CCHA Team

Kathia Valverde

Kathia Valverde is originally from Costa Rica, she has lived in the United States for over 30 years. She has a BA degree in Accounting and Business Administration / English as a Second Language; and two Associate Degrees in Early Childhood and Liberal Arts. She has served as an interpreter and translator for South Carolina Department of Social Services, family court, several attorneys, and several medical entities in the state. She is the former Coordinator of the HABLA Project at UofSC which served the Latino community of the State with Interpretation and Translations through DSS. Kathia also served as the State Reproductive Health Coordinator at PASOs for the Latino community, part of a State-wide Initiative aiming to ensure that every person regardless of their ability to pay; has access to receive the contraceptives of their choice. Presently She is a Community Health Worker Project Coordinator for PASOs-CCHA working with youth 14- to 24-year-old counseling on life plans, unplanned pregnancies, STI’s, HIV prevention and resources. Her passion is to serve in solidarity, advocacy and activism for issues affecting minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ community and women rights. Her inspiration leads her to serve in several community councils, committees, boards, and local Schools. Kathia loves to travel de world, spend time with her family, she is an active lover of animals, nature, the ocean, and her garden.

Mayra Lubov

Mayra Lubov is a Community Health Worker and the PASOs Deputy Director. Mayra is the former PASOs Connections for Childhood Development program coordinator, where she led a statewide team of CHWs who support Latino children’s development in South Carolina. She has more than 15 years of experience serving the community through various roles in both the U.S. and South America. She’s also worked with stakeholders throughout South Carolina with the primary goal of strengthening our Latino community. Mayra holds a bachelor’s degree in Education, Humanities, and Modern Languages. Since she started her work as a Community Health Worker with PASOs in 2016, she has become passionate about the impact that public health has on her community. Because of her experiences working with PASOs, she is now pursuing a master’s degree in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior.

As a former teacher, who is now a CHW, Mayra truly believes that education is a powerful and vital tool for our communities to thrive.

Maria Martin

Maria A. Martin is Executive Director for PASOs, a statewide community-based organization within the Center for Community Health Alignment and hosted at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Founded in 2005, PASOs helps Latin@ communities and service providers work together to sustain strong and healthy families in South Carolina for the advancement of our state. Maria was born in El Paso, Tx. and raised in the U.S. by Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrant parents pursuing a better life in the States. Her father’s military career brought her to South Carolina at the tender age of 16 years old which is why she now considers this state her home. She is an individual who has always sought to utilize her love for public health, social and mental health, education, skills, and her passion for social justice, for the betterment of underserved and vulnerable populations with a focus on supporting Latin@ populations that can benefit from her bilingual and bicultural competencies. Maria is a proud community health worker and has a Master of Social Work Degree from the University of South Carolina. She also has 22 years of leadership and non-profit/public programs administrative and community health work experience with a focus on Latin@ communities in our state. Maria is a committed professional who has a heart for community work and understands how to meet communities where they are to build upon their strengths for optimal wellbeing and lifelong success.

Julie Smithwick

Julie Smithwick has over twenty-five years of experience working alongside communities and families to find solutions to address health and social inequities. Trained as a Community Health Worker in Ecuador, Julie founded and led PASOs, a community-based organization that works alongside community leaders to promote change through collective action. While leading PASOs’ statewide team of Community Health Workers, Julie helped found the South Carolina Community Health Workers Association in 2014. Julie is a member of the state leadership team of the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina where she leads the statewide Health Equity Action Team. Julie is also on the Boards of Directors of various organizations including the National Association of Community Health Workers, Cooperative Health, and the Blue Ridge Institute for nonprofit leaders. Julie is passionate about meaningful community engagement, leadership development and addressing racism and health inequities.

Lizbet Herranz

Lizbet Herranz was born in Cuba, she came to the united states in 2005. As a recently arrived immigrant she faced many barriers and a lack of knowledge, however, this never stopped her from following her dream. Now through PASOs in her role as a CHW, she can help connect and support the Latino and Hispanic families in SC. She feels very passionate about her work and one of the biggest honors and privileges that she is enjoying now, is that she can use her experience to help with the hard situations that many families are dealing with in the state.

 Lizbet is the mother of two, a boy and a girl.

 She loves the beach, traveling with her family, dancing, and biking alongside the beach.

 She has a dog, a cat, and parakeets because she loves animals and nature. She is always is looking for ways to guide her family and others to take care of the planet and all the creatures that live in it.

Ana Cossio

Originally from Cuba, Ana Cossio came to the United States in 2004 with her husband and her son. Mrs. Cossio holds an educational degree from Cuba with a concentration in Biology. She recently graduated from a MSW program at the University of South Carolina.

Ana has been an integral member of the PASOs team since 2009. In 2017, she was promoted to the Training Manager position. Through this position, Ana works to help PASOs achieve its mission of Latino leadership development with the creation of the PASOs Core Competency Training for Community Health Workers (CHW) and providing high quality training to PASOs promotores. She is also working on the expansion of PASOs’ Core Competency training to offer it in Spanish to CHWs of other organizations that will work with the Latino communities. Mrs. Cossio has helped train over 50 PASOs promotores, and an additional seven promotores at the University of Georgia in Athens. Ana is passionate about serving others and advocating for the rights of underserved communities.

Lillie Fox

“If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.” These lines govern the life of Lillie Fox. She has been serving the community for over 40 years. Ms. Fox has been involved in all aspects of community service from mentoring, molding, teaching, and organizing; enlightening and reaching out to all those in need. Lillie Fox worked in all facets of servant leadership from school, churches, prison, to other arenas. Noticeably, her special dedication has been to care for babies, mothers, fathers, and families for the last three decades. She was awarded the Algenon Sidney Sullivan award for outstanding community service on May 8, 2008. Lillie is a member of the South Carolina Community Health Worker Association (SCCHWA) , SE/CHW work group, and serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW). Fox is a graduate of Coker University, where she earned her Bachelor in Social Work (BSW) and South University, where she earned her MA. She has also been certified as a Community Health Worker by SCCHWA.

Dom Francis

Dom Francis is the Training Manager for the CCHA’s Community Health Worker Institute within the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health. He brings to the table over 4 years nuanced public health experience in areas including fitness, qualitative evaluation, and workforce development. As the Training Coordinator, Dom’s primary role is to develop curricula and facilitate training for the Center’s anchor initiative, the Community Health Worker Institute. The institute currently offers Community Health Worker Core Competency Training (approved by the South Carolina Community Health Worker Credentialing Council) as well as several specialized trainings for community facing health professionals. Dom is excited to spearhead the Institute’s offering of training and looks forward to growing the professional development opportunities given to health professionals in South Carolina.

Dom also serves as an active member of the South Carolina Community Health Worker’s Association and is a part of the SCCHWA Education and Advocacy Committee.  Dom is a two-time Gamecock. At UofSC, he received both his Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Science and Masters in Public health: Health Services, Policy, and Management emphasis. With a passion for studying and addressing public health issues within his home state, Dom fully supports the center’s mission of “Working together to magnify equitable health.”

Kim Rawlinson

Kimberly brings over ten years of experience to CCHA in health disparity reduction by fostering community outreach and engagement in underserved and rural communities in South Carolina. She has spent most of her public health career working with academic and community-based organizations coordinating and conducting cancer-related community outreach programs. As the Community Health Worker Specialist, Kimberly’s primary role is to coordinate a community-based research project centered on meaningful community engagement, assist with integration of the community health worker (CHW) model into organizations and health systems, and provide support to CHWs and organizations.

Kimberly is a graduate of the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, where she received a Master’s Degree in Public Health. She received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Tuskegee University.
She enjoys working for and collaborating with organizations whose focus is to improve health equity for all people. It is through the CCHA that Kimberly believes that she can bring about change and help to bring a voice to those who are most affected by health inequities.

Melody Meanor

Melody was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, she resides in Columbia, SC. She has a bachelor’s in social work and a master’s in health care administration. Melody developed a passion for helping others in her childhood. She saw many people in her personal life as well as her community who were affected by health and social disparities which ultimately shaped her career path. Professionally, she spent the first seven years of her career working in the field of social services working in psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment facilities for youth, department of social services, memory and skilled nursing care, and medium security correctional institution.

In 2011, she transitioned her career to the health care industry by working for multiple affiliates at Planned Parenthood as well as working privately for a local OB/GYN office. Additionally, she spent most of her life volunteering and most recently she has had the opportunity to serve for AmeriCorps Vista program for the service year of 2019-2020 at ReGenesis Health Care. During her AmeriCorps service she was provide support in the areas of quality, risk management, and community-health programming. She is excited to be apart of University of South Carolina School of Public Health – Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA) and to work with such a passionate and dedicated team.

Cartia Higgins

Cartia Higgins is a Community Health Worker Researcher for the Community Health Alignment Center (CCHA) within the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health. She has over a decade of experience working in the healthcare field serving in several communities helping the underserved population. She is an experienced Community Health Worker who has developed a passion for helping others. Cartia is a training facilitator for CCHA and has been working in this capacity since 2020. She is also a member of the SC Community Health Worker Association and the National Association of Community Health Workers.

Additionally, Cartia sits on the board for Girls on the Run, a nonprofit organization in the upstate. Cartia is passionate about community engagement, building relationships, making connections, and having that authentic relationship with the people she engages with.

Jemia Jefferson

Jemia was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. Although higher education temporarily took her away, she always knew she would return to her roots and give back to the village that helped her become who she is today.

Inspired by her high school physical education teacher, Jemia found an interest in the field of health and wellness. She merged her passion of helping others with her love of health, to explore what the field had to offer. As various health disparities continue to plague minority communities, Jemia is on a mission to help educate others on living a healthy lifestyle. She has helped to organize community health fairs, testing sites, and screenings for the underserved populations. Jemia especially enjoys working with youth and teens, as she feels it is a population that is often overlooked.

Jemia currently conducts physical activity and nutrition research with youth. She is a former middle/high school health and physical education teacher. Additionally, she has also worked in maternal and child health education with Palmetto Healthy Start. Jemia is always looking for new opportunities to educate and lend a hand in her community. She is excited about working with CCHA!

Jemia holds a Master of Arts degree in Physical Education from the University of South Florida, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health/Wellness from Winthrop University. In her spare time, she enjoys hanging with her family, cooking and traveling.

LaShandra Morgan

LaShandra Morgan is a health educator who works with the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control-Lowcountry Community Systems Team to assists communities in reducing the incidence and prevalence of chronic disease and to work on policies, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Chemistry, a Master of Public Health degree, and is currently finishing her Doctor of Education degree.

LaShandra believes that everyone deserves to have the best quality of life possible regardless of who they are, where they are from, or their level of income. For this reason, she makes sure to weave health equity into every project she takes on.

LaShandra is proud of the collaborative work she has done with the Bamberg County Community Rural Arts Work League (CRAWL) to improve the health of those that live in Bamberg County, SC through pedestrian planning, park revitalization, etc.; the Healthy Tri-County Diabetes Coalition to help expand the National Diabetes Prevention Program into the rural pockets of the Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester Counties, and her drug/tobacco prevention work through Smoke-Free Lowcountry and the Berkeley County Prevention Board.

LaShandra is most proud of her work with healthy food access. She has been able to achieve increasing healthy food access with low-income and rural populations by helping to establish and a non-profit organization called Growing COB who has teamed up with Eat Smart Move More SC, the Tri-County Health Network, and the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development (SCACED), various libraries, as well as others to increase healthy food access through community gardening in low-income communities and food deserts. LaShandra has also had experience with starting food pantries and transforming food pantries into “healthy” food pantries. LaShandra explains that while food pantries are in the business of alleviating hunger, they simultaneously increase people’s risk of chronic disease and decrease health outcomes because a lot of the food that is donated and distributed is unhealthy. Because of this phenomenon, LaShandra links food pantries with local farmers and coordinates gleaning efforts so that food pantries can give away fresh produce.

Whitney Davis

Whitney Davis is from Hartsville, SC and graduated from Mayo High School for Math, Science, and Technology in 2004. From there she went to college and attended Coastal Carolina University, graduating in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science with a minor in Communications. Whitney previously worked with Teen Pregnancy Prevention in Chesterfield, SC. There she gained experience with youth, reproductive health education, contraceptive use, and planned and unplanned pregnancies. Whitney is currently a member of the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health Community Health Worker Ambassador Program and a graduate of the 2019-2020 Leadership Hartsville Class. In addition, she is the Community Health Manager and lead Family Planning Health Worker for Darlington County First Steps in Hartsville, SC.

Whitney is passionate about working with and advocating for the community and providing needed resources with a special emphasis on connecting with mothers.

Dakshu Jindal

Dakshu Jindal is a doctoral student in the department of Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina. She received her masters and bachelor’s degree in Economics and has over 4 years of work experience in health policy and financing in developing countries such as India and the Philippines. Her research interest includes tobacco cessation, maternal and child health, community health and spatial access to health services.