Staff

Yamani Hernandez, Executive Director  |  312-427-4460 x225

Yamani Hernandez, Executive Director of ICAH, earned a B.S. at Cornell University where she studied, the intersections of power, place and policy. She earned an M.Arch at University of Washington, focusing on public participation in the design and development of urban communities. Yamani is a staunch advocate for youth empowerment and self-determination and has over a decade of experience working from an asset based approach in program design, implementation, management and evaluation in youth serving organizations and institutions in Chicago. Outside of school, she has studied, leadership, community organizing, and social entrepreneurship in community based organizations throughout the city. Most recently, she worked at Chicago Public Schools as Manager of Program Development and Support of over 200 work-force development programs in 14 different career pathways at 60 different schools. However, throughout her inter-disciplinary work history, she has worked with diverse populations of people ranging from girls and women who are homeless, to men who are incarcerated in maximum-security prisons, on topics ranging from art and culture; personal and community development; social change, work-force development, civic participation and philanthropy. She firmly believes in the inter-related nature of social justice issues and uses both a creative and analytical skill set to tackle the most critical challenges of our time in creating equal opportunity and access to education, health and economic security.

 

Anita Banerji, Director of Legislative Affairs  |  312-427-4460 x240

Anita has more than a dozen years of experience in public policy, governmental affairs and political campaigns, most recently serving as Policy Associate at the Federation for Community Schools where she advocated on behalf of community schools throughout Illinois. She has also worked for IL State Senator Jeff Schoenberg (D-EV), and California (U.S.) Senator Barbara Boxer. In her free time, Anita is an activist for the Asian American community of the Greater Chicago area, and serves as Vice President of the Chicago chapter of the Asian American Action Fund. She was also a 2010 Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership fellow. Anita received her Bachelor’s of Science, with a concentration in print journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Master’s Degree of Arts in Multicultural and Corporate Communications from DePaul University.

 

Vivian Barrett, Manager of School Health Iniatives  |  312-427-4460 x228

Vivian Barrett has worked as a sexual health educator for over fifteen years professionally. Currently, Vivian Barrett serves as the Training Director at The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, where she oversees the provision of training and technical assistance in Illinois. She works toward system-wide change through strategic planning for adolescent sexual health integration within youth service organizations and teacher preparation across Illinois. She has provided guidance and technical assistance to school districts as they work toward sexual health education policy change, conduct health program planning and implement sexuality education. Vivian facilitates interactive workshops to adults in Illinois and most recently at the Healthy Teen Network 2010 Conference for a diverse audience of state, government, school and community-based employees. Vivian managed the development and distribution of the Adolescent Sexual Health Toolkit, a comprehensive information resource addressing sexuality in adolescents, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Human Services, and Illinois State Board of Education. Additionally, she has developed training for healthcare providers on Illinois confidentiality laws and worked in partnership with youth to conduct youth led research and development of recommendations to local clinics. When she first came to ICAH Vivian coordinated a youth peer education program, training young people to educate their peers and to lead a live call in show on Cable Access Network Channel 21. She coordinated sexual health outreach in Chicago through her work at Erie Family Health Center-Teen Site for over seven years working to supplement sexual health education for teachers in public and private schools throughout Chicago.

 

Ivory Duncan, Power Through Choices Data Collection & Retention Coordinator  |  312-427-4460 x232
Ivory is thrilled to transition from her experience in foster care and case management to POWER Through Choices Data Collection & Retention Coordinator, she will be given the task of conducting post/pre, 6 & 12 month surveys and implementing retention strategies to ensure youth in residential group foster care receive sexual health information. She brings with her diverse experiences in youth development, foster care, training and programming. In her free time, Ivory is working on completing her Masters’ in Public Policy at National Louis University. Ivory is passionate about youth development, social change and human rights.

 

Vernon Johnson, Power Through Choices Youth Development Coordinator  |  312-427-4460 x226

Vernon is thrilled to be joining ICAH as the POWER Through Choices Youth Development & Education Specialist, implementing sexual health education and facilitating an advisory board with youth in foster care. He is a young and up and coming public health professional who hails from Flossmoor, Illinois, and received his MPH in Community Health Education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2011. His specialties and interests include sexual assault awareness, environmental justice, sexual health, public health, engaging and working with youth, health education, health disparities within marginalized groups, social justice initiatives, and masculinity studies. Vernon has always had the passion to help others in need, and strives to work with diverse populations of people.

 

Joy Messinger, Manager of Sexual Health Education  |  312-427-4460 x239

Joy Messinger is a passionate community activist who comes to ICAH with diverse experiences in health education, youth development, violence prevention, policy research, and service learning from her time living and working in Upstate New York, Central North Carolina, and Chicago.  As Manager of Sexual Health Education. she provides support and guidance to ICAH’s training initiatives and strategies including the POWER Through Choices Project and the Peer Education Program. Joy is a NCHEC Certified Health Education Specialist, an alumna of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago Jane Addams College of Social Work. Outside of her work at ICAH, Joy volunteers as a birth doula and writes on- and off-line about adoption, bisexuality, reproductive justice, and intersectional activism. She also organizes with several local and national feminist, Asian American, and LGBTQ groups, including Invisible to Invincible: Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago and the Chicago Chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

 

Mayadet Patitucci-Cruz, Youth Engagement Specialist  |  312-427-4460 x235

Maya has been involved with ICAH for several years as a student organizer and former board member. After graduating from Curie Metropolitan High School, she joined ICAH as a full-time staff member in November 2007. Formerly a Young Chicago Authors editor and Chicago Freedom School instructor, Maya is a dedicated social and reproductive justice activist working with many youth-focused organizations in Chicago.

 

Tiffany Pryor, Youth Development and Advocacy Coordinator  |  312-427-4460 x236

Tiffany received her B.A. in Human Services from Villanova University and brings a wealth of knowledge from her rich experiences in youth development work, a mission trip to Cambodia, and two years in Americorps. While serving in Americorps, she proudly implemented after school program activities followed by a consecutive year in which she coordinated the intergenerational literacy program in an elementary school. These experiences proved fundamental to her desire to work with underserved youth and resulted in the pursuit of her Master's Degree in Social Work from DePaul University. During her first year at DePaul, Tiffany served as an intern at Alternatives, Inc. where she was able to engage young women in weekly social justice workshops and it was in her second year of the MSW program that she was introduced to the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health. She served as an intern and Community Organizer with ICAH and has joined the staff as the Youth Development and Advocacy Coordinator.  She works with the School of Justice and most directly with the Illinois Youth Policy Council and the Sex-Ed Loop, both of which engage youth in sexual health education advocacy work throughout the state.

 

Jessica Robinson, Community Engagement Specialist  |  312-427-4460 x224
Jessica is excited to rejoin the ICAH time a full time staff person. She started her journey through reproductive justice as a youth leader at ICAH in 2000 through advocacy work. This experience included peer to peer education, physician trainings, lobbying and media work with a monthly CANTV show. After she graduated from Kenwood Academy, she obtained her Bachelor’s in Community Health Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign where she also studied Black Studies and Gender Studies. She brings experiences from work in arts based community building through the SOLHOT collective of Champaign, IL, rape crisis prevention/intervention, cultural studies research, sexual health education and community building to her position of engaging youth in community leadership roles through a partnership with Chicago Public Schools. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Sociology at DePaul University.

 

Nikki Zaleski, Youth Development and Training Coordinator  |  312-427-4460 x234

Nikki Zaleski graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Gender Studies and Performance Studies. She has been the youth worker for Sisters Empowering Sisters for almost four years, a reproductive justice group for young women that recently found its new home at ICAH. She was also delighted to come on board as one of three youth organizers for the School of Justice with ICAH. Nikki is an artistic associate for Sojourn Theater as well as a founding member of Ag47, an arts mentorship collective that serves girls in the Logan Square neighborhood. She works in public schools as a teaching artist through Urban Gateways and Communities in Schools of Chicago. In addition to her work with youth, Nikki is a director and playwright for FYI Performing Health Collective, which performs plays about sexual health and sexual violence in schools and programs.