Georgians for a Healthy Future regularly hosts graduate students who work with GHF staff to support the organization’s current projects and issue advocacy campaigns. The students learn about critical consumer health issues and develop skills that they can use to become effective health advocates throughout their careers.

Tyla Adams joins Georgians for a Healthy Future this summer as the Health Education & Advocacy Intern. In this role, she is responsible for supporting the Georgia Voices for Medicaid project by assessing the learning needs of community members, health advocates, people living with disabilities and those existing at the intersections of these identities, updating the curriculum accordingly, and creating any needed learning aids. She will also assist with community outreach efforts that aim to help consumers access health services, inform them on the current state of Medicaid expansion and any other relevant health policy issues.   

While attending East Carolina University, Tyla studied abroad in New Zealand and Australia where she realized her passion for health education and access to quality health care. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in public health studies and a minor in human development and family science. She is currently in her second year studying behavioral sciences and health education in the Master of Public Health program at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

After graduation, Tyla hopes to work to decrease generational disparities due to controllable risk factors (like nutrition and access to quality health care) and to foster health equity in black communities. Her public health interests include maternal and child health, adolescent health, the social determinants of health and minority women’s health.

In late 2018, Georgians for a Healthy Future was awarded a General Operating Support grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. The Foundation works to connect the passions of philanthropists with the purposes of nonprofits. Awards were given through a highly competitive process and we are excited about this partnership as we continue to work to ensure quality, affordable health care for all Georgians.

GHF was one of twenty-nine nonprofits to have received this highly competitive General Operating support grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Seven nonprofits, including GHF, were awarded grants to support well-being and “ensure a healthy region where all residents have access to quality health care and nutritious food.”

With the support of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, GHF continues to offer Georgians the tools and information they need to become effective health advocates for themselves and their communities, inject the consumer perspective into health care stories in the media, and convene partner groups in coalition to strengthen our collective ability to advocate for the needs of Georgians across the state. We are ecstatic to have been among the select organizations who share our vision and drive to improve the lives of the people of Georgia. We look forward to continuing our work as the voice for Georgia health care consumers with the support of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Read the Foundation’s December 2018 press release.