Nyisha Underwood, MPH

Nyisha Underwood is the Director of the Community Health Equity and Promotion (CHEP) Branch. Nyisha was previously the CHEP Deputy Director of Racial Equity and Community Sexual and Drug User Health. Nyisha has over 20 years of public health experience. She started her career in HIV prevention as a research assistant and community health outreach worker for the California Prevention and Education Project, a community-based organization (CBO) in Oakland, where she learned early on the importance of community engagement, community buy-in, and collaboration. Decreasing health disparities among populations that are most impacted and approaching work through an equity lens are very important to Nyisha.

Nyisha’s first time working with SFDPH was in 2008 for the AIDS Office as the Linkage to Care and Partner Services Coordinator where she created guidance and liaised with over 15 CBOs and SFDPH departments to collect and track HIV care and partner notification data. She went on to work for the California Department of Public Health as a Program Advisor/Trainer conducting training, developing curriculum, and providing technical assistance to health jurisdictions throughout the state.

For the past seven years, Nyisha has worked in CHEP where she has been fortunate and grateful to hold several positions. Nyisha holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from University California, Berkeley and a Master of Public Health in Community Health from San Francisco State University.