We envision a world where public health fundamentally improves life for everyone.
Our mission is to advance health equity by fostering bold ideas and launching high-impact solutions.
Springboard HealthLab was founded by Jen Hecht of BHOC and Shelley Facente of Facente Consulting. Springboard focuses on incubating new ideas and helping to implement them successfully. Facente Consulting supports organizations to research, plan, and improve programs. Facente Consulting supports Springboard by raising funds for infrastructure costs, offering pro bono services, and generously donated in-kind back-office support for our start-up and launch period. This has helped Springboard stay lean and nimble, and focus revenue almost entirely on incubation and project implementation.
About our ED
Jen Hecht, MPH, has over 20 years of experience in public health, with a focus on sexual health, youth homelessness, and substance use. Her work has evolved from direct service in settings such as needle exchange sites, street-based and mobile outreach, and a community health clinic to include program development, monitoring and evaluation, and community-based research. She is a Co-Founder of Building Healthy Online Communities, a consortium of public health and app owners working together to further HIV and STI prevention. In addition to work with dating apps, her research has focused on alcohol use in the queer community and development of structural interventions. She is excited to begin a new chapter as Co-Founder and Executive Director of Springboard HealthLab.
Meet our Board of Directors
Ina Park MD, MS is a Professor at the UCSF School of Medicine in the Departments of Family and Community Medicine & Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. She is the Medical Director of the California Prevention Training Center and Medical Consultant, in the Division of STD Prevention at the CDC. She is the author of Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History and Surprising Secrets of STDs, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times and Scientific American.
Dr. Sheoran is a medical doctor, executive leader, innovator, strategist, and a self-taught techie with a commitment to create a more equitable world. He has led high-performing teams focused on innovation and has extensive experience in the design, development and evaluation of innovative digital health tools.
Shelley Facente is a public health consultant with over two decades of experience working with government agencies and community-based non-profits. She has a PhD in epidemiology and MPH in Health and Social Behavior from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as an HIV prevention-focused health program coordinator at the San Francisco Department of Public Health before venturing out to found Facente Consulting in 2009. She is also a Co-Founder of SpringboardHealthLab.
Kyriell Noon joined Hamilton Families as the CEO in October 2020. Prior to Hamilton Families, Noon served for 20 years in the SF non-profit sector at Juma Ventures, Youth and Family Enrichment Services, STOP AIDS Project, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and GLIDE. Originally from New York City, Noon attended Vassar College and Harvard University, is engaged to be married, and has two adult sons.
David W. Purcell, JD, PhD, is an attorney and clinical psychologist who retired in May 2021 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he spent 25 years in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. David has been an advocate for the legal and sexual rights of LGBTQ persons and persons living with HIV since the mid-1980s. He currently lives in Atlanta with his husband of 30 years, Steve, and his extroverted pitbull Lula Mae.
Amy Coty is an ERP Implementation Consultant with JMT Consulting Group serving nonprofits and NGOs exclusively worldwide. She has been a finance and operations officer for over 20 years, designing and implementing initiatives in both established and early stage nonprofit and for profit organizations. Amy is a member of the Audit Committee of the East Bay Jewish Community Center. She earned her BA at Brandeis University and her MBA at North Park College and Theological Seminary.
Russell Roybal serves as Chief Advancement Officer at San Francisco AIDS Foundation where they lead the fundraising, volunteering, communications and branding efforts that resource the organization’s mission of health justice for all. As a Latinx, male-bodied, non-binary queer leader, their activism is rooted in a family tradition of public service and the pursuit of social justice. When Russell’s not working they’re likely underwater SCUBA diving or living their life on the dance floor.
Dennis Barbour is Co-Founder and President/CEO of The Partnership for Male Youth. An attorney with decades of experience in the nonprofit health field, he has served as a CEO and advisor to national and international organizations composed of physicians and other health care providers, patients, researchers, academicians and caregivers in the fields of primary care, dermatology, reproductive health, preventive medicine, HIV/AIDS, addiction, geriatric and end of life care.