April Tolbert, Public Health Practitioner, intersecting public health with healing modalities as a strategy to transform public health practice.

“When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.” — Fannie Lou Hamer​

April is on a journey to nudge fellow public health practitioners, community based organizational leaders, small business owners and large corporations to build their organizational and staff capacity by centering healing modalities to strengthen impact and resilience.

With over 19 years of public health leadership, advocacy and commitment to racial and health equity at one of the largest state-certified local public health departments, April has served in many capacities to uphold its core principles of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Healing and transformation resources are April’s tools of choice and have been cornerstones of her public health profession as well as her personal and spiritual journey. She is excited to share how these fundamental practices and tools have been used to dig up roots, lay framework and set building blocks that have courageously led her on a path to her life’s mission: to nurture people’s healing and liberation by (re)connecting them to collective practices that can transform hearts, minds and bodies.

April is an unapologetic black woman first and foremost. She is also a mother to her 15-year-old son, Andrew, and wife to her college sweetheart of over 27 years, Norvell. April LOVES yoga, meditation, double-dutch, and more recently discovering self-healing.