2023 Impact Award Recipients

Dr. Jessica Jackson is an award winning licensed psychologist and mental health equity advocate. She is the founder of Dr. J. Lauren Psychological & Consultation Services, a Houston, TX based mental health practice providing expert care and consultation. Dr. Jackson is also the co-founder of the non-profit Communicating Race Fully, focused on teaching youth and their caregivers how to have conversations about race and racism. In addition to providing mental health care services through her private practice, she is also a Clinical Strategy Manager for a mental health start-up, Modern Health. Her research has focused on reducing barriers to treatment for underserved populations. She is a regular media contributor and serves as an elected member of the American Psychological Association Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest, Vice Chair of Therapist in Tech and Chair of the APA Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee.

Dr. Maranda C. Ward is an Assistant Professor and Director of Equity in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership in the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. In this role, she designs, evaluates, and teaches health equity curriculum for undergraduate students that integrates her EquityMatters podcast. Her teaching excellence was recognized with the highest teaching honor at GW- the 2021 Morton A. Bender Teaching award. Dr. Ward is an expert in advancing anti-racism efforts within health sciences education and in designing curricula to enable students and faculty to competently promote health and racial equity in practice. Her research focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and antiracism educational interventions as well as stakeholder-engaged community-focused studies on HIV, Black women's health, and youth identity. As a member of the DC Center for AIDS Research (DC CFAR), she is the principal investigator on Two in One: HIV and COVID Screening & Testing Model that allows her to lead national research-based educational intervention for primary care practitioners to routinize screening and testing HIV, PrEP, and the COVID vaccine. This research will lead to a set of policy recommendations for overall practice-based changes and culturally responsive messaging for racial, ethnic, sexual and gender minoritized patients. She is also skilled in the application of participatory action research methods.

As an affiliate faculty for the GW Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, she translated her participatory action research on youth identity into a youth-led canvas-based mural on preserving D.C. legacy. Dr. Ward's research is further converted into practice as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Promising Futures - a youth development pipeline for D.C. youth ages 11-24 that integrates a social justice approach to positive youth development using edu-tainment to invite youth to explore their civic and social identities, social inequities, and health seeking behaviors. When she is not teaching or serving on-campus, she is engaged in DC in a range of capacities. For instance, she is on the board of trustees for the Washington School for Girls and founding board member of Girls Rock DC. She also serves on the Sibley Memorial Hospital & Johns Hopkins Medicine advisory board for wellness projects in wards 7 and 8. The DC Mayor, Muriel Bowser, appointed her to fill an advisory board seat on the Mayor's Commission on Health Equity.

When asked, she describes herself as a community educator, curriculum developer, and youth builder. She has strong commitments to service-learning, equity, community legacy, youth development, and honoring youth voice. Maranda received the 2022 Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement Award by Transform Mid-Atlantic, the 2020-2021 GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences Diversity and Inclusion Award as well as the 2021 Stigma Warrior Award during the 12th Annual International Conference on Stigma for going above and beyond in her field to fight discrimination among historically marginalized populations. She has been consulted by Ebony.com, Rolling Out Magazine, DCist, the Washington Post for her expertise in HIV disparities and featured on a live segment of Good Morning Washington, NPR’s Morning Edition and the KevinMD podcast for her research and background in health equity.

Maranda earned her Doctorate in Education from GW, her Master's in Public Health from Tulane University, and her Bachelor's degrees in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College. She enjoys learning from youth, traveling, and brunch.

Monique Thornton is the founder of Let's Talk Public Health, a Washington, DC-based public health communication and marketing consultancy. As CEO, Monique provides resources, products, and services that enable public health students, professionals, and organizations to effectively and creatively engage and interact with people around public health topics and issues.

Monique is a passionate public health professional who fuses her creative mind with her knowledge of public health, health communication and education, and behavior change. For the last 10 years, she has supported health-related organizations, businesses, brands, and government agencies with strategic digital communication and marketing, resource and product development, and branding and public relations. When she isn't busy creating a world where everyone understands what public health is and why it matters, Monique loves writing songs, short stories, novels, and screenplays.