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As the foundation and its partners continue to work together to advance health equity and improve health outcomes in Greater Cincinnati, Interact for Health has selected Ashlee Young for the newly created position of Vice President, Policy and Engagement.
Young has focused on improving health and social services in Greater Cincinnati for the past 12 years. She currently serves as Vice President of Policy and Strategic Initiatives with the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. In this position, Young launched direct response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a vaccination and testing site, and built community partnerships to promote equitable access to vaccination and testing. She secured more than $700,000 of funding for these efforts. In addition, Young led the Urban League’s policy and advocacy work more broadly, focusing on systemic and equitable change. In her prior role of Vice President of Impact, Young helped transition the organization’s workforce training and development program to a virtual platform and launched a dashboard to monitor progress on organizational goals.
Before joining the Urban League in 2020, Young managed community engagement efforts for the Strive Partnership and the Child Poverty Collaborative. She previously worked at Interact for Health as an Evaluation Officer, developing a framework for evaluation of the foundation’s opioid and place-based grantmaking work.
“Ashlee brings tremendous experience leading efforts to improve health outcomes and health equity in our community,” said Kate Schroder, President and CEO. “She is a trusted, results-based leader with deep experience in leading community-based initiatives. We are particularly excited to have her join us as we begin to embark on our five-year strategic planning process so she can help shape our work in the policy and community engagement spaces.”
In her new role, Young will engage leaders and community stakeholders to strengthen regional progress in health equity and health outcomes. She will help to deepen Interact for Health’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work and to advance advocacy efforts aligned with the foundation’s grantmaking strategy and portfolio. She will start in the new position on April 4.
“We celebrate the many accomplishments Ashlee has made on behalf of ULGSO, including leading our COVID-19 response efforts,” said Christie Bryant Kuhns, Interim President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. “We have not lost her as a team member as much as we have gained a stronger ally in our relationship with Interact for Health. Ashlee’s expertise coupled with her intricate knowledge of both organizations’ objectives promise an even more dynamic relationship going forward as we jointly address some of the most critical policy issues facing our community. "
Young earned a Master of Public Health from Wright State University and a Bachelor of Science from Ohio State University. She serves on several boards of directors, including the Delta Gateway Foundation, Design Impact, MORTAR and Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services. She was recently appointed to the Cincinnati Board of Health and is part of Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s Equitable Strategies Committee. Young recently completed a two-year term as Executive Vice President for National Urban League Young Professionals. Earlier this year, she was selected by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber as a Making Black History honoree and received the Forty Under 40 award from the Cincinnati Business Courier in 2020. She co-authored two peer-reviewed articles about her work at Interact for Health on equitable strategies in grantmaking (2017) and the foundation’s Thriving Communities initiative (2018) that were published in The Foundation Review.
A native of Cincinnati, she is the proud mother of Nila, who is a freshman at Howard University. Young enjoys traveling and spending time with her family and friends.
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