The ARCH Network leadership team spans two universities –the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of Connecticut (UConn Center on Aging at UConn Health) - with complementary strengths in geriatrics, palliative care, life course studies, criminal justice and public health research. Our goal is to leverage these complementary strengths to create a national network of multidisciplinary scholars (e.g. from geriatrics and gerontology, behavioral health, nursing, public health, personal experience and community activism, law, epidemiology, criminology, medicine and others) to advance the science in this emerging research area.
Brie Williams is a physician trained in internal medicine, geriatrics, and palliative care. She integrates a public health and human rights perspective into justice reform, with a focus on improving the health and wellbeing of prison staff and people who are incarcerated by introducing international best practices designed to infuse principles of public health and human rights into places of detention. She leads educational experiences in public-health focused practices for prison healthcare and security staff; writes and lectures about the medical basis for ending solitary confinement; partners with community-based organizations and policy makers to improve compassionate release policies for incarcerated patients with serious illness; and conducts research and evaluation to optimize the response to disability, dementia, and serious illness in correctional settings.
Jennifer James is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. James is a qualitative researcher and Black Feminist scholar whose research lies at the intersection of race, gender, and health, with a focus on experiences of cancer and chronic illness.
Dr. Covinsky is a clinician-researcher in the UCSF Division of Geriatrics. His research seeks to understand the factors that lead to disability in older persons and to improve the quality of life of those with older age disability and their caregivers. He holds the Edmund G. Brown, Sr Distinguished Professorship in Geriatrics and is Principal Investigator of the UCSF Older Americans Independence Center.
Jamila Henderson has spent her career using data-driven research in collaboration with community and government partners to inform public policy and improve conditions for vulnerable populations. Prior to joining Amend, Jamila worked as a Senior Research Associate at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, where her work focused on higher education and the intersection of the criminal legal and public health systems. Before this, Jamila worked as a Senior Associate at PolicyLink, where she equipped grassroots leaders across the country with data to advance racial and economic equity. She also worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University. There she led data linking and research efforts for a coalition working to improve educational outcomes for youth. Jamila has a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College.
Shoka Marefat is a Program Manager at Amend. Shoka received her MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Impact from the University of San Francisco in 2019. Prior to joining Amend, Shoka was a Program Manager at the Center for Vulnerable Populations at UCSF. Her work there galvanized her passion for making an
