Voices of Vision
Pathfinders Discuss What It Will Take to Build a Just World
Voices of Vision is a series of conversations between Hope Rohrbach, RWJF Digital Communications Specialist, and visionaries who inspire us to imagine a world where health is not a privilege, but a right.
This future can feel pretty distant amidst rollbacks to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; cuts to public health research and federal nutrition and family supports; and challenges to our reproductive freedom. That’s why we’re chatting with RWJF grantees to catalog their perspectives, experiences, and hot takes on ways to work together to build a future where everyone can live their healthiest lives.
Economic Solutions
RWJF interviewed four notable experts about creating an economic system in America that prioritizes and serves families: Dulce Guzmán, Darrick Hamilton, Dorothy Brown, and Natalie Foster.
Dulce Guzmán
Dulce is the executive director of Alianza Americas, a national network of organizations working to advance the rights and wellbeing of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants in the United States and their countries of origin. We spoke with Dulce about issues affecting migrant communities and the importance of care in Latin American cultures.
Darrick Hamilton
Darrick is the founding director of the Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School and brings researchers, analysts, and organizers together to steward economic inclusion. We spoke with Darrick about baby bonds, wealth, and what mindset shifts are needed to prioritize children and their families in our policy decisions.
Dorothy Brown
Dorothy is a law professor at Georgetown University and author of “The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans and How We Can Fix It.” Dorothy is known for her work on tax policy, workplace equity and inclusion, and law school reform. She is an advocate of collecting and sharing data on tax and race to inform the tax system.
Natalie Foster
Natalie is an author of “The Guarantee” and president and co-founder of the Economic Security Project, an organization dedicated to advancing guaranteed income in the U.S. and building economic power for all Americans through grantmaking, research, issue campaigns, and convenings.
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Economic Inclusion for Families System
We’re working toward an economy that invests in families, values their contributions, and provides meaningful opportunities for them to pursue what is best for their children.
Healthcare
RWJF interviewed three notable experts about redesigning a healthcare system that is accessible, affordable, and treats everyone with dignity and respect: Saqib Bhatti, Jamila Headley, and Ankit Rastogi.
Saqib Bhatti
Saqib Bhatti, executive director at the Action Center of Race and the Economy, is taking on corporate forces that extract wealth from communities of color. In this interview, he exposes how Wall Street’s profit-driven model is shaping healthcare—driving up costs and deepening inequities, particularly for Black and Brown communities. Saqib shares his strategy for mobilizing millions to demand accountability and structural reform and lays out a bold vision for a just healthcare system where everyone is cared for with dignity.
Jamila Headley
Jamila Headley, co-executive director of Be A Hero, is a prominent advocate for health, racial, and disability justice. In this conversation, she shares her work to build patient power in the fight for healthcare justice and confront the deep-rooted financialization in the healthcare system. Drawing from her experience with a neurological disorder and medical debt, Jamila reveals how personal pain became a powerful catalyst for organizing those harmed by a system in urgent need of change.
Ankit Rastogi
Ankit Rastogi, director of research at Advocates for Trans Equality, believes data can drive progress on gender, racial, and economic justice. Ankit takes us inside the U.S. Trans Survey, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive survey of the trans community, which helps policymakers, healthcare providers, and institutions better understand the lived experiences of trans people and deliver more informed and compassionate care.
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Healthcare System
We’re working to build a fair and just healthcare system that is accessible, affordable, and treats everyone with dignity and respect.
Health Science Knowledge
RWJF interviewed four experts about what it will take to build an inclusive, transparent, and community-driven health science knowledge system: Ben R. Spoer, Meme Styles, Allison Stephens, and Aisha Shillingford.
Ben R. Spoer
Ben R. Spoer, PhD, MPH, has been part of teams serving data to communities in ways that meet people where they are—sparking curiosity about what data exist, how they relate to drivers of health, and what they reveal about the places people call home. Currently the program director of the City Health Dashboard and Congressional District Health Dashboard, Ben talks to us about ways to make data accessible. He notes how personal data has raised the bar for public health data, creating a need for faster and more granular data that’s relevant to people’s daily lives.
Meme Styles
Meme Styles, Founder and President of MEASURE, envisions what’s possible when communities can freely access, create, and use their own data. She explains why access to data matters, how disaggregation can uncover hidden truths, and why artificial intelligence must be interrogated with care. MEASURE's work reveals how transformation of traditional research can allow us to co-create knowledge with communities rather than impose it on them.
Allison Stephens
Allison Stephens, Fulbright Scholar at Research Ireland, encourages us to approach knowledge in interdisciplinary ways that respect all forms of expertise, including insights from the faith community. Although no longer an RWJF grantee, Allison previously worked on the HOPE (Health Outcomes from Positive Experiences) project, which offers a new lens for understanding how positive experiences help children grow into healthy, resilient adults.
Aisha Shillingford
Aisha Shillingford is sparking imagination and experimenting with new forms of culture and civil life to create atmospheres of change. As Artistic Director at Intelligent Mischief, Aisha brings people together to collectively envision futures beyond what we think is possible. Listen in as she invites us into Futuring—the practice of imagining a better future that can be within our reach.
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Health Science Knowledge System
Medical research alone can’t address the causes of health inequities. We need better science. We need research and evidence driven by people with varied experiences, perspectives, and ideas.