Vanessa Espinosa, MSW (she/her/hers) brings 7 years’ worth of social work community practice, the majority at the mezzo and macro levels of social work to create and sustain equitable policies and system within organizations that empower and work alongside community. Currently serving as a Workforce Development Specialist at Denver Health’s Public Health Institute under the Denver Prevention Training Center, she designs and delivers tailored, culturally responsive training and technical assistance for CDC-funded organizations and community partners, fostering equitable practices and advancing health equity nationwide. Vanessa has spearheaded innovative projects, such as implementing GIS mapping tools to visualize community engagement data and leading advocacy initiatives with a trauma-informed and anti-racist lens. Her work in program evaluation includes gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative metrics to drive policy recommendations and ensure impactful program outcomes. With a strong focus on racial justice, harm reduction, and culturally responsive care, Vanessa has successfully built and sustained cross-functional collaborations. Through evidence-based practices and strategic partnerships, Vanessa remains deeply committed to reducing disparities and empowering marginalized communities.

Cydney O. Brown, MPH, MA Applied Gender Studies (they/them) supports the Capacity-Building Assistance team with developing and implementing tailored professional development and skills-building technical assistance for CDC-funded health departments, CBOs, and community leaders. They hold a Bachelor's in Psychology from Howard University and two masters degrees in Public Health and Applied Gender Studies from Claremont Graduate University. During their public health master’s program, Cydney joined the Transmasculine Health Justice: LA advisory board and research team to deepen their personal and professional research on transgender health. Cydney has a strong commitment to ground public health in radical compassion and acceptance. Outside of work, they study astrology and indigenous African spiritual practices.

Bev Wasserman (she/her/hers) provides capacity-building assistance and training for clinical and non-clinical organizations offering HIV services. Beverly has four decades of experience as a practicing registered nurse, most of which has been in HIV clinical services, more recently providing capacity building and technical assistance for the HIV workforce. Beverly has a key focus on uplifting health and racial equity in clinical care, along with supporting Health Systems change. Bev holds the belief that we must always create space to include the communities we serve as partners to inform programming and that we must care for the healthcare workforce while promoting equitable care and services to communities.

When not in the office, Bev enjoys time with her family, friends (non-human too), yoga, travel, and spending time in nature.

Sarah Rowan (she/her/hers) has a mission to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and HCV, and to end HIV and HCV transmission. To that end, she divides her time between clinical care, research, teaching, and public health programming. She attended medical school at the University of Oklahoma, spent her residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and completed an infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Colorado. When not seeing patients or working to make the world healthier, Sarah likes to play board games, paint and draw, go for morning runs with friends, travel with family, or overcommit to volunteer projects at her kids’ school.

Yomi Obafemi (she/her/hers) provides medical guidance for the Denver Sexual Health Clinic, in addition to delivering STI/HIV prevention, management, and care to individuals. She enjoys finding new ways to make electronic health records more provider friendly, traveling to new places, and getting lost in unfamiliar neighborhoods. A behavioral economic term called the sunk-cost fallacy changed her life; it refers to when people continue a behavior or task because they’ve invested many resources into it rather than because the activity is productive or profitable. It’s changed her approach to work and life by helping her clarify which activities in life/work to continue versus those that do not require additional effort. Yomi strongly believes that all human beings deserve access to affordable housing, healthcare, and reliable sources of food/water.

If Yomi could be anything in the world, she would choose to join the Marvel Universe as a member of Wakanda’s elite female Special Forces Team, the Dora Milaje – great outfits, no bad hair days and general fierceness - what else needs to be said?

Misty Gutierrez (she/her/hers) provides administrative support to the Denver Prevention Training Center’s Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) program and the Disease Intervention Training Center (DITC). Misty assists with preparing and developing products, providing logistics support for training events, and managing program registration data. She is the jack of all trades around the office and enjoys every minute supporting and collaborating with her colleagues. Her previous position was in the Denver Sexual Health Clinic, where she found herself intrigued by all things STI/HIV related. She is passionate about making a difference in the community.

If you get an auto-reply from Misty, she is probably enjoying the outdoors, being a dog mom, learning a new recipe, or spending time with family and friends.

Lisa Frederick (she/her/hers) provides trainings for the PTC’s Disease Investigation Training Center and contributes to the PTC’s HIV prevention Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) services. Lisa states the best part of the job is working with such a creative, dedicated, and loving team. Lisa’s life changed in 1998 when she lost her brother to an AIDS-related illness. She has devoted 20 years to HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and sexual health. Her expertise extends to strategic planning and capacity building in organizational sustainability. Her passion and commitment are enhancing Black women’s health focusing on reproductive health, intersectionality, and resilience. Lisa channeled that passion by creating and leading a 3-part virtual roundtable discussion focusing on Black women’s health across the lifespan with over 2,500 participants.

She's not all work and no play and believes everyone must have laughter in their life. Lisa loves shopping, traveling, and spending time with her family including her little doggie Pia.

Tai Edward Few (he/him/his) manages the daily activities of the Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) program at the Denver Prevention Training Center (PTC). Additionally, he oversees the development and implementation of tailored capacity building in-services for clinics implementing HIV testing and prevention programs for persons living with HIV. In addition to Tai’s work at the Denver PTC, he is a member of the Denver Health’s Health Equity Committee and has a passion for social justice and racial equity. Tai’s favorite aspect of his job is assisting agencies in developing culturally responsive and equitable programs. Outside of work, he enjoys watching TV and movies, especially British police procedurals and Agatha Christie murder mysteries. When not watching TV or a good movie, he records and listens to podcasts on politics, current events, TV, movies, and African American history. If Tai weren’t working for the Denver PTC, he would be a history professor.

Zami Tinashe Hyemingway (Zami/he/him) is the Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) Manager, at the Denver Prevention Training Center (PTC). Zami leads an amazing team of subject matter experts, to provide technical assistance and capacity building work to clinics, health departments and community-based organizations (CBO’s). Zami has over 14 years’ experience in developing and implementing health behavior and health promotion programs, including being a founding staff member for Gender Health SF formerly known as Transgender Health Services. Zami’s favorite pieces of this work, is being able to assist agencies in building their skills to provide heart centered, culturally responsive and person first care and programs.

When not working at the Denver PTC, you will find Zami going on hiking adventures with his dogs Whitney and Houston, volunteering with local Black owned farms, and hosting wellness retreats and workshops that teach community members and organizations how to thrive and maximize their potential.

Helen Burnside (she/her/hers) is honored to provide programmatic oversight of the Denver Prevention Training Center’s training and technical assistance programs and guidance to its program managers. Helen started her second career with a master’s degree in Community Health after reading Paul Farmer’s Mountains Beyond Mountains in Bolivia and has focused her work on HIV and STI prevention ever since. Helen is committed to advancing racial equity in health systems and believes that we can end the HIV epidemic by creating brave spaces for communities and healthcare providers to plan prevention strategies. She enjoys the people and the dynamic, changing nature of her work. Helen appreciates that she can solve complex problems by talking to her backyard bees, or hiking in the Flatirons, and still dreams of being a backup singer in a female jazz band.