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Meag-gan O'Reilly, Ph.D. (she/her)

Facilitator

Dr. Meag-gan O’Reilly is a licensed Psychologist, self-worth expert, DEI Consultant, and the Co-founder of Inherent Value Psychology INC. She previously served as a Staff Psychologist and Coordinator of Outreach Equity and Inclusion at Stanford University where she created the first satellite clinic for Black undergraduate and graduate students and co-created the Outreach and Social Justice Seminar in 2016, which trains clinicians to be culturally conscious and justice-oriented. Dr. O’Reilly has taken the TEDx stage and is the creator of therapeutic Healing Circles for Black employees in partnership with companies such as Google, The San Francisco Ballet, Virgin Pulse, and the United Negro College Fund STEM Scholars Program. Her research and writings focuses on social justice, and she is the author of Systems Centered Language: A Necessity to Speaking Truth to Power During COVID-19 and Confronting Racism.

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Natalie Patterson (she/her)

Director of Training and Programs

Natalie can best be identified as a Teaching Artist, she uses her dynamic range of expertise to masterfully make tangible abstract concepts. Natalie has the unique ability to bridge one’s personal experiences with the larger cultural occurrences using art, performance and custom workshops. Over the last 18 years, Natalie has crafted time-tested approaches to fostering cultures of growth, curiosity, compassion, and integrity. As a poet and educator, she has worked extensively in non-profit, higher education and with major brands like Sephora, Uproxx, The United Way, Summit, Darling Magazine, Adidas Women, TASTEMADE and SoulPancake. She speaks her mind, from inspiration to social justice she is equally inspired.

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C.J. Robinson (he/him)

Graphic Designer

C.J. Robinson is an art director, designer, and illustrator from Atlanta, GA, currently based in Brooklyn. He received his BFA from Syracuse University where he studied Communications Design. He specializes in creative direction, editorial illustration, brand strategy, and visual identity, and also has passion for fashion and music, which influences his work. His work has been featured in GQ, Esquire, Oprah Daily, and NBC.

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Uzo Seymour (they/he)

Social Media Coordinator

Uzo is a social media strategist fixated on the ways in which we communicate with the world and assert our identities within it. Their work as a musician and voice among Black gender non-conforming people has lead to an ever-growing presence on TikTok and features with Folx, NPR, HER and the Chicago Tribune. The success of their personal brand led them into a career in social media consulting for comedy troupes, wellness influencers and artists, with the belief that everybody has a story to tell and the ability to reach the masses. Outside of work, Uzo is a massive UK Hip Hop head, cat dad and Bollywood film enthusiast.

Board of Directors

Headshot of Martine Agatston

Martine Seiden Agatston

Tax Associate, Proskauer Rose LLP

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Vignetta Charles, PhD, MPH
Board Chair

Chief Executive Officer, ETR

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Nicole Clark, LMSW

Nicole Clark Consulting, LLC

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Angela Knudson, MPH

Community Impact Lead, AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah

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Dannielle Thomas, MA
Board Secretary

Chief Operations Officer, Social Insights Research

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Nick Washington, CPA
Board Treasurer

Vice President, Corporate Accounting Policies, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

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