About Us
Who We Are
MY HEALTH REIMAGINED is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Richmond, Virginia. We are led by the foundational understanding that persistent health inequities are reinforced not only by access gaps and structural barriers but also by dominant narratives that frame systematically excluded communities primarily through a lens of risk, deficit, and disease burden.
Our Mission
We challenge harmful narratives that frame Black health as inherently deficient.
We equip communities with the context needed to hold research and health systems accountable.
Our Why
Communities most affected by health inequities are often positioned as subjects of study rather than partners in knowledge creation. This imbalance perpetuates outcomes that fail to fully reflect lived realities, and thereby inequitably impacts:
Clinical research design and participant selection
Healthcare interactions and treatment strategies
Policy priorities and funding allocations
Our Strategy
Our strategy is guided by the six principles of the THRIVE Framework™: Transforming mis-calibrated health frameworks to better represent our communities; Honoring the sovereignty of our health data and shifting decision-making power; Reclaiming our resiliences, strengthening our strengths, and realizing the origins of our risks; Innovating strategies to enhance our whole-person health; Valuing our ancestral and cultural roots; Exchanging knowledge through storytelling and the arts.
Our Actions
My Health Reimagined implements our strategy and achieves our mission via a multipronged approach that includes the THRIVE podcast series: a platform for bi-directional knowledge exchange that uplifts unheard, underrepresented, and undervalued voices; our Understanding the Science Webinar series: strengthens science literacy and equips communities with the context needed for shifting power dynamics; our THRIVE Book Club: empowers communities to hold research and health systems accountable while also reclaiming our resiliences and realizing the origins of our risks; and our Research Justice Initiative: builds community controlled infrastructure that honors the sovereignty of our health data and transforms research and health systems.
Our Vision
Our work will reshape how health is understood, how outcomes are discussed, and how studies are designed. We envision research and health systems that better serve all.
About the THRIVE Framework™
The THRIVE principles that guide our strategy represent the intellectual architecture of a rigorously developed, peer-reviewed foundation built by our founder, Dr. LaVerne L. Brown, through nearly a decade of scientific investigation at the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Brown conceived, proposed, and led the NIH Resilience Research Working Group, bringing together nine NIH institutes, centers, and offices to establish the first shared framework for resilience science across the federal biomedical enterprise. That body of work, confirmed by published research and recognized with the 2024 NIH DPCPSI Director's Award, is the root from which the THRIVE Framework™ grows.
My Health Reimagined is the branch of that framework that grows in the space where THRIVE principles meet lived experience, community voice, and the accountability structures that research and health systems are building.
Dr. Brown also operates LaVerne L. Brown PhD Consulting LLC, an independent consulting practice where she brings the full THRIVE Framework™ into organizational and systems-level health equity practice. The consultancy is the branch through which institutions, health systems, and policy organizations engage THRIVE as an operational framework for structural change. The two organizations are legally and operationally distinct, with separate governance structures. Together they represent the full reach of THRIVE: community-governed application here, and institutional systems change through the consultancy.
Organizations ready to bring THRIVE into their health equity frameworks, grantmaking strategy, or program design can connect with Dr. Brown directly through the consultancy.
Meet Dr. LaVerne L. Brown
LaVerne is the founding executive director of My Health Reimagined and host of the THRIVE podcast series. LaVerne experienced firsthand how her story was missing from narratives that determined the significance of some health outcomes over others and the appropriateness of established health standards. LaVerne launched My Health Reimagined to offer a space for storytelling and bi-directional learning after realizing a disconnect between her personal health story and the narratives that were normalized in her professional career as a biomedical scientist. She understands that when data are collected without regard to the lived experiences that shape those data, then health narratives can be distorted and health frameworks can miss the mark. LaVerne believes that when sharing our stories, we empower communities to reimagine a health system that better serves all.
LaVerne has an earned Ph.D. in natural products chemistry (1998) and post-doctoral training in medicinal chemistry (2001). She’s also gained experience as a policy fellow (2016-2018) via the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) policy program. For the past 25+ years, LaVerne has used her training and experiences for educating, community outreach, health advocacy, and policy/program reform.
For fun, LaVerne loves dancing to her favorite tunes, trying new dishes at outdoor cafes, and knitting while sitting in a cozy spot in front of the fireplace.
Meet the Team
-
LaVerne L. Brown, Ph.D.
FOUNDER and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
-
ALTHEA DUKE, BSN, RN
CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
-
ALBERT E. WALKER
TREASURER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
-
CHRISTINE CHÉRESTAL
2026 SUMMER INTERN
Spelman College c/o 2029
Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program and Psychology and Economics double major with a Mandarin minor
-
Secretary, Board of Directors (vacant)
(former) Yasmeen Nkrumah-Elie, Ph.D.
November 2025 - July 10, 2026