About Elham Ali, MPH, PMP
My dad is from a generation of farmers and fishers in Bahrain. I grew up with my parents involved in buying fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers' markets and building relationships with fishmongers in our town. Throughout the years, I watched as families and friends could not access healthy and nutritious food. Consequently, many in my social circle have suffered from diabetes, obesity, and breast cancer. They felt hopeless and alone.
I impact food insecurity and diet-related diseases by designing large-scale innovative products and services, evaluating their impact, and building health equity competencies for food apartheid communities. I focus on impacting nutrition programs like SNAP and WIC, farm-to-school nutrition, school lunch and breakfast programs, and anti-hunger efforts. This is what drives me.
I have a decade of experience in research and evaluation, human-centered design, writing, health literacy and communication, and project management. I’ve collaborated with local and state governments, nonprofits, coalitions, foundations, enterprises, and startups to research, design, and launch innovative solutions for HIV, substance use disorders, COVID-19 vaccination, testing, value-based care, and others. Some of my proudest achievements:
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Led health equity research, health communication, and website and mobile design with 19 local and state governments to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and testing.
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Managed a rebranding merger and acquisition of six companies for a $50B publicly-traded company, resulting in over 500 rebranded collaterals with communication plans.
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Defined content and design recommendations for a patient vaccine portal for a state government in Arizona, which accelerated the time employees book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment to three minutes and the entire user experience up to 16 minutes faster.
My process is rooted in anti-racism and intersectionality, driven by human-centered design, implementation science, systems thinking, community-based participatory research, and trauma-informed care. I live by deeply listening, empathizing, delivering efficient and evidence-based work, fostering psychological safety, and being flexible. In my spare time, I'm a gardener and hydroponics farmer.