We partner for: collaboration, dissemination, training, evaluation, and recruitment.
OHNI partner organizations are nationally recognized leaders with expertise in oral health, public health, health equity research, data collection and analysis, healthcare innovation, program evaluation, community engagement, workforce development, capacity development, and collaboration/partnerships with non-traditional stakeholders.
The individual and combined experiences, strengths, and networks of these organizations provide a strong backbone and foundation to design, implement, and achievement of desired outcomes.
Primary Partners
Critical Learning Systems, Inc.
“Recognizing historical and contemporary injustices is the gateway to achieving health equity for all.” – Cherry Houston, President and CEO.
Critical Learning Systems (CLS) was founded in 1986 by Cherry L. Houston. Its vision is to develop and sustain online resources that enables and supports meaningful use of data to achieve health equity for all populations. CLS works with a network of partners, collaborators, health equity consortiums, national and regional health equity councils, and other partners to advance regional and national health equity efforts. Click here, learn more about CLS and its health equity efforts.
National Community Mapping Institute Meharry Medical College
The NCMI under the direction of Wansoo Im, PhD, is housed within the Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence (HDRCOE) at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. The shared mission of the HDRCOE and NCMI is to eliminate health disparities, promote health equity, inform public policy, and transform public health practice through the advancement of academic/community partnerships and promotion of the use of public health informatics in bio-medical, clinical, health services, and translational research. NCMI leads the tool and website development work for the OHNI project. Click here, to learn more about NCMI’s work visit
THI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy organization working to improve the health of communities across Texas and the United States. Through engagement, research, and education, THI works to empower communities, practitioners, and stakeholders with knowledge to drive action, solutions, and sound policy.
Under the leadership of Ankit Sanghavi, THI’s Executive Director, they serve as the research and evaluation team lead for the OHNI Project. Click here, to learn more about THI’s oral health and health equity work.
Secondary Partners
Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!)
“Creating Community Change”
Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) has developed a nationally-recognized model of social change through youth empowerment and works to leverage the unique skills and power of young people. YES! conducts and facilitates evaluation of the OHNI GIS mapping training for the purposes of developing a strategy and action plan to map social determinants of oral health that may include: dentist offices, fast food locations, grocery stores, healthy corner stores, transportation routes and other social determinants of health. Click here to learn more about YES!
NPA/OMH Southeastern Health Equity Council (SHEC)
The SHEC is one of ten regional councils formed in 2011 as part of the NPA, a national initiative to reduce health disparities coordinated by the Department of Health and Human Services and Office of Minority Health. The vision of SHEC is a region free of disparities in health and health care where all people attain the highest level of health. The SHEC serves as a key disseminator, convener, and researcher for OHNI. Click here, to learn more SHEC’s mission and work in the region.
NCHE/HELEN is a national network designed to bolster leadership and the exchange of ideas and information among health equity champions relative to the advancement of equity in health laws, policies, and programs. NCHE works to advance health equity by measuring conditions for health, building leadership, and connecting partners and sectors to dismantle structures and systems that maintain status quo inequality. NCHE / HELEN serves as key disseminator, promoter, and trainer for the OHNI Project.
MG is a consulting organization with a mission to improve children and family wellbeing through policy, data, and advocacy capacity building and community partnership building. MG has significant experience producing materials for those using data to make the case for change, whether it be for program planning or evaluation, fund development, policy change, and community/coalition conversations. Click here, to learn more about MG’s work.
National Oral Health Connection Team, National Oral Health 2020 Network & OH2020 Workgroups
The NOHCT is a group of oral health leaders from all levels of the Oral Health 2020 National Network (grasstops, grassmiddles, grassroots) that bring a diverse range of knowledge and experience from a variety of sectors that impact oral health (providers, public health workers, community advocates, educators, and representatives of professional organizations).
The Petersburg Wellness Consortium (PWC)
PWC launched in the Fall 2012, is an academic-community partnership, known as the WE Project was established to address obesity in Petersburg. Support for the WE Project and the academic-community partnership was funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The PWC serves as a key connector to community users for the OHNI project. Click here, to learn more about PWC and its work around health equity.k
The Florida Institute for Health Innovation (FIHI)
FIHI is one of several sister public health institutes throughout the United States. FIHI is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that improves community health through innovation and collaborative change. Founded in 2001 the FIHI originated with the operational support of the Miami Dade County Public Health Department.