DR. KANIKA TOMALIN | President and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
Spring is often a time of rebirth and new opportunities. At the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, last month was no exception to that rule. We started April, which is National Minority Health Month, with Dr. Uché Blackstock, a Harvard-trained physician and best-selling author who works at the intersection of health and racism. She offered critical evidence and insights on race and health to more than 60 clinicians from across our region. I highly recommend her book Legacy to anyone looking to gain a deeper perspective on how healthcare and systemic racism intersect.
On the heels of that inspiring gathering, we partnered with the Minority Health Coalition of Pinellas (MHCP) to host hundreds of community members as well as many dedicated local clinicians in our Center for Health Equity for the 19th African American Health Forum.
Early in my career, I helped host the first forum at what is now Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital. Joining with MHCP again to rekindle this valuable community offering was both a full circle moment and the beginning of a powerful new chapter of partnership in the story of our community’s health. We’re so appreciative of MHCP for the care they show our community and their continued efforts to elevate our shared well-being.
Finally, in late April, we gathered with community to release our latest grant opportunity, Healthy People 2025. We’re grateful to our partners at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital for matching our investment so that, together, we may award up to four grants of $250,000 each, or $1 million in total, to support multi-sector collaborations advancing systemic change in the factors that shape our health.
At the Foundation, we believe that systems change is crucial to creating a community in which all people can lead healthy lives. Only by addressing the root causes of problems can we ensure people have access to the resources and opportunities they need to achieve healthy outcomes down the road. No single organization can tackle true systemic change alone; it requires collaborations across sectors to boldly reimagine how our systems can better support the people they are intended to serve.
To change systems, we start by identifying a problem, asking why it exists, and working to change the conditions that hold that problem in place. The total of a problem’s conditions or causes cannot be easily or always addressed at once. Systems change can be incremental, and it need not be complicated or complex. As people created the systems that shape our community and our world, people also have the power to change them.
At the Foundation, we’ve funded many successful projects and partners that have helped change the systems that shape our health for the better, from innovative programs that match senior citizens with public school classrooms in need of additional support, to medical-legal partnerships that address health-harming problems, to efforts that develop and support our local entrepreneur community.
We’re grateful for the great work that is already being done in our community to engage in systemic change – and we’re so excited to support transformational systems work in the years ahead. Our community is stronger and more vibrant when all of its members have the opportunity to lead healthy lives, and all of us have a role to play in bringing this vision to life. Thank you for the ways you answer this call.
Dr. Kanika Tomalin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. In this role, she leads, directs, and integrates all aspects of the Foundation’s internal and external activities and initiatives. Working closely with the Foundation team, Dr. Tomalin creates and executes the Foundation’s strategic plan—overseeing grantmaking, strategic initiatives, and the Center for Health Equity. She guides the organization as a steward of the community’s resources, consistently reporting back to the community and ensuring decisions and plans of action are mission-aligned and based in equity.
