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How Multiple Leaps Of Faith Has Led CEO And Media Mogul Necole Kane To Live Out Her Purpose

Allow her to reintroduce herself! As a self-proclaimed “queen of career pivots,” Necole Kane is the epitome of persistence personified. Her initial claim to becoming widely recognized on the worldwide web began during her late 20s. Before today’s blogs like The Shade Room took over our timelines, Kane was behind the popular celebrity news and gossip blog Necole Bitchie. While the former blogger had great success with the platform — raking in 20 million visitors every month — a shift began of what she wanted for herself. There was an apparent sense of emptiness in both her personal life and in the media. Therefore, after a seven-year run, she shut down the site. The end of that chapter cleared the way for Kane’s ultimate rebrand. “I’m learning that as I create companies to always have them represent my personal growth and where I am in life,” she told AfroTech. “When I crossed over into my thirties, that’s when I started looking for more purpose and intention. I started looking...

Ngozi Nwanji

Mar 31, 2022

How An Autoimmune Disorder Led This Founder To Create Health & Wellness App 365zing

Are you a Black woman who needs help when it comes to devoting time to self-care? Well, there’s officially an app for that. After a decades-long journey to healing, Nzingah Oniwosan created the 365zing app, which centralizes features that are found separately on individual apps into one location to help Black women get on track with their health goals physically, mentally and spiritually. Through a wellness tracker built in the app, users can track their health goals and also create a weekly wellness schedule. From there, they can curate their week through the use of a database of healthy plant-based recipes, meditations and movement classes, including yoga and dance. Courses to dive deeper into specific areas of wellness while owning the entire process are also available for users allowing them the chance to interact with one another. In addition, there’s also an option to pair with an accountability partner.

Shanique Yates

Oct 17, 2021

ClipDart Is The Mobile Barber Service Black Students At PWIs Have Been Waiting For

When Kyle Parker began attending a predominantly white institution (PWI), he quickly realized that getting a decent haircut would be a challenge. In his predominantly white college town, there were no Black barbers. In fact, the closest Black barber was two hours away by car. The ordeal seriously impacted his mental health as he wasn’t able to look and feel his best. He also realized that other Black students were probably facing the same challenges, so he began dreaming up a solution. “Being African-American, I didn’t have the option to walk down the street to my favorite, affordable barbershop while attending Grinnell College in Iowa. The barbershop was a large part of my culture that was missing and became a factor in why I transferred after 3 years. Wherever I decided to attend, I had to have an equal chance to a great barber as most of my classmates. I knew it would tremendously help my mental health,” Parker told AfroTech. He eventually transferred out of Grinnell College but...

Colleen Williams

Jun 27, 2021

How Raniyah Copeland of The Black AIDS Institute Aims To Dispel Myths About The Disease

Raniyah Copeland of the Black AIDS Institute can remember a time when HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — was the scourge of the 1980s. She remembers when the virus wiped out a whole sub-population of Black and Latinx men — she remembers what they faced while they were alive — and she knows that while HIV isn’t the scourge it once was, it’s still a disease that disproportionately affects the Black community…and she knows why. “In the United States, health is driven by inequity,” she told AfroTech. “HIV, as a disease, has a unique stigma in that it’s associated specifically with certain sexuality, a certain race, and a certain socio-economic class. While society isn’t as overt with its racism about AIDS as it once was — there was a time when the CDC would say that being Haitian, for example, made you more susceptible to AIDS — we still have progress that needs to be made.” Progress is, ultimately, the goal of the Black AIDS Institute. Dedicated exclusively to eradicating the disease...

Shellie-Ann Kerns Is On A Mission To Decolonize The Food System

When Shellie-Ann Kerns left her home in Jamaica to join her husband in Washington State, she wasn’t sure what to expect. They moved to his family farm in Gray’s Harbor and she immediately began imagining ways to make the land productive. Family Roots “Farming for me, it’s in my blood on my mother’s side, and from her great grandmother, all the way down. My father’s family is also agricultural,” she said. “It’s something that I understand how it works. Something that I’ve just always been passionate about. When I came here, it was winter. And I needed to plant something. I did some research and I saw that, ‘hey, you can plant garlic in the middle of winter.’” Her first batch of garlic did so well that Kerns continued to plant garlic every winter. Now she’s taking her farming up a notch and making it a community affair. For her, farming is about supporting her community on a basic level. Decolonizing The Food System “What’s really driving me is the ability to feed the community,”...

Colleen Williams

May 15, 2021

WNBA Unveils Initiative To Address Racial Health Disparities For Black Women And Girls

The players of the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) have long since been vocal on behalf of the sports organization, calling attention to social issues that tackle racism, sexism, and more to demand change in the league and beyond. According to NewsOne, the WNBA recently launched an initiative that aims to directly address systemic inequities that contribute to the racial health disparities among Black women and girls. Ahead of the upcoming season, the organization, alongside the WNBPA (Women’s National Basketball Players Association) Social Justice Council — a collective of athletes and activists that was formed following last summer’s Black Lives Matter protest — will use this initiative as a vessel to highlight the socio-economic factors that significantly impact COVID-19 care for Black women and girls and offer educational tools about the vaccines. It will also promote the importance of prioritizing mental health in communities of color. As part of the initiative,...

Njera Perkins

Apr 19, 2021

Media Personality Johneri'O Scott Launches Digital #IAMNOTHIV Campaign for World Aids Day

Public health has been the most talked about topic of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but today marks another important day for our health and development as we continue to battle the HIV epidemic. World AIDS Day — held on the 1st of December every year — is a global health day that gives people the opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV worldwide and show their support. For this year’s World AIDS Day, media personality, talk show host, and HIV advocate Johneri’O Scott is using his own story living with HIV to help break the stigma in the Black community through his new digital campaign, #IAMNOTHIV. In this newly-launched campaign, Scott opens up about being diagnosed with HIV, challenges placed upon individuals living with HIV, and how he plans to educate communities in Georgia to help spread awareness about the virus. “I want to get my story out there and let people know that nothing can get in your way and nothing can stop you,” he said. “I want to inspire, empower, and...

Njera Perkins

Dec 1, 2020

Johnson & Johnson Commits $100M to Provide Health Equity Solutions For Black and Brown Communities

Healthcare company Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to expand its commitment and address racial and social injustice in the U.S. The organization has pledged $100 million over the next five years to invest in and promote health equity solutions for Black and brown communities across the country, according to a news release . The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the economy throughout the year and revealed implicit systemic racism that has greatly impacted health equity in America. “The quality of your healthcare should not be determined by your race and ethnicity,” said Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson, in a press statement . She continued her statement sharing her sentiments of the state of healthcare for Black and brown citizens in America: “There is an urgent need to take on the inequities rooted in systemic racism that threaten health in communities of color across the United States. That’s why Johnson & Johnson is focusing its efforts and...

Njera Perkins

Nov 18, 2020

Dr. Danielle Richardson Wants to Educate the Black Community on Proper Vision Care

It’s no secret that African Americans have been hit harder than any other group by COVID-19 . However, even before the pandemic, we knew that the Black community was at a disadvantage in the healthcare system. According to Cigna , a leading healthcare provider, Black people are 80 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, and 20 percent more likely to have visual impairments. Black women are also 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer. Dr. Danielle Richardson, an LA-based optometrist at Zak , is trying to help reduce these disparities. Dr. Richardson is a glaucoma-certified therapeutic optometrist and hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Indiana University Bloomington and a Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University School of Optometry. She is also licensed to practice optometry in New York, Texas, and California. Dr. Richardson is passionate about educating communities of color about the importance of proper...

Colleen Williams

Jul 23, 2020

Meet the Doctors of the First Black-Owned Urgent Care Center on Chicago's Southside

Healthcare professionals deserve their flowers now more than ever, especially this group of Black doctors. Last Spring, ER and trauma physicians Reuben C. Rutland, Airron Richardson, Michael A. McGee, and Gregory Primus united to open the first Black-owned urgent care facility in Chicago. Premier Health Urgent Care is located in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, an urban community that can benefit immensely from local and affordable health resources. Relief for the Southside “We live in the neighborhood and recognize when our children were injured or sick there was no urgent care nearby,” Dr. Richardson told ABC7 .  “You had to go to a completely different neighborhood several miles away.” This group of co-founders developed the idea for Premier due to the healthcare gap in the area. As a result, they offer proper care and support to those in need, as well as alleviate the growing strain on neighboring healthcare centers. The facility not only provides urgent physical care but also...

Niki McGloster

Apr 10, 2020

Bernard J. Tyson Shapes the Future of Health Care at Kaiser Permanente

To call Bernard J. Tyson an industry giant would still be a significant understatement. As Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente , Tyson heads an organization that provides care for 12.3 million members at 600+ locations across eight states and the District of Columbia. We had the fantastic opportunity to talk with him ahead of AfroTech 2019 about his career, the future of health care, and how Kaiser Permanente fights for equitable health care for its members and the 68 million residents in its surrounding communities. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. AfroTech: Mr. Tyson, you’ve been in the health care industry for about 35 years. In fact, your LinkedIn profile indicates that you studied health service management as an undergraduate and also earned an MBA with a focus on health services administration. Can you tell us what sparked your interest in health care? Bernard J. Tyson: When I was a child, my mother spent a lot of time with her doctor and in a hospital...

Colleen Williams

Nov 7, 2019

AI Is Helping Brain Scans Detect Alzheimer's Six Years Early

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have been working with machine-learning technologies to help detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease nearly six years early. According to an Alzheimer’s Association annual report , Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Older African-Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older whites. “One of the difficulties with Alzheimer’s disease is that by the time all the clinical symptoms manifest and we can make a definitive diagnosis, too many neurons have died, making it essentially irreversible,” Jae Ho Sohn, MD, MS, a resident in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UC San Francisco, said in a post. Sohn began using artificial intelligence with neuroimaging to predict the disease in patients who showed early signs of memory loss. PET scan images from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), which included images from patients who...

Arriana McLymore

Jan 8, 2019