Who We Are
Advancing health equity by shifting power to communities
We exist to reimagine how health equity work happens—by building power, shifting resources, and transforming systems of exclusion.
Shift Health Accelerator works at the intersection of community-led vision, institutional accountability, and equitable resourcing. Our role is to make bold, community-driven change actionable.
Our Story
Shift Health Accelerator exists to change how power and resources flow in the pursuit of health equity. For too long, systems have been shaped by people far from the problems they aim to solve, producing structural racism, exclusion, and persistent inequities. We believe communities most impacted by these harms must lead the work and own the outcomes.
We start by listening to residents, patient advocates, frontline staff, and local leaders. Then we build the table where decisions actually get made: clear roles, timelines, voting rights, and a cadence that makes collaboration real, not performative. Our practice is relational, adaptive, and accountable. We focus on practical governance, financing, and measurement that people can trust.
Over the past several years, we have co-designed participatory funding models, built long-term governance structures, created tools rooted in trust, and supported institutions and funders to work differently. That means shifting institutional behavior as much as launching new projects: advising boards and executives, simplifying evaluation, and aligning dollars with community priorities. When institutions move from outreach to accountability, investments travel differently, and results do too.
Across maternal health collaboratives, Food-as-Medicine pilots, youth behavioral health access, tribal telehealth, and neighborhood asthma initiatives, the pattern repeats: align power, lock a plan, fund the work, measure what matters, and scale what works. We are part of a growing movement to center healing, equity, and collective power, and we stay with communities through launch and scale. Less talk. More delivery. Real results.
Our Story
Shift Health Accelerator exists to change how power and resources flow in the pursuit of health equity. For too long, systems have been shaped by people far from the problems they aim to solve, producing structural racism, exclusion, and persistent inequities. We believe communities most impacted by these harms must lead the work and own the outcomes.
We start by listening to residents, patient advocates, frontline staff, and local leaders. Then we build the table where decisions actually get made: clear roles, timelines, voting rights, and a cadence that makes collaboration real, not performative. Our practice is relational, adaptive, and accountable. We focus on practical governance, financing, and measurement that people can trust.
Over the past several years, we have co-designed participatory funding models, built long-term governance structures, created tools rooted in trust, and supported institutions and funders to work differently. That means shifting institutional behavior as much as launching new projects: advising boards and executives, simplifying evaluation, and aligning dollars with community priorities. When institutions move from outreach to accountability, investments travel differently, and results do too.
Across maternal health collaboratives, Food-as-Medicine pilots, youth behavioral health access, tribal telehealth, and neighborhood asthma initiatives, the pattern repeats: align power, lock a plan, fund the work, measure what matters, and scale what works. We are part of a growing movement to center healing, equity, and collective power, and we stay with communities through launch and scale. Less talk. More delivery. Real results.
Our Mission
To achieve health equity and dismantle structural racism, we partner with community leaders and institutions to shift institutional resources via community-led decision-making, financing, and data processes. Our peer-leader network model transforms power dynamics via innovative programming, advising, partnerships, and thought leadership.
Collaborate
Build strong tables with clear roles and decision rights.
Accelerate
Turn priorities into 90-day launch plans with real owners.
Support
Coach teams, codify protocols, and solve issues in the workflow.
Sustain
Transform pilots into durable programs with policy and funding.
Our Team
Bobby Cochran
Eugene Cooke
Jessyca Dudley
Caitlin Dunklee
Jen Lewis-Walden
Lisa Richardson
Artair Rogers
Sonia Sarkar
Felipe Tendick-Matesanz
Matt Tinsley
Robert Torres
Brandi Mack
Our Vision
We envision a healthy and just world, enabled by community power and leadership over the decisions, dollars, and data that shape community health.