Cieara Simmons (she/her)

Hi everyone, my name is Cieara, and I’m a second-year Master of Public Health student in the Health and Social Behavior concentration. I’m a first-generation college graduate and the first in my family to attend graduate school. I grew up in Oakland, California, where I witnessed firsthand how barriers to health care, housing, and social services shape people’s lives. These experiences led me to work at my university’s Basic Needs Center as an undergraduate, connecting students to food, housing, and financial resources, and later to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco as a representative payee supporting residents experiencing homelessness and housing instability work that continues to inform how I approach equity-centered public health practice.

Most recently, I completed an internship with Santa Clara County Public Health’s Harm Reduction Program through the Overdose Data to Action initiative, which concluded in December. In this role, I supported grant writing, program planning, and outreach efforts focused on overdose prevention and harm reduction for communities experiencing housing instability. I have also worked with Health Management Associates on community-engaged public health consulting projects, supporting health systems and local agencies in designing and evaluating equity-focused initiatives. Additionally, my involvement with GirlXLab strengthened my commitment to participatory, youth-centered, and community-driven approaches to innovation and research.

Across my academic, professional, and community work, I am grounded in equity, empathy, and action. I am especially interested in applied research and collaborative problem-solving that bridges community knowledge with institutional systems to create more responsive, just, and impactful public health solutions values that align strongly with the mission and work of the Possibility Lab.