Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC) 2022 Reflection
Emily Doyle, LMSW, CHC Program Manager | Lydia Garrett-Metz, CHC Program Associate | Meagan Dunham, LMSW, MCH-BY Porgram Manager
The Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC) team is excited to share some news about our team; we’ve grown this year! Many of our team members have been promoted into new roles within the CHC team and we want to shout them out. This expansion will strengthen CHC’s core operations, increase our impact, and position us to further our work with a skilled and diverse team to sustain it. Our team is stepping into the New Year with the hope of continuing to lead the way in improving the mental, physical and spiritual health and quality of life for communities, individuals, and families in New Orleans and beyond!
Emily Doyle, LMSW, is now our CHC Program Manager.
Meagan Dunham, LMSW, is the new Program Manager for CHC’s newest initiative, Multisystem Compassionate Caring and Healing for Black Youth (MCH-BY).
Additionally, we are thrilled to have Lydia Garrett-Metz, who started by interning with us and is now a CHC Program Associate!
As a CHC Program Manager, Emily will focus on expanding more of our healing programming and supervising our team of social workers who provide services at Hotel Hope, Grace House, local schools, and other clinical and community settings. Since joining IWES, she has channeled her passion for social justice and expertise in crisis intervention into facilitating psychoeducational discussions among youth, individuals in recovery, and professionals to support their healing and wellness. Additionally, Emily has supported qualitative research and grant writing that seeks to explore and expand healing justice and to increase CHC’s capacity for supportive services. This year Emily also completed Integrative Community Therapy (ICT) training with its founder, Brazilian psychiatrist Dr. Adalberto Barreto. ICT is a method of conducting groups using “solidarity care” in which the experience of engaging in conversation leads to emotional connection and healing, and in 2023 she will explore bringing ICT to New Orleans. In her free time, Emily enjoys spending time with loved ones, tending to plants, and traveling.
In her new role, Meagan will identify and assess existing policies in education, the juvenile legal system, and the social services sector that impact the mental health and well-being of Black youth. She will also be working closely with Policy Advisory Fellows, a cohort of local youth leaders with a passion for advocacy and community service. In May, Meagan received a Masters in Clinical Social Work from the Catholic University of America. One of Meagan’s highlights from this year occurred at the conclusion of her MSW internship with CHC. Meagan has the opportunity to present on her experiences as a co-facilitator for Out of the Shadows, Into the Light, a support group for Black women living with HIV, at the National Conference on Social Work and HIV, making us all proud!
Lydia will work closely with CHC Program Manager Leticia De Los Rios on initiatives related to the healing and psychosocial well-being of migrant individuals. Since joining IWES, Lydia has primarily worked on the Puentes Para Invitados project and the Hispanics in Philanthropy Learning Journey. She is a senior in the Honors Program at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, with a double major in Public Health and Sociology and a minor in Homeland Security. She is also pursuing an MPH at Tulane University with a concentration in Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences. During her undergraduate studies, Lydia has focused on substance use disorder and disparities in access to mental health care among undocumented Latina migrants, as well as the relationship between immigration status and being a victim of domestic violence.