Grassroots Health
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Designed & Created By Quinest Bishop & 
Tyler (he/him/his) founded Grassroots Health (formerly The Grassroot Project) in 2009 when he was a student-athlete at Georgetown University. He had worked for several summers training soccer players in South Africa to use soccer as a tool for HIV prevention (Grassroot Soccer). Upon returning to DC for his final year of school, he learned that 1 in 20 DC residents were living with HIV, and he wanted to mobilize his teammates and fellow college athletes to support the city’s efforts in reducing new infections among youth. With help from teenagers at a youth drop-in center in DC, he adapted the South African curriculum to be effective in DC, and he recruited 40 athletes and four middle schools to take part in the initial pilot program of Grassroots Health. The organization has grown from there, and Tyler has led its strategic vision and partnerships, fundraising, and program evaluation.
Today, Tyler is driven by a clear focus on re-imagining school-based health education and physical activity for youth, and he believes in the model that has been co-created by Grassroots Health’s large family of staff, athletes, educators, students, and their family members. He believes that the changes we make as an organization in the coming years have the potential to impact the broader systems that have created cultures of stigma and inequitable access to health services across our country.
Tyler has a Ph.D. in Public Health and an M.Sc. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He holds a BA in International Health and Sustainable Development from the University of Virginia, and he holds post-graduate credits in social policy from Georgetown, where he dropped out shortly after starting Grassroots Health. For his leadership at Grassroots Health, Tyler has been named a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, a Skoll Associate Fellow in Entrepreneurship, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow in Health Equity by the Atlantic Institute.
T-Spence’s nickname is not that creative, but it has somehow withstood the test of time and resisted many attempts to rename him “Grandpa” or “Old Man,” as he is the oldest member of our team. He’s been with Grassroots since Day 1, and has grown alongside the organization in thanks to the many people who have helped shape Grassroots Health’s and his own intellectual and leadership journeys. When he is not at work, you can find him eating street tacos in Mexico City or out on the street looking for tamales from DC’s little-known @TheMexicanCowboy’s mobile tamale cart. He has not a single artistic bone in his body, but is willing to overlook that on only one occasion — when he hears South African house music, he’ll always try do the “Vosho,” his favorite move…it’s still a work in progress.
Tyler (he/him/his) founded Grassroots Health (formerly The Grassroot Project) in 2009 when he was a student-athlete at Georgetown University. He had worked for several summers training soccer players in South Africa to use soccer as a tool for HIV prevention (Grassroot Soccer). Upon returning to DC for his final year of school, he learned that 1 in 20 DC residents were living with HIV, and he wanted to mobilize his teammates and fellow college athletes to support the city’s efforts in reducing new infections among youth. With help from teenagers at a youth drop-in center in DC, he adapted the South African curriculum to be effective in DC, and he recruited 40 athletes and four middle schools to take part in the initial pilot program of Grassroots Health. The organization has grown from there, and Tyler has led its strategic vision and partnerships, fundraising, and program evaluation.
Today, Tyler is driven by a clear focus on re-imagining school-based health education and physical activity for youth, and he believes in the model that has been co-created by Grassroots Health’s large family of staff, athletes, educators, students, and their family members. He believes that the changes we make as an organization in the coming years have the potential to impact the broader systems that have created cultures of stigma and inequitable access to health services across our country.
Tyler has a Ph.D. in Public Health and an M.Sc. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He holds a BA in International Health and Sustainable Development from the University of Virginia, and he holds post-graduate credits in social policy from Georgetown, where he dropped out shortly after starting Grassroots Health. For his leadership at Grassroots Health, Tyler has been named a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, a Skoll Associate Fellow in Entrepreneurship, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow in Health Equity by the Atlantic Institute.
Grassroots Health
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Copyright © 2024 Grassroots Health. All rights reserved.