Addressing Past and Present Harm in the Time of COVID-19

Sasha Cotton is currently the Director of the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention (Minneapolis OVP) in the Minneapolis Health Department. The Minneapolis OVP is responsible for coordinating violence prevention initiatives across the city enterprise and engaging with communities throughout Minneapolis to better address violence and safety issues using a public health approach.  The Minneapolis OVP houses violence prevention programs including; a Group Violence Intervention model as well as a Hospital Based Violence Intervention program. Ms. Cotton’s work experience prior to her current position includes serving as the National Resource Center Coordinator at The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC), as well as serving as the Prevention Program Manager for the Violence Free Minnesota, the state’s domestic violence coalition. Ms. Cotton’s direct service work includes positions in Juvenile Community Corrections in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties as well as with numerous non-profit organizations focused on youth services and juvenile justice. Ms. Cotton holds a B.A. from Metropolitan State University with a double major in Criminal Justice and Ethnic Studies. She is also a certified Restorative Justice Facilitator completing her training at the University of Wisconsin, Thief River Falls.

Durham Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has more than 30 years of dedicated service in the law enforcement profession. She began her career with the Atlanta Police Department where she learned the essential elements of community engagement and relationship building as a young officer. There, she rose through the ranks, ultimately serving in the role of Deputy Chief before retiring in June, 2016 to accept the position of Chief of Police for the City of Durham. Chief Davis is a graduate of the 225th Session of the National FBI Academy, completed senior management training at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in Boston, Massachusetts; she is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta, Leadership Triangle, and completed Mercer University’s Public Safety Leadership Institute.

Chief Davis has experienced training opportunities abroad at the Emergency Preparedness College in York, England in 2005, and as a participant in an executive exchange session with the Israel National Police, in the cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and NeTanya in 2012. As a result of her mission, Davis developed a leadership curriculum designed to groom bright and extremely prepared leaders for 21st Century Policing. She currently serves as the 1st Vice President for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), where she serves on the TRUST Initiative Committee. She is a member of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, recently appointed to Governor Roy Cooper’s Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, member of the Durham Rotary, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., The LINKs Inc., and other professional affiliations.

Davis advocates for the advancement of other women in her field, and has used her experience and leadership acumen to leverage mentoring relationships for women in a variety of career fields. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s degree in Public Administration.

Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH recently joined the American Medical Association (AMA) in April 2019 as their inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer and Group Vice President. Her role is to embed health equity in all the work of the AMA and to launch a Health Equity Center.

Prior to this in 2014, Dr. Maybank became an Associate Commissioner, and later a Deputy Commissioner, and launched the Center for the Health Equity, a new division in the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene geared towards strengthening and amplifying the Health Department’s work in ending health inequities. Under her leadership and in a short amount of time, the health department made great strides in transforming the culture and public health practice by embedding health equity in the health department’s work. This work has been recognized and adapted by other City agencies and has even captured the attention of the CDC and WHO.

Prior to this role, she was an Assistant Commissioner in the NYC Health Department over the Brooklyn District Public Health Office, a place-based approach, from April 2009 – 2014. Her Bureau set a precedence DOHMH and created a template for community-driven neighborhood planning. Dr. Maybank also successfully launched the Office of Minority Health as its Founding Director in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in NY from 2006-2009.

She also teaches medical and public health students on topics related to health inequities, public health leadership and management, physician advocacy, and community organizing in health. Currently, Dr. Maybank serves as President of the Empire State Medical Association, the NYS affiliate of the National Medical Association. In 2012, she co-founded “We Are Doc McStuffins,” a movement created by African American female physicians who were inspired by the Disney Junior character Doc McStuffins.
Dr. Maybank holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, a MD from Temple University School of Medicine, and a MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is pediatrician board certified in Preventive Medicine/Public Health.