Manal J. Aboeleta
Public Health Advocate
“All people, regardless of the color of their skin, the income they make, their level of education, their mother language, or the divine that they believe in, deserve communities that give them sustenance, hope, and inspiration. A healing neighborhood strives to create and improve environments, resources, and conditions so that all members have continuous and ongoing access to a high quality of stability and peace, shelter, education, food, income, a balanced ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice, and equity. Collective efforts are undertaken with cultural awareness and sensitivity toward the aim of healing neighborhood wounds, including intergenerational trauma. We all deserve to live in healing communities.”
Biography
Manal J. Aboelata is the daughter of Mamdouh Aboelata and Rokaya Al-Ayat. Her parents emigrated from Egypt to the United States in the mid-1960s. As an Oakland, California-born Egyptian woman, she is deeply proud of her African heritage. It has shaped her personal identity and informed her values and foundational beliefs which include the importance of unity in achieving social equality and healing communities where all people can thrive, and the belief that all people of African descent share a common past and are inextricably linked in destiny. In her 20 years practicing in the field of public health, she has designed and built effective networks that have achieved significant public policy wins. She has worked alongside dynamic partners to inform public narratives, influence agency practices, and redirect resources to communities of greatest need.
For the last 16 years, Aboelata has centered her energy on generating collective solutions to address racial and spatial inequities in neighborhood conditions, contributing to a broad range of built environment issues including: urban parks, healthy food access, accessible school grounds, neighborhood safety, clean air, land use policy, and walkability. Throughout her career she has sought to serve localized community efforts and broader social movements aimed at improving city life, addressing climate change, and ameliorating neighborhood conditions. Her academic, professional, and civic contributions have been recognized by the UCLA School of Public Health, the Durfee Foundation, State Senator Curren D. Price, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.