Umoja Health

Dr. Kim Rhoads is the founding Director of Umoja Health, a community coalition created in 2020 to rapidly mobilize to address the COVID-19 disparities facing communities of color. Umoja Health was conceived by and out of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center’s (HDFCCC) Community Advisory Board (CAB). Umoja Health is built on a foundation of the trusted relationships built over the past 17 years, between the HDFCCC, the CAB and the broad network of community stakeholders across the Bay Area and beyond. 

Umoja Health’s mission is to build coalitions that increase community capacity to achieve health equity. Read more here.

Umoja Health timeline
Timeline and Impact of Umoja Health

After taking on COVID-19 testing and vaccination under a new model of community-led care delivery, Umoja Health has expanded its scope to address the burden of cancer, other chronic diseases and unmet social needs that have left communities of color especially vulnerable during the pandemic. Under Dr. Rhoads’s continuing leadership, Umoja Health has grown to engage with more than 105 community-based partners and has reached more than 18,000 individuals with public health education, health screenings, and vaccinations, while also cultivating a diverse community workforce.

Umoja Health Impact:

•       >170 weekly meetings with stakeholders including public health officials*

•       >15,000 door knocks/engagement with navigation to county vax sites

•       >200 pop-ups across the Bay Area

•       >12,000 tests & vaccines delivered to >51% African-American participants by community volunteers

•       $2.5 million in contracts & grants for community partners

•       Umoja Health Workforce Development

   2020-23

  • 1 Certified Medical Assistant
  • 2+ Medical Students
  • 1 Masters/RN Student
  • 1 working in STEM Industry
  • 1 Pathways to Public Health Fellow

More Impact: Using the Umoja Health Platform to Navigate People into Care

Umoja Health innovates by linking traditional health system competitors

Umoja Health Partners leverage the coalition to help their family members & networks access care      

Navigation into Care:

  • 2 CRC dx colonoscopy
  • 3 CRC care/surgery;
  • 4 Breast cancer
  • 3 AML/ALL
  • 1 Lung cancer
Umoja Health impact
Using the Umoja Health Platform to Navigate Patients Into Care