Breast Cancer Action is led by a volunteer Board of Directors, a remarkable group of people who set the vision for BCAction and lead the organization by determining organizational policy, assuring the organization’s financial security, and representing BCAction’s views to the world at large. A small, hardworking, and incredibly able staff make the Board’s vision a reality.

We’re recruiting new members now – find out about joining BCAction’s Board of Directors.


Paris AJ (Adkins-Jackson)

Dr. AJ is a community-based multidisciplinary researcher whose work seeks to increase quality of life for underserved communities through mixed methods research, the development of instruments (surveys and assessments) and technology, and the implementation and evaluation of innovative programs.

Dr. AJ has worked in research for over a decade in various capacities and fields as she has earned a B.A. in Journalism, M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, M.P.H. in Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and a Ph.D in Psychometrics. She is the Founder and CEO of DataStories by Seshat, LLC, a research and data analysis company.

Dr. AJ came to cancer research after her best friend, Candice Rice, was diagnosed for a second time with breast cancer. Since then, she has engaged the field by participating in community-based partnerships that explore cancer etiology and test culturally-relevant interventions on survivorship and quality of life. Unfortunately, Candice did not survive treatment, and Dr. AJ has lost even more friends to this disease, including two mentors and another dear friend. Thus, Dr. AJ has committed to engaging this work in a variety of ways including research, policy, and supporting Breast Cancer Action.


Gail Kaufman

Gail Kaufman has more than 50 years of experience as an educator and civil and women’s rights organizer and activist, and she will be re-joining Breast Cancer Action’s Board of Directors after a hiatus.

For the past 18 years, Gail worked with the University of California, Berkeley as the Deputy Director of the Center for Educational Partnerships. She led the Center’s work on building and strengthening college- and career-going culture in K-12 and community college.  This work focused on systemic change in schools and districts, curriculum development and professional learning, as well as creating schools to increase access and success in higher education for low-income, first generation students of color and their families.

Gail’s extensive women’s rights organizing began when she became a member of the Coalition for the Medical Rights of Women (CMRW) and co-director of the Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights (CDRR). In 1982 Gail became the first Associate Director of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), a national public interest law firm based in San Francisco, whose mission is to protect and expand economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls. As a leader in CMRW and CDRR, and her more than a dozen years’ with ERA, Gail was at the forefront of fighting for equity and justice in work and healthcare spaces.

Gail began her career teaching social studies in Brooklyn, New York, and rural Massachusetts. She moved from teaching to developing alternative educational programs in higher education, and returned to K-12 as the Director of Communications and Public Relations with the San Francisco Unified School District. During this time, she received a Master’s in Curriculum at Brooklyn College and a Master’s in Counselor Education at Washington University in St. Louis.

Recently retired, Gail is pleased to bring her energy, experience and expertise (focusing on coalition building, communications/media and fundraising) to Breast Cancer Action and to learn from staff, board, and members about how best to reach Breast Cancer Action’s health justice mission.


Channte’ Keith, Co-Chair

Channte’ is a Public Health activist, administrator, trainer, motivational speaker, a health equity champion and a self-described breast cancer survivor. For 15 years, Channte’ has worked on issues that impact African American health ranging from diabetes, tobacco use, cancer disparities, and HIV/AIDS. She currently serves as the Director of Programs for NAATPN, Inc., a national organization that addresses tobacco use, cancer, and HIV within the African American community. She has traveled across the country to provide training and technical assistance to federal and state agencies, faith-based institutions, appointed and elected officials, volunteer organizations, and Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) about how to reduce health challenges that impact communities of color and how to mobilize communities to influence policy change.

Channte’ serves as a co-organizer for the State of Black Health National Conference, an event that provides feasible solutions to solve the most complex health challenges in the African American community. She also serves on the African American Leadership Council for Compassion and Choices, a national organization that addresses end-of-life care, and on the Board of the Community Advocacy Committee (CAC) for Wake County, North Carolina.

Channte’ has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Public Administration for seven years at North Carolina Central University, where she focused primarily on public policy, personnel administration, and organizational theory and behavior. She received a degree in Communications from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a Master’s in Public Administration from North Carolina Central University.


Alicia D. Justice

Alicia D. Justice, MPH, is a professional noisemaker, strategic disruptor, public health practitioner and chief health equity strategist leading national efforts to support the functions of state and territorial public health. Alicia is ASTHO’s Senior Director of Programmatic Health Equity Initiatives & Strategy leading national initiatives to address social determinants of health, health disparities, structural racism, the impacts of microaggressions, and policies that cause populations to be disenfranchised. For more than 13 years, Alicia has led national public health initiatives overseeing the development and execution of a robust portfolio focused on health policy, systems and environmental change best practices related to tobacco, diabetes, obesity, nutrition, physical activity, breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. As a contributing member on several national advisory groups, Alicia is a strategic policy and programmatic contributor for collective impact interventions that seek to prioritize cost effectiveness and avoid unintended consequences among populations at high risk. In addition to serving on the board of directors at Breast Cancer Action, she also is a Center for Black Health and Equity board of director bringing a host of knowledge in operationalizing health equity interventions and evidence-based strategies to drive organizational leadership structure and objectives. Ms. Justice graduated with MPH degree focusing on Health Administration and Policy from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She later received a post-graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from Marymount University. And, as a dedicated carpenter of building a more equitable public health delivery system, she is currently pursuing her DrPH at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where she plans to dedicate her research career to understanding how organizational practices and policies contribute to the ways in which public health entities can best operationalize health equity in community-based work.


CoCo Villaluz, Chair, Internal Affairs Committee

CoCo Villaluz is a Senior Community Development Manager for ClearWay MinnesotaSM. CoCo is Hidatsa from the Three Affiliated Tribes, Assiniboine from Fort Peck/Fort Belknap in Montana, and Chamorro from the island of Guam.

CoCo has over eighteen years of experience in all phases of community development, capacity building and mobilizing. She has experience in addressing the sacred use of tobacco, as one of the founding members of the Native American Tobacco Coalition of Montana (NATCOM), and has partnered with many diverse organizations such as Tobacco Policy Sharing Knowledge in Native Societies (TPSKINS), the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, and Many Voices, One Message. CoCo has presented at regional, statewide, national and international conferences, including the Global Youth Advocacy Training in Washington D.C. She has also participated on the FDA Stakeholders discussion for American Indian communities.

Some of CoCo’s proudest accomplishments include passing the Fort Peck No Smoking Resolution for her tribe, being selected to present at the Auahi Kore (Smoke-Free) Conference in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and passing the Ohinni Candi Wakandapi/Chani Wakan K/Nusa Commercial Tobacco-Free Ordinance for her home community. CoCo incorporates different art forms into prevention activities to address commercial tobacco control. Her overall goal is to promote indigenous cultural wellness of our communities for generations to come.

CoCo is the recipient of the National Indian Health Board 2016 Regional Area Impact Award for advancing American Indian and Alaska Native health.  And she was selected a keynote panelist at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Austin, TX in 2017.


Alma Busby-Williams

Alma is a native of Oakland, California. She received her undergraduate degree from Auburn University and her Juris Doctor from New College of California. She has more than 25 years of management and consulting experience with community action agencies. She facilitates Cultural Competency/Humility trainings for a variety of organizations, while also working for a small non-profit that provides free transportation for people receiving cancer treatments.

Alma became involved with Breast Cancer Action about ten years ago as a volunteer for its Speakers Bureau, after learning of its activism. She had received her own breast cancer diagnosis, and was not interested in the gimmicks of pink-washing this horrible epidemic. As a member of Breast Cancer Action’s Speakers Bureau, she spoke to various underserved populations about the impactful work of Breast Cancer Action.

Alma has two amazing adult children, with whom she regularly: hikes, kayaks, dances, and laughs.

Alma is also a proud Outdoor Afro Leader, who is excited to get to lead monthly outdoor activities.


Tamatha Thomas-Haase

As an independent public health consultant for 16 years, Tamatha Thomas-Haase believes that through intentional, cross-sector engagement – rooted in equity – transformative change of public health institutions, policies, processes is possible. Leveraging collective wisdom through artful group process is at the heart of her professional calling, and her 20-year career in public health has taught her the value of meaningful connection to others and their purpose.

On November 6, 2018, Tamatha was diagnosed with stage IIIC, triple negative inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) – a rare and aggressive breast cancer that accounts for 1 to 5% of breast cancers diagnosed in the United States. Disparities in race and socioeconomic status on IBC incidence, as well as outcomes, are well documented. Currently living fully after living through cancer, Tamatha is proud to join in service to Breast Cancer Action’s compelling and urgent mission.

Tamatha is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her Master’s in Public Administration from Evergreen State College. When she is not running through airports carrying flip-chart paper and giant bags of markers and post-it notes (she’s old school), she can be found watching Glow Up with her teenaged daughter, walking on Hermosa Beach with her face to the sun, or wishing she were hiking the mountains of her home state of Vermont with friends who feel much more like family.


Stacey Strongarone, Co-Chair

Stacey Strongarone (she/her) joined the board of Breast Cancer Action in 2022 and serves as chair of the External Affairs Committee.  She was drawn to BCAction’s work as a way to respond to her own experiences with breast cancer at an organization that shares a commitment to social justice, anti-racism, and health equity.

Stacey currently serves as vice president and chief of staff at the Vera Institute of Justice, where she manages the implementation of Vera’s 2020-2023 strategic plan. Stacey also launched and developed Vera’s California office and, for many years, built and managed programs pushing for and providing access to lawyers for people in immigration detention.

Stacey has served on the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Community Funding Board and Change L.A. host committee, and received her coaching certification from Coaching for Transformation. She received her BA from the College of the Holy Cross and her JD from New York University School of Law. Stacey recently returned to Brooklyn after 10 years in Los Angeles.


Naveena Jaspal

Naveena has a background in marketing and sales with over 20 years of experience. She spent over a decade working in Denver, in the travel-nurse staffing industry, selling contracts to hospitals nationwide for both their travel and replacement (in case of a strike) nursing staffing needs. Naveena received her BS in Business, Marketing and Management from Edgewood College.

In 2011, Naveena shifted gears after her father was diagnosed with dementia, and moved from Denver, CO to Madison, WI to care for him (he passed in 2020). In 2014, she began working at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute (WAI) in marketing, philanthropy and community outreach and engagement. Naveena collaborates closely with the team at the Institute whose focus is raising awareness through education and outreach, about health inequities disproportionately impacting communities of color; and giving those communities most impacted by structural inequities, the tools necessary to receive information, share their knowledge with others and take charge of their health.

Naveena lost her mom to breast cancer in 2001, after an 18-year battle with the disease. She is new to the board (2022) and looks forward to honoring her mom’s memory by serving on the board (something her mom would have done).