Equi’s Board of Directors

BOARD CHAIR
She/They
Emily leads teams to find solutions. As the bridge between our clients and research team, Emily builds relationships and supports organizational growth. Emily also brings strategic and organizational development expertise to her role through internal and external strategy implementation. Before joining Diversity Science, Emily facilitated complex program development as a senior project manager and consultant at Context Partners.

Earlier in her career, Emily was a senior sustainability consultant at Sustainability Excellence in Amman, Jordan. In this capacity, Emily worked with organizations in Jordan and the Arab Gulf to integrate sustainability into organizational strategy and report publicly on progress and priorities. Emily graduated from Tufts University with a degree in International Relations and Arabic. You may find her collaborating with our office dog, Willard, who shares her passion for hiking and carpentry.

She/Her
Katie currently works at OCHIN as a medical billing supervisor. OCHIN is a nonprofit organization that works with Federally Qualified Health Centers across the country which serve uninsured, under-insured, houseless, queer, and other marginalized communities. She hopes to support Equi's mission through her years of experience in working in the medical community, expertise with Medicare and Medicaid, and community connections.

As a member of the queer community, Katie relates to Equi's mission to provide healthcare that is trauma and culturally informed. Part of her passion for healthcare has been to help champion the ways that social determinants of health impact the queer community

‎ Sher/Her
Audrey received her BSN, MSN, and PhD in nursing from the University of California San Francisco. For 47 years, she worked at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland – including 15 years as dean of nursing. During her tenure, she facilitated acquisition of more than $7M in programmatic and scholarship grants.

Breast cancer is Audrey’s primary substantive interest, but she is also a certified AIDS educator and TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer. Her most recent publications are as first author of Fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process, and practice, 11th ed. (Pearson, 2021) and Skills in clinical nursing, 9th ed. (Pearson, 2021).

Audrey has served on several non-profit boards including the Bay Area Tumor Institute, Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Programs, and California Board of Registered Nursing, Education Issues Workgroup. She served as a team leader on Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accreditation site visits for 15 years and was president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing 2014-2016.

Audrey retired from Samuel Merritt University in July 2020 and now works as a consultant. Her experience with underserved populations who have marginalized health conditions drives her interest in volunteer work, including the Equi Board. She brings clinical expertise in healthcare, leadership skills, fundraising history, and facility with financial and human resources policies and procedures.

She/Her
Sara Jade currently works at Wallace as their Data and Quality Manager. Wallace is a Federally Quality Health Center (FQHC) that offers primary medical and dental care in East Multnomah County to all community members. During Sara Jade's career she has held data analysis and management positions in nonprofit organizations and universities. Most recently she was a Research Associate in The Regional Research Institute at Portland State University and she was previously employed by the Oregon Social Learning Center and the University of Oregon. Sara Jade holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Oregon.

She felt a deep connection with Equi’s Mission and Values which drove her to join the board of the organization in 2021. She feels inspired everyday by the work that Equi does to provide support and empowerment to members of the queer community and partner with them to reach shared personal and community health goals.