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Event Description

No one has been exempt from the mental health toll of the Covid-19 pandemic, though experiences have differed across race, gender, income, immigration status, and disability. Children and youth are at particular risk, as outlined in a December 2021 Surgeon General’s Advisory, Protecting Youth Mental Health. The pandemic and associated challenges, along with preexisting stressors including racism, gun violence, climate change, and increasing national polarization, have taken a serious toll on the wellbeing of young people and their families. This webinar will unpack some of the issues our youth are facing and uplifting ways that philanthropy can take action to support youth mental health, especially in ways that are culturally responsive and center collective healing.

About SCG's Health Funders Group

The SCG Health Funders Group convenes multiple times a year to explore emerging issues in healthcare and health policy through an intersectional approach. The group hosts topic-based and peer-to-peer learning sessions. These facilitated sessions will provide a forum for updates on critical issues, highlights of promising programs, and opportunities for collaboration. 

Speakers

Taaliyah Tucker, Youth Speakers

Taaliyah Tucker was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and is a strong advocate for youth mental health services. As a young teen, Taaliyah faced challenges with finding her self-confidence and communicating with her peers. This led her to discover the Student Advisory Board (a.k.a. The Wash Squad), at Washington Prep High School. As a Wash Squad member, Taaliyah became a health and wellness advocate where she shared important resources, information and facilitated health presentations for her fellow students. Taaliyah graduated from Washington Prep in 2021 but continues her work as a youth mental health advocate on the campus of Los Angeles Trade Technical College (Trade Tech), where she is studying culinary arts in pursuit of her long-term goal of becoming a chef. Taaliyah also continues to support the work of The L.A. Trust by participating in the Youth Mental Health Task Force and other efforts that bring awareness to the need for youth-focused mental health supports. Taaliyah is generally a homebody. When she’s not working alongside her grandmother, celebrity chef Ewanda Jackson, she can be found researching cooking videos or listening to all different types of music.

African-American woman

Marsha Ellis

Director of Programs, The L.A. Trust for Children's Health

Marsha Ellis joined The L.A. Trust in 2019 where she currently serves as the Director of Programs. She has over 25 years of experience in program development, implementation, and grants management, and has worked with several LA-based nonprofit organizations including The Watts Healthcare Corporation, Drew Child Development Corporation, The Children’s Partnership and Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach. Prior to joining The L.A. Trust, Marsha worked 17 years with First 5 LA, a children’s advocacy organization responsible for directing Proposition 10 tobacco tax revenues in L.A. County to support efforts for children from prenatal to age 5 and their families. While at First 5 LA, Marsha served in several capacities including Assistant Director for Best Start Communities, and Senior Program Officer for the School Readiness Initiative, managing a $250 million dollar, joint-funding partnership between First 5 LA and First 5 California. Born and raised in South Los Angeles, Marsha has devoted her career to working on behalf of underserved and under-resourced communities of color. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UCLA.
I am a Black woman with curly chin-length black hair wearing light pink glasses, a black top, and a light pink blazer.

Tshema [Tesh-ma] Nash SCG Member

Program Officer, Access to Care, Cedars-Sinai

Tshema [Tesh-ma] is the Access to Care Program Officer in Cedars-Sinai’s Community Benefit Giving Office who is focused on building equitable communities so all have an opportunity to thrive. In her current capacity, Tshema mobilizes fiscal resources and programmatic support to community health clinics, behavioral health organizations, and other non-profits that comprise the Los Angeles County healthcare safety net. Her prior professional experience and practice includes domestic work at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as in-country global work in Ecuador, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Lesotho. Tshema is a current DrPH candidate at Boston University and holds both an MPH from Columbia University and a BS in Anthropology and Human Biology from Emory University.
Brown skin Black woman with dreadlocks holding her hand to the side of her face in a contemplating pose. She is wearing a white shirt with black, yellow and orange flower graphics.

Torie Weiston-Serdan SCG Member

Board Member, The Youth Mentoring Action Network

Torie Weiston-Serdan is the Chief Visionary Officer at the Youth Mentoring Action Network an Inland Empire non-profit organization building youth power globally through education, mentoring, and wellness. A leader in the youth mentoring field, she wrote Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide, which has become the handbook for culturally sustaining youth work. Torie is also the director of the Community Engaged Education and Social Change in the School of Education Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Through her community-based work, she mentors and resources young people with the desire to ensure they have what they need to build the future. Torie commits time to board service and serves on the boards of MENTOR CA, Tru Evolution, Give Build Share, Big Brothers Big Sisters LGBTQ National Advisory Council, the Research Board of the National Mentoring Resource Center, and the California Endowment.
Profile photo of Emily Williams

Emily Williams

SAMHSA Regional Administrator, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region IX

CAPT Emily Williams, LCSW-PIP, BCD is the Regional Administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region IX. Her career has focused on underserved populations and has spanned more than 20 years of service delivery of Behavioral health services within the Indian Health Service and DOD. From working as a clinician in remote clinics to standing up an telephone Outreach Center for Active Duty family members and Veterans her ability to work with individuals and communities has strengthened the suicide prevention and crisis response in local, state and national arenas.

Since her commission as a United States Public Health Service officer in 2004, CAPT Williams has served a central role in conceptualizing, developing, and training federal mental health disaster response teams within the USPHS. She has served as a team leader and deployed to numerous public health emergencies including hurricanes, multiple Tribal behavioral health emergencies, the 2010 American Samoan Tsunami and coordinated deployments to assist hospitals with accreditation support.

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