The Best Friend Files: Jessica is Here

We are celebrating one year of Cocoa Butter and Communion! That flew by, right? To help celebrate as a community, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about the show and I will share them on a future episode of the podcast. Has Cocoa Butter and Communion impacted your life in any way? What has been your favorite episode? Has anything provided inspiration for you to have a conversation with your own village? What have you taken away? Please share it with me! I would love to share it with everyone! Email me at cocoabutterandcommunion@gmail.com or slide in the DMs on IG @cocoabutterandcommunion

It is bestie time and Jessica is back. As many of you know, Jessica is a show regular and it is always a good time... lots of laughter, love, and perspective sharing. On this show, she shares a playlist with me about what music makes her feel sexy. She found it hysterical what my choice was.  You all know that she means so much to me and I am thankful for her sisterhood. Jess is absolutely amazing and she is a dynamic human being. The village is good with her in it. 

Jessica N. Brown, MPH, is a public health professional specializing in public and mental health
program development and management. Her primary expertise is in program implementation and
evaluation; strategic planning development; operationalizing racial equity and workforce initiatives,
and community-based participatory research and administration.

With over 10 years of public and behavioral health experience, Ms. Brown has worked in various
health services such as genetic newborn screening, HIV prevention and surveillance, and
community behavioral health. Currently, she is serving as the Director for the San Francisco
Department of Public Health (SFDPH), Behavioral Health Services (BHS), Office of Justice, Equity,
Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI), where her responsibility is to oversee strategic planning, organization,
implementation, and evaluation of equity and workforce programs across the SFDPH, BHS. As
Director, she is responsible for integrating racial equity framework and policy throughout BHS while
managing various programs and projects, including cultural competency activities, ADA-related
efforts, language services, staff, client and community communication; consumer relations; staff
and community-based training, workforce development, employee engagement, staff wellness,
and human resources projects for BHS.

Ms. Brown is also working with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Office of Racial Equity
on implementing the City’s Racial Equity Ordinance and serving on the HRC task force to develop
strategies for reallocating police funding into Black/African American communities throughout San
Francisco. Throughout her career, Ms. Brown has been committed to developing strategies to
address health inequities that drastically impact Black/ African American and Latinx communities.
She is dedicated to confronting the impact of racism and how it contributes to inadequate
treatment, misdiagnosis, and undervaluing of the trauma and pain of Black/African American
communities. Ms. Brown received her master’s degree in Public Health at San Jose State University
and has committed her career to closing the gap in health and racial inequities.