Nakeya T. Fields, LCSW, PPSC, RPT-S
Founder of the Brain Well-Being Model® and author of Play Now. Thrive Later.®
TPF Staff members
Jocelin Rodriguez
Jocelin has worked in the ECM field since 2023, but before that she was working with children and families in a preschool setting. That's where she got her start in a classroom setting and moved up to enrolling children and working with families to complete goals. Prior to that she was in an office setting as an assistant. A fun fact about Jocelin is that she plays the piano at church and knows how to play the guitar.
Amber Helphingstine
Amber has experience as a Lead Care Manager and Street Outreach Case Manager, providing Enhanced Care Management (ECM) services to individuals experiencing homelessness and other high-risk Medi-Cal populations. Her background includes care coordination, community outreach, client advocacy, resource navigation, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to help clients access medical, behavioral health, housing, and social services. A fun fact about Amber is that she enjoys volunteering on the production team at her church, where she serves as a camera operator and stagehand.
Patricia Esquivel
Hello team! My name is Patricia (aka PJ, pronouns she/her). I have over 15 years of experience working closely with community service organizations - case management, in-home, school and community service delivery to families, individuals, law enforcement, unhoused, history of DV. I have experience with a variety of settings as well - residential, outreach, long term subsidies, school settings and many others. I choose to be of service, and have often held part time positions while in school and holding a full time job. So I have mastered creative problem solving and streamlining! I am looking forward to meeting you all. Thank you for creating space for me to join the team.
Tiff Dunlap
Tiff has 8+ years of experience in behavioral health, research, and community services! Their journey has taken them from providing direct care in the homes of children with neurodevelopmental disorders to conduct neuroscience research in the laboratories to assist the elderly in convalescent and nursing homes. They also have volunteered at both children's hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange County as well as the LA LGBT Center to support their respective missions. Currently they are finishing their masters degree in public health at the Keck School of Medicine in hopes to advance health equity and accessibility for historically marginalized communities.
Dominique Williams
Dominique Williams serves as the Operations & Facilities Coordinator, supporting the day-to-day systems, logistics, and administrative operations that keep the organization running smoothly. With a background in executive support, education, leadership, and customer service, Dominique brings a proactive, solutions-focused approach to her work. She enjoys improving processes, solving problems, and creating structure that helps teams work more efficiently. Outside of work, Dominique enjoys spending time with her son, exploring creative projects, and continuing to develop her skills in operations and project management.
Consultants
Akil Bell
Akil is the Founder of Dynamic VIRTUE Designs, a virtual design studio that creates and hosts community healing spaces through self-expression by way of music, poetry, storytelling and song. The studio also offers healing circles, healing rhythm circles, a personal life design studio session that helps people find their ecosystem and framework design and their opportunity for regeneration and restoration. Akil sees Healing Circles as tools to promote personal healing and community building. Akil has experience as the Grants and Contracts Manager for Black Women for Wellness, is a Next Economy MBA (NEMBA) Alumni and POC Caucus Facilitator at LIFT Economy. Akil facilitates collaborative relationships with philanthropy and community leaders while supporting regenerative practices in community based organizations and businesses to ensure organizational sustainability. A lifelong resident of Los Angeles, CA, he has worked in communities throughout Los Angeles for over 30 years as an educator, wellness advocate, mentor, coach, host for creative expression, organizational development and non-profit practitioner. It is Akil’s goal to utilize methods such as the creative and healing arts, wellness advocacy, systemic leadership and life design to strengthen and sustain regenerative human and community development practices. During his work in local education systems, community health and non-profit organizations, Akil has become a part of a network of practitioners advocating for community health and wellness as well as human and community development. He is adept at ecosystem and framework design, building regenerative and sustainable relationships and creating consistent engagements to build systems for personal, community and societal transformation. He also serves on the boards of the Learning, Enrichment Academic Resource Network, The Pan African Technical Association, and the ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation. His passions include building social capital, traveling, engaging in healing practices, and creating healing spaces that enable people to explore modalities that may benefit their growth and development psychologically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Tanyna Sosa-Williams, “Tee”
Tanyna Sosa-Williams, aka Tee, is an Afro-Latina Licensed Clinical Social Worker and EMDR-certified clinician based in the Los Angeles area, with a career rooted in serving underserved communities. She currently serves as clinical supervisor, clinical director, and clinical consultant with various agencies, and also maintains a private practice. Before returning to LA, Tee built a strong clinical foundation in Hawaii across long-term care, psychiatric, and emergency settings. Her work centers culturally responsive, affirming, and intersectional care, and she brings a trauma-informed lens to both direct practice and the training she leads for clinical teams. As a leader, she's passionate about developing the next generation of clinicians and building programs that last. Fun fact: Tee has completed the Golden State Challenge, and when she's not working, she's usually planning her next trip.
Partner Providers
Teams from our Partner Provider organizations who deliver care alongside TPF through our Collective Care network.
Maternal Mental Health NOW
Maternal Mental Health NOW works to reduce barriers to the prevention, identification, and treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, with bilingual peer support and culturally affirming care for birthing communities across Los Angeles County.
Kelly O'Connor
Kelly O’Connor (she/her), Executive Director, oversees the programmatic, fundraising and marketing operations of Maternal Mental Health NOW. Her goal is to ensure that all of Los Angeles County’s new families have the resources they need to address maternal mental health disorders so that they can grow and thrive. Kelly previously served as Maternal Mental Health NOW’s Development Director for 7 years. Before joining Maternal Mental Health NOW’s team (which coincidentally corresponded with her own transition to motherhood), Kelly worked for several nonprofit organizations in the human services and environmental fields in the US and the UK as a freelance fundraising consultant and staff member. Kelly holds a BS in Communication Studies & Sociology from Northwestern University and a MS in Elementary Education from Brooklyn College, CUNY.
Alex Villalba
Alex Villalba (they.them) serves as the Senior Manager of Community Programs at Maternal Mental Health NOW, supporting the development of peer-driven programs and community-rooted approaches to perinatal mental health. They are a certified full-spectrum birthworker, prison doula, gender transition doula, lactation education specialist, and are trained as a domestic violence counselor. Alex’s work is grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and community-centered care, with a focus on supporting queer and trans parents through reproductive and life transitions.
Durga Abbas
Durga Abbas (she/her), Wellness Coordinator, is a Two Spirit/Queer person of Lebanese, Choctaw, and Irish ancestry. Taking her lived experience and passion for social justice, Durga became a certified Trauma Conscious Yoga teacher, completing her RYT200 Yoga Teacher Training and going on to take additional courses, supporting students and community members in their unique journeys of recovery and self-discovery. Durga has one child and experienced the need for perinatal support, leading her to transition from her former career into a role that would allow the utilization of her dynamic skill set and deep desire to support birthing folks in a holistic, culturally respectful way.
Ashley Lara
Ashley Lara (she/her) is a neurodivergent mother and Peer Supporter with Indigenous Californian, Mexican American, and European ancestry. With over six years of experience in the mental health field, she provides neuroaffirming care informed by her lived experience, including a late diagnosis of ADHD and Level 1 Autism in 2021. She studied Sociology in college before stepping away to young motherhood, an experience that continues to inform her work. Her professional background includes residential treatment centers, a nonprofit women’s shelter, and organizations serving Autistic and Disabled individuals and their families. She has supported children, teens, LGBTQIA+ individuals, unhoused communities, neurodivergent families, and women navigating mental health challenges in the greater Los Angeles area.
Dominique DjeDje
Dominique DjeDje is a Community Health Worker and dedicated mother who co-raises two incredible Black children. Her eldest was born at 27 weeks and spent five months in the NICU. This experience fueled her passion for holding space for parents navigating similar journeys. She has facilitated numerous circles and support groups for parents and children, providing social-emotional support and education. Dominique is committed to building joy, strength, and community among Black families as they navigate the NICU experience together.
Zari Hedayat, PhD, LMFT
Zari Hedayat, PhD, LMFT has a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist with a passion for working with pregnant and postpartum women. She is a certified infant mental health specialist from the Early Childhood Foundation of Cedar Sinai Medical Center. She has also trained in EMDR and Neurofeedback, short term interventions to treat trauma, which has led her to pro bono work with Veterans and to volunteer as a translator, on four pediatric surgical missions to Haiti with CHLA. Zari is also an adjunct faculty at Antioch University Los Angeles. One of her favorite classes to teach is Cross Cultural Infant Observation, as she is deeply interested in the intersection of culture and motherhood.