Presenters

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  Ajay Persaud, MPH, CPH (He/Him)

  NNPHI Senior Program Associate, Climate and Crisis Preparedness

  Ajay is a Senior Program Associate within the Climate and Crisis Preparedness program. He supports key programmatic work in CCP projects including Project Firstline, an-infection prevention and control initiative, and the Coaching for Enhanced Disease Intervention Skills program, and other environmental health projects.
  
  Ajay’s passion for public health began in high school when he joined his local volunteer EMS agency and discovered emergency preparedness and response. His goal to protect families and communities alike from natural and man-made disasters has guided him to advocate for improved climate change adaptation and mitigation research and projects.
  
  Ajay holds his master’s degree in public health with a concentration in Environmental and Occupational Health from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His graduate thesis focused assessing the impact that wildfire smoke may have on climate change and its implications. Prior to joining NNPHI, Ajay was an Emergency Medical Technician and telecommunications operator at the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine.

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  Garlie St-Cyr, MPH (she/her)

  NNPHI, NCCPHT Program Assistant

  Garlie is the Project ECHO Program Assistant for the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training (NCCPHT) team. She will be coordinating ECHO-related activities and providing administrative and logistical support across NCCPHT.
  
  She earned her Bachelors in Public Health, a minor in Healthcare Management, and her Master of Public Health degree concentrated in Health Policy and Management at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Garlie is proud to be from a Haitian immigrant family, and her interests lie in creating and coordinating equitable and sustainable programs and resources for different communities.
  
  Her previous experiences include performing a qualitative program evaluation for a resettlement agency, creating and facilitating health promotion workshops for college students, and supporting health equity program efforts within a health department. Garlie is excited to be a part of NNPHI and continue growing her public health career in the DC area! Garlie fills her cup through traveling, trying new restaurants and recipes, and volunteering.

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  Zoila Reyna, MPH (she/her)

  Founder of Public Health Hired

  Passionate and dedicated leader advancing advocacy and grassroots outreach on public health issues, bringing 15 years of experience organizing and implementing community health programs, building strategic alliances with diverse underserved communities, CBOs, local and national healthcare organizations.

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  Ajayi Pickering-Haynes (he/him)

  NNPHI Senior Program Associate, Bridging Sectors to Create Health

  Ajayi (Ah-jai-yee) is a speaker, writer, health equity strategist, nonprofit leader, and innovator from St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands located in Central Florida. He received a Bachelors of Biology and Certificate in Leadership & Ethical Development from American University. Currently, he is a Master's in Public Health Candidate at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  
  Ajayi helps the organizations he’s a part of ideate, strategize, and apply health equity and advance public health in practice, through trained grant writing, evaluation, design-thinking, project management, facilitation, and cross-sector collaboration skills.

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  Amy Jacobs, MPH (she/they)

  NNPHI, NCCPHT Program Manager

  Amy Jacobs is a Program Manager for the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training (NCCPHT) within the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI). Her focus is Project ECHO, a program she’s drawn to because of its mission to deinstitutionalize best practices for equity and innovation in healthcare.
  
  Amy’s public health journey started as a FoodCorps AmeriCorps service member in Camden, New Jersey. Through her role in FoodCorps, she solidified her ethos of care, community, and equity in public health. She worked in program management at FoodCorps for years after, supporting health justice in the northeastern United States and beyond.
  
  In 2021, Amy graduated with a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Most recently, Amy served as the Chief of Staff on the operations and executive leadership teams for the Maryland Department of Health’s Covid-19 Recovery Program. Since living in Baltimore, she has completed meaningful studies with Health Justice Commons and A Sacred Passing, worked at a local nonprofit as a curriculum development manager and training facilitator, and served as a caregiver for older adults.
  
  In her free time, Amy serves on the board of the Mental Health Emergency Fund, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that offers stipends and peer support to folks in need. She is also an avid gardener, a dance enthusiast, and a dog parent to a lively cattle dog mix named Luna.