Staff Highlight: Jennifer Ware

In the summer of 2021, Jennifer Ware, MPH, was named Deputy Director of The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements and Population Health Equity at the Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH). The Ubuntu Center, which officially launched on November 11, 2021, was made possible through the generosity of Dana and David Dornsife.

The Center’s mission is to unite diverse partners to generate and translate evidence, accelerate antiracism solutions, and transform the health of communities locally, nationally, and globally.

As Deputy Director, Ware is committed to using her skills and lived experience as a Black woman in America to support collaborative and collective action to expose the ways that structural racism feeds policies and laws in this country and advocate for innovative and sustainable ways to dismantle them. She is also committed to partnering with and learning alongside Black residents in Philadelphia and globally to develop action plans to demand repair of historical and current harms.

“My passion in life is to unleash the power of collective action for social change that will lead to the liberation of all people,” said Ware. “The vision of The Ubuntu Center offers the space to authentically engage with resident activists, use lessons from historical and current social movements, and develop a model for advocating for and implementing antiracism solutions that some only theorize about. The Center is where we can put theory into action.”

Jennifer Ware, MPH, is deputy director of The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements and Population Health Equity at the Dornsife School of Public Health.

Before transitioning to The Ubuntu Center fulltime, Ware worked at the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative (UHC) as a project coordinator. She did this while also completing her master’s in public health degree from Simmons University.

“The increased conversations about racism today and the many claims of racism as a public health crisis provides us with an opportunity to demand that action to dismantle systemic racism follow suit. If we know a harm exists, we have a duty to course correct.”

Ware previously worked as an equity consultant in Philadelphia and as an advocate for racial equity in southern Oregon and Washington, D.C.

Living in Oregon was one of the most pivotal times for Ware. There she spent her professional and personal time collaborating on ways to advance racial equity. Through a regional health equity coalition, she coordinated with professionals from many fields in partnership with community residents to advocate for policy, systems, and environmental changes that would improve health and well-being for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQIIA residents in the region.

In her spare time, she helped to start the Southern Oregon Racial Equity Coalition (REC) following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. What started as a storytelling space for Black and Brown community residents grew into an organizing and co-learning space for BIPOC residents and white comrades.

Alongside members of the REC, Ware worked to develop a racial equity toolbox to aid individuals in leading conversations about the impacts of racism. She also co-led community conversations and action-planning sessions to develop strategies to dismantle interpersonal and structural racism in the area. What started in southern Oregon is an example of community-driven action to develop a more just and cooperative way of being.

Her hard work was recognized in 2015 when Ware was awarded the Dolores Huerta Woman in Social Justice award and the REC was awarded the Inspiring Organization of the Year by Oregon Action/Unite Oregon a year later.