MPHI’s Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement (CCRE) is dedicated to ensuring the people who are most impacted are at the center of conversations which seek to find solutions to problems affecting them. We engage with our clients on culturally responsive approaches for evaluation, learning, research, training, facilitation, and strategic planning. Our services are developed around culturally defined values, knowledge, and beliefs of the population served and the context in which they occur. Through our work we offer tenets to help our partners adopt engagement processes that are culturally responsive and utilize a racial equity lens. We systematically identify and address racism, cultural stereotypes, and other forms of intolerance, injustice, and oppression. Our partners are philanthropic, governmental, nonprofit and academic institutions and historically marginalized groups to drive social processes where their voices have previously been silenced. We see cultural differences as assets and leverage culturally responsive engagement as a tool for advancing equity and social justice by shifting power to those impacted for decision-making, policy and practice development, systems transformation and social change.
Projects, Resources, & Publications
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- Expanding the Bench Week: Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: African American Practitioners’ Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges in our Sector by Tracy Hilliard & Michael Arnold
- IC TIG Week: Work Where You Live, Live Where You Work
- The Ethics and Equity Questions of Vaccine Passports
- Considerations for Conducting Evaluation Using a Culturally Responsive and Racial Equity Lens
- Is My Evaluation Practice Culturally Responsive? (Self-Assessment)
Location & Info
Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement
14900 Interurban Avenue South
Suite 271, PMB #30
Seattle, WA
98168
Ph: 517-324-8300
Fax: 517-381-0260
Email: CCRE@mphi.org
Tracy Hilliard, PhD, MPH
Director
Tracy Hilliard is a graduate of the inaugural cohort for Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) program designed to produce doctoral‐trained evaluators committed to advancing equity and social justice for children and families. She has led equity‐focused projects as a learning and evaluation partner for clients across the nation, including W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Kansas Health Foundation, Seattle Foundation, King County Best Starts for Kids Initiative, University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health, the City of Seattle’s Information Technology‐Digital Equity Initiative and Office of Economic Development, and City of Lynnwood.
As a member of the Executive Team in the City of Seattle Human Services Department, she led implementation of a new data‐driven strategic plan for measurement and evaluation to address racial inequities and ensure improved outcomes for those served through the department’s investments in over 200 of Seattle’s health and social services agencies. Dr. Hilliard also was previously principal investigator and project director at Public Health Seattle and King County’s Assessment, Policy Development and Evaluation unit. Her work as a Public Health Systems and Services Research (PHSSR) consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) set the national agenda for PHSSR at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and RWJF and was published in a special supplement of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
She enjoys leadership and service in national and local service organizations. She is Past‐Chair of American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Health Informatics Information Technology Section and is currently an APHA Governing Councilor. She was selected as an inaugural member of the US Department of Health and Human Services Regional Health Equity Council for Region 10. Tracy has a clinical faculty appointment in the UW Department of Psychosocial and Community Health. Dr. Hilliard has a BA with Distinction in sociology, a MPH in maternal and child health, and a PhD in health services all from University of Washington.
Erica Chavez-Santos, MPH
Graduate Education and Diversity Intern (GEDI)
Erica is a pre-doctoral fellow in the Health Services PhD Program at University of Washington in Seattle. Her area of emphasis in occupational health, and her area of interest is community-based participatory research, specifically addressing Latinx health disparities. She hopes to work with underserved Latino communities in hopes of boosting farmworker justice and creating equitable policies that set the stage for better health.
Erica is a Washington State native who completed a Bachelor’s in Biology and Public Health at UW, followed by an MPH degree in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. She has worked as both a research and teaching assistant and has worked as both a patient navigator and executive intern at Sea Mar Community Health Centers in Seattle.
In addition to her placement at MPHI while an AEA GEDI, Erica is an Occupational Health Services Research trainee, an alum of the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training Program and a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Kantahyanee Murray, PhD
Senior Associate Director
Kantahyanee Murray is an experienced researcher, evaluator, and social sector leader. She is a collaborative and creative problem solver and innovator, committed to advancing race equity and inclusion and catalyzing social change. Kantahyanee is a Senior Associate Director in the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement (CCRE) at MPHI. In this role she provides equitable and culturally responsive evaluation and technical assistance in collaboration with nonprofit human service and movement building organizations, public systems, and philanthropy. Kantahyanee’s collaborative evaluation work is grounded in strategies that seek equitable outcomes including approaches that center culture, context, and community; engage and share power with community members; and elevate data access and use across diverse stakeholders.
Previously Kantahyanee was a Senior Research Associate in the Research, Evaluation, Evidence and Data unit of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She planned, commissioned, and managed evaluations in the areas of youth and family well-being, evidence-based practice, and community safety. Kantahyanee helped design the Expanding the Bench (ETB) initiative in 2014, led its implementation, and facilitated transition of ETB to a field supported initiative in 2018. In prior work, she conducted community-based, state and federally supported research and evaluation at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the areas of child, youth and parent/caregiver health and well-being.
Ebony Reddock, PhD, MPH
Senior Evaluation Consultant
Ebony Reddock, PhD, MPH, is a Senior Evaluation Consultant with the MPHI. She is a long-time evaluation professional with deep experience partnering with community organizations and philanthropy. She completed her PhD and MPH training at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education. She is also a sought-after workshop facilitator with a focus on community-based research and evaluation and culturally responsive, equitable, participatory, and creative approaches to program implementation and evaluation.
Dr. Reddock recently completed a LEEAD (Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity) Fellowship, an evaluation “post-doc” for PhD-trained scientists interested in furthering their expertise in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation. LEEAD is part of Expanding the Bench, an initiative established by Annie E. Casey and administered by Change Matrix, to increase the number of BIPOC-identifying evaluators in her profession. She also recently completed a Michigan Equitable Evaluation Collaboratory, a year-long community of practice hosted by the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and funded by the Michigan Health Empowerment Fund.
Dr. Reddock has had the honor of leading several evaluation projects that have benefitted Southeastern Michigan, including an evaluation of the first three rounds of Kresge Innovative Projects: Detroit and a portfolio of culturally-responsive evaluations funded by the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan under the RISE for Boys and Men of Color initiative.
She also sits on the board of the Michigan Association for Evaluation, Michigan’s professional evaluation association and an affiliate of the American Evaluation Association. Dr. Reddock serves on the board of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, a Southwest Detroit community and youth development organization. Their mission is to work with communities in urban neighborhoods to build safe and thriving environments where people want to live, work, and play.
Ryan Rowe, MA
Institutional Equity and Community Partnerships Manager
Ryan is the Institutional Equity and Community Partnerships Manager at MPHI. He brings over 18 years of experience as an advocate, organizer, and program leader with success in building community-centered, anti-oppression alliances across identities and social positions. He is grounded as a story-based, relational organizer, with a proven track record for helping organizations, communities and leaders close the gap between their values, structures, and behavior.
Ryan’s primary role at MPHI is leading the organizational development, strategic planning, leadership development and capacity building for supporting MPHI’s internal and external anti-oppression work. Prior to MPHI, Ryan has served as the Health Equity and Social Justice Coordinator for the Ingham County Health Department (ICHD) and served an Associate Regional Field Director for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for eight years.
Erica Lynn
Senior Project Coordinator
Erica Lynn is a Senior Project Coordinator in the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement (CCRE), she supports the planning, implementation, and operation of the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) funded Advance Peace Lansing/Ingham Peacemaker Fellowship project. Advance Peace is dedicated to ending cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in American urban neighborhoods by investing in the development, health, and wellbeing of those at the center of the crisis. Erica brings over 17 years of experience in the public health and nonprofit community in leadership roles involving project management, community outreach and organizing, fundraising, and consulting. She co-founded a local grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing youth violence and is very passionate about health equity and social justice work. Erica was born and raised in Lansing, MI, and is dedicated to building capacity in her community and mission driven work. She loves to volunteer, and in her free time enjoys reading, biking, camping, and kayaking.
Ashley Barnes, MPA
Research and Evaluation Manager
Ashley Barnes, MPA, received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy with specialized studies in social policy, diversity and equity, community investment, and criminal justice. She received her BA in Sociology from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. Ashley is a Research and Evaluation Manager in the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement (CCRE). As project manager, researcher, and evaluator, she contributes her strengths and skills to several CCRE projects including Power Sharing in Philanthropy and Equitable Practices for Transit Systems and Services to address the needs for homeless communities.
Ashley is a trained, experienced researcher in quantitative and qualitative methods with specialized statistical analysis skills. She brings a passion for equitable research including community research with interests in uplifting community’s voice, especially for communities that have been historically ignored or marginalized. Examples include equity-based research projects to identify how to increase Transit System’s Fare Equity practices.
Ashley has over seven years of experience in non-profit administration including fund development, specifically, grant writing to build agencies’ capacities to build and sustain their program efforts. She also activity provides technical assistance to support the development of the Youth Bill of Rights for King County’s Best Starts for Kids Initiative.
Tyler Logan, MPH
Senior Equity and Philanthropy Consultant
Tyler Logan is a Senior Equity and Philanthropy Consultant and is a strong advocate for addressing health equity through social justice frameworks or evidence-based practices. As a graduate of Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the public health field, as well as, a graduate of the University of South Florida’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace program, much of Tyler’s research and professional experiences have been embedded in identifying how socio-environmental, historical, and systemic factors affect the health and wellbeing of marginalized communities, while working with philanthropic and nonprofit organizations to find innovative equitable solutions that directly address this.
Logan led Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy, strategic planning, quality improvement and qualitative evaluation sessions with public healthcare systems and leadership across Michigan, fueling his interest in the intersections between public health practice, philanthropy and community engagement. Logan has built a passion around the intersectionality of public health and the criminal-legal system, including leading a national community of practice webinar series providing best practices for COVID-19 mitigation strategies in local county jails and addressing health equity in jails through grant-funded projects. Since then, Logan has worked with teams across the nation to secure funding from national (CDC, SAMHSA, United States Committee on Refugees & Immigrants, National Council for Behavioral Health), Public Health Institutes and the State of Michigan, as well as community organizations and philanthropic groups (Community Foundations, Ethel & James Flinn Foundation, MI Justice Fund, etc.), to research and evaluate grant-funded projects. This diverse pool of managed projects directly addresses behavioral and public health disparities in BIPOC communities, youth, and in criminal-legal populations such as juvenile and adult persons in carceral settings.
Logan has participated in statewide efforts to address health equity in Michigan and beyond, through participation on the Governor’s Racial Disparities Taskforce and similar local community groups. Logan is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, the American Public Health Association, the Network for Public Health Law, National Association for Health Service Executives, and is connected to a network of Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) experts throughout the country. Currently, Logan provides leadership for projects with clients including but not limited to W.K. Kellogg Foundation (nationwide), other philanthropic or nonprofit organizations, and local, state, or federal governments. He also provides consultation for culturally responsive and equity-centered projects, supporting internal and external efforts to disrupt inequitable processes and outcomes to further advance racial equity, racial healing, and anti-oppression work.
Ji Won Shon, MSPH
Senior Evaluation Consultant
Ji Won Shon, MSPH, is a senior evaluation consultant for the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement at MPHI. She brings experience conducting research and evaluation on health equity, community development, and the social determinants of health using a racial equity lens. Her work at CCRE is focused on using equity-centered evaluation approaches and engaging historically marginalized communities in data and evaluation to address inequities. She is currently conducting a literature review and qualitative analysis to develop power sharing strategies in philanthropy. Previously, Ji Won was a senior analyst at Community Science where she led both quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis, and reporting to diverse audiences. Prior to Community Science, Ji Won supported performance management efforts and the launch of the Expanding the Bench initiative at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Ji Won received her Master of Science in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with a health policy focus.
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