David L. Bell, MD, MPH, Board Chair and Co-Founder
Dr. Bell is the Medical Director at The Family Planning Clinic/The Young Men’s Clinic of New York Presbyterian Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics and of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Medical College. He is an adolescent medicine physician and works primarily with ages 12-24. The Young Men's Clinic is a unique adjunct to the Center's Family Planning Clinic, a school-based clinic program consisting of three middle schools and two high schools in upper Manhattan. Both are direct service components of the Center for Community Health and Education within the Mailman School of Public Health. He provides direct patient care for adolescent and young adult males and females within the Young Men's Clinic and the Family Planning Clinic. He supervises mid-level practitioners at the school sites, as well as residents and students in the Young Men's Clinic. Dr. Bell is currently President Elect of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. He has consulted for the federal Office of Family Planning, and assisted with trainings on male health with Federal OFP Regions I, II, IV and VI, as well as with Engender Health (formerly AVSC). He has appeared on MTV, BET, and CBS, promoting male health issues. Dr. Bell completed a three-year adolescent medicine specialty fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. |
Jason Rafferty, MD, MPH, Treasurer
Dr. Rafferty is a Triple Board resident at Brown University, which is an interdisciplinary program leading to board eligibility in pediatrics, general psychiatry and child/adolescent psychiatry. He was a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar who received his M.D., M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health, and Ed.M. in Child Development and Psychology from Harvard University. At graduation, he was recognized with the Intellectual Achievement/Faculty Tribute Award for dedication to scholarship that enhances academic life and positively impacts fellow students. He was a Charles A. Dana Scholar who graduated magna cum laude with honors in neuroscience and a concentration in philosophy from Bates College in 2005, and spent a year teaching in a public junior high school before starting graduate work at Harvard. In medical school, he has served in faculty positions as a clinical preceptor and Gross Anatomy tutorial and lab instructor where he was recognized by his students with an "Excellence in Tutoring" award. Pursuing interests in medical ethics, Jason served as vice-chair for the American Medical Association's Student Bioethics and Humanities Committee and is currently a member of the Ethics Committee at Rhode Island Hospital. Jason's interest in health policy has led him to China and Japan to study international health systems, and to numerous leadership courses at the Harvard Kennedy School. During his tenure at Harvard, he was elected to two terms as the Vice-President of Student Advocacy on the Harvard Graduate Council, the University-wide graduate student government. His aspirations are to care for at-risk adolescents and, for the past four years, he has collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in the design and implementation of a peer leadership intervention to increase adolescent male health literacy and utilization of school-based primary care services. |
Thomas Beall, MHSA, Director
Mr. Beall currently serves as a social marketing and health communications consultant. For more than 25 years, he worked for Ogilvy Public Relations where he served as founding Global Managing Director of the agency’s industry-leading social marketing practice. He also co-chaired the agency’s Global Health Practice. He directed many of the agency’s largest public health and public education accounts, working over decades in support of such clients as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as major companies including Merck and Pfizer. His work focused on health promotion and disease prevention across the ages, with a recurring focus on sexual and reproductive health. This included leading Ogilvy’s award-winning support for CDC’s landmark America Responds to AIDS campaign, as well as related work for such clients as the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and GlaxoSmithKline targeted primarily to adolescents and young adults. He served as Chair of Board of the American Sexual Health Association and was instrumental in the establishment of the National Coalition for Sexual Health, where he now serves as Co-Chair of the Coalition’s communications working group. He also serves as member and chaired the Board of the American Forest Foundation, reflective of his interest in the intersection of public and environmental health. He earned both his B.A. and MHSA. (Health Services Administration) from The George Washington University. |
Judy Y. Chu, Ed.D.
is a Lecturer in Human Biology and Affiliate of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, where she teaches a course on Boys’ Psychosocial Development. Judy received her doctorate in Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University, where she studied boys’ development during early childhood and adolescence with Carol Gilligan. Judy’s research highlights boys’ relational strengths and examines how boys’ gender socialization can impact their identities, behaviors, relationships, and well being. She is the author of When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, and Masculinity (NYU Press, 2014) and co-editor of Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood (NYU Press, 2004). She developed curricula for The Representation Project’s film, The Mask You Live In, and currently serves as Chair of Movember's Global Men’s Health Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Promundo-US. |
Tolu Lawrence, JD, Director
Ms. Lawrence is Vice President of Strategic Growth and Engagement at Promundo. She has over a decade of experience bringing together leading nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, and brands to develop and support mission-driven initiatives that further social good. With Promundo, she leads the expansion of partnership development across sectors to support strategic growth, sustainability, and impact, manages the Workplace Advisors program, and serves on the Steering Group of the Parental Leave Corporate Task Force. Prior to joining the team at Promundo, Tolu launched Tolu + Co., a consultancy focused on social impact partnerships and digital engagement strategies. She also led Strategic Partnerships at The Representation Project, developing gender equality campaigns and initiatives with socially conscious brands, including Harry’s, Lucasfilm, Spotify, Unilever, and more. With a focus on intersectional gender equality and healthy masculinity, Tolu serves as an advisor to Feminist.com, Good Men In Sport, and formerly served on Spotify’s Culture Change Collective. She also sits on the boards of MotherCoders and PL+US. Tolu holds a Juris Doctor degree from American University Washington College of Law and is a member of the California Bar. Tolu can be reached at t.lawrence@promundoglobal.org |
Mary A. Ott, MD, MA, Director
Dr. Ott is a Professor of Pediatrics in the IU School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at IUPUI. Dr. Ott is board certified in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and a Master’s trained pediatric ethicist. She is the fellowship director for Adolescent Medicine, and she provides adolescent health care at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. Her areas of expertise are adolescent pregnancy and HIV prevention, adolescent ethics, and young men’s health. Her research includes implementation sciences approaches to community-based adolescent pregnancy and violence prevention, adolescent access to contraception and the ethics of research with vulnerable adolescent populations. Her work is funded by the NIH, the Society for Family Planning Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is currently a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders. Dr. Ott consults on adolescent health policies and programs locally, nationally, and internationally. She is a member of the Adolescent Subboard for the American Board of Pediatrics, the executive committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section of Bioethics and the editorial boards for Perspectives in Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Journal of Pediatrics. |
Judith Siegel, MSW, LICSW, Co-Founder and Director
Ms. Siegel is a licensed clinical social worker at the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston. She is the Director of Mental Health Services within the division and the Director of Social Work Training for the Boston LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) grant. She is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has had a longstanding interest in provider/patient communication with young men and has recently produced a training module, "Effective Clinical Interviewing for Adolescent Boys and Young Men," available on Pedicases. She coordinates a health website for adolescent boys www.youngmenshealthsite.org and chairs the Young Men’s Health Initiative in Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Over the years, she has worked with adolescents and adults in a variety of settings, including residential and inpatient programs, community clinics, college counseling centers and private practice. |
Noah Weatherton, DNP-PMHNP, Director
Dr. Weatherton is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care in the Seattle metro area. He is a 2018-2019 Fellow in the University of Washington LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) program, focusing on understanding the negative mental health effects of "traditional masculinity" on cisgender adolescent boys and young men. His healthcare career began in 2010 as a "street medic," volunteering to provide emergent care on the front lines of political protests and long-term encampments. Since 2017, Dr. Weatherton has been the Program Operations Specialist for the Doorway Project, at the University of Washington's Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center. The Doorway Project is an innovative community-campus research and design project that is works to improve service provision for young people experiencing homelessness in Seattle's University District. Dr. Weatherton's research interests include creating pathways for communities (parents, teachers, coaches, healthcare providers) to better engage young men on the subject of healthy masculinity development. In 2019, he created Masculinities Hub, an online project aiming to be an evidence-based, centralized resource for developing healthy masculinities via social media engagement and accessible online tools. As a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Weatherton practices in the community mental health setting, and advocates for more socially just health promotion programs and policies at state, local and federal levels. |
Jesus E. Fernandez, Youth Representative Director
Mr. Fernandez is currently an undergraduate student attending City College of New York pursuing a Social Science degree. Alongside his duties as a full-time student and full-time employee in the financial industry, he is currently a volunteer in the emergency department of New York Presbyterian Hospital. The New York Presbyterian Hospital is in first place in the New York City metropolitan area and is ranked sixth in the United States. NYP is among the largest hospitals in New York City and one of the world’s busiest and best hospitals. As a volunteer, his duties include enhancing the personal dimension of genuine concern and compassion to patients and their families. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in Social Science, he intends to continue his education and attend a medical school. |
Ahmad Mahmuod, Youth Representative Director
Mr. Mahmuod is the son of two Black refugees and a Junior at the University of California, Berkeley. Born and raised in SouthEast San Diego, he’s a self proclaimed freedom fighter who majors in Legal Studies. His main area of work and organizing centers racial justice through combating police violence and the prison industrial complex. He's one of two undergraduate student reps on his campus’ Independent Advisory Board on Police Accountability and a leading student in the fight for Prop 16, the repeal of Prop 209 (Ban on Affirmative Action). Ahmad believes racism, in particular anti-Blackness, is a public health crisis. He recognizes the death of young Black men at the hands of police as a health pandemic, in addition to those lost in the prison industrial complex. Ahmad believes to center young Black men's health, is to address all underlying factors that contribute to their livelihoods. To do this, Ahmad fights for greater investment in education, neighborhood services like parks, libraries, and mentorship programs. As a student at UC Berkeley, Ahmad has negotiated the campus to develop a mental health response team, to replace armed police officers for non criminal calls. Ahmad can be reached at Ahmad.mahmuod32@gmail.com |
Ferdinand Chisom Anumba, Youth Representative Director
Mr. Anumba is a graduate of City College of New York, with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. In addition to working as a medical assistant in the hospital, he collaborates with different health organizations that seek to mentor underrepresented minority students into becoming health professionals in the future. Ferdinand's passion for health care began while volunteering at the emergency room of Montefiore medical center. He loved seeing how physicians could use their medical knowledge to diagnose and treat patients in the emergency room. But growing up as an immigrant and an underrepresented minority also made him conscious of the language, cultural and socioeconomic barriers that hindered some of the patients from getting the best care possible. He aspires to be the doctor who connects with his patients on a deep level, bridging the gap between socioeconomic barriers and care. This desire is why he is currently striving to attend a medical school and become a medical doctor in the future. When he isn't busy in the hospital or with his community, Ferdinand loves to spend his free time playing soccer, trying different foods, and relaxing with family and friends. |
Dennis J. Barbour, JD, President and CEO
Mr. Barbour is Co-Founder and President/CEO of The Partnership for Male Youth. He also serves as the editor of the Health Provider Toolkit for Adolescent and Young Adult Males. An attorney with over 30 years' experience in the nonprofit health field, he has served as a CEO and advisor to national and international organizations composed of physicians and other health care providers, patients, researchers, academicians and caregivers in the fields of primary care, dermatology, reproductive health, preventive medicine, HIV/AIDS, addiction, geriatric and end of life care. Among other appointments, he was the executive director of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and legislative counsel to the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American Occupational Medical Association and Meharry Medical College. In recent years he served as the president and CEO of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and interim CEO of the Alpha 1 Association, the Society for Credentialed Addiction Professionals and Americans for Better Care of the Dying, as well as strategic planning consultant to AIDS Action and the National Peace Foundation. He also served as principal editor of the American Academy of HIV Medicine’s inaugural core curriculum for credentialing of HIV physician specialists. He has been the author of legal briefs and numerous articles on health care issues. His most recent prior appointment was CEO of the Society for Investigative Dermatology. Barbour attended Georgetown University and the Washington College of Law, where he graduated with a JD. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the Bar of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the US Supreme Court Bar |
Susan J. Wysocki, NP, FAANP, Medical Director
Ms. Wysocki, a women’s health nurse practitioner, is a nationally recognized figure in the field of reproductive health. She served as the first President and CEO of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH) for 25 years. She is the women’s health columnist for the Journal for Nurse Practitioners. She was the Editor in Chief of Women’s Health Care: A Practical Journal for Nurse Practitioners. She also serves on the editorial boards of American Nurse and Contraceptive Technology Update. She has authored numerous articles about issues in women’s health and has been a video blogger for Web MD. Among other awards, in 1999, Ms. Wysocki was selected by the Nurse Practitioner Journal for a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000, she was chosen as a charter Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She has served as the chair of the National Alliance of Nurse Practitioners and was the founding President of the American College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP). In 2003, she was presented ACNP’s Sharp Cutting Edge Award for her leadership and an award from the Nurse Practitioner Journal for political activism. In 2005, she was awarded the Alan Guttmacher Lectureship by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. |