Dr. Quinyatta Mumford
CEO of Village Public Health
Born in Akron, Ohio, Dr. Quinyatta Mumford has dedicated her life to bettering communities through environmental health research and family-focused educational programs. The women who raised her, in particular her grandmother, instilled in her the values of love and perseverance. With this foundation, Quinyatta earned degrees in biology, psychology, business administration, and public health - the first of her family to attend college. Her Doctorate in Public Health focused on community and addressing health disparity. That research ultimately evolved into Village Public Health, a youth-centered organization that seeks to create space for young people to thrive physically, mentally, and emotionally.
As a single mother of three, Dr. Mumford has the drive to create initiatives that approach public health not simply as a matter of personal care, but as a familial and communal responsibility, and her results speak volumes. Her work with the Arkansas Department of Health led to a reduction in cases of lead poisoning in children by prioritizing prevention and accountability.
For all that her impressive resume paints the picture of a hyper-focused go-getter, Dr. Quinyatta insists on the importance of slowing down and finding moments to celebrate life. Her hobbies dovetail with her professional values, so Quinyatta spends her free time outdoors with her children or organizing community events around art and storytelling.
Listen to Learn:
- How Quinyatta got involved in public health
- How her organization is helping to curb STI rates among young Arkansans
- How the AR legislature both helps and hurts public health initiatives, and more...
Podcast Links
TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 474
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:08] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling, conversational interviews and Kerry's natural curiosity, this weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners an insider's view into the commonalities of entrepreneurs, athletes, medical professionals, politicians, and other successful people, all sharing their stories of success and the ups and downs of risk-taking. Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative, and always encouraging weekly blog. Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:41] KM: Thank you, son Gray. My guest today is Dr. Quinyatta Mumford, a public health strategist, educator, and advocate whose work bridges policy, practice, and people. With a career dedicated to advancing health equity, Dr. Mumford has led initiatives that empower communities, guide youth, uplift, marginalized voices, and transform systems for lasting change. With decades of experience across public health sectors, Dr. Mumford's career has spanned academic, non-profit, and government arenas. Her areas of expertise include adolescent health, HIV, and STI prevention, community health workforce development, and public health leadership.
She is the founder of Village Public Health, a youth-centered organization rooted in creating exclusive spaces for young people to thrive mentally, emotionally, and physically, especially to those historically underserved populations. If you're wondering if she's qualified, Dr. Mumford holds a doctorate in public health leadership, a master's in public health policy, and a bachelor's in health science. It is with great pleasure. I welcome to the table the service-driven, compassionate, well-educated, entrepreneur, and practitioner all things well-being and good health. Dr. Quinyatta Mumford. Hello.
[0:02:08] QM: Hello. Thank you for having me.
[0:02:10] KM: Glad you came. I met you at some conference and was just excited to talk to you and hear about your passion and how you do them. Asked you to come on the show and thank you for coming. You grew up with a bunch of strong, smart women in your family. Tell us about your grandmother and your mother and how they helped shape who you are and what you're doing today.
[0:02:29] QM: Very good. My grandmother is definitely the core of my being and what drives me. I watched this very tiny black woman carry so much power in her voice. I mean, she had the voice of authority, and she was so tiny. When she said something, you knew that she meant business. But that's really not the biggest thing. The kindness and compassion and the tenacity that she had is what keeps me going, keeps me focused. It reminds me that I can do anything that I commit to and have to, because I told her I would.
[0:03:16] KM: Why do so many people in your culture, the black culture love their grandmother so much?
[0:03:22] QM: Because grandmothers love so hard.
[0:03:26] KM: They do. I am jealous that the grandmothers don't raise the white kids' kids.
[0:03:31] QM: That's an interesting perspective, because that's really what it comes down to.
[0:03:35] KM: Oh, yeah. Oprah talks about it all the time.
[0:03:37] QM: I called my grandmother ‘mama’. I called my mama by her name.
[0:03:42] KM: Oh, that's weird.
[0:03:44] GM: I love that.
[0:03:45] QM: Yeah. I do. I called her by her name. Because when it came to, my mother was a single mother, and I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. That's where I got the more, the nurturing. But also, where I got disciplined with kindness. It was firm, but it was kind. I knew what the expectation was after the consequence.
[0:04:12] KM: I think that grandmothers are just wiser.
[0:04:14] QM: Yes.
[0:04:15] KM: They're more patient.
[0:04:16] QM: Yes.
[0:04:16] KM: They've seen the fruits of their labor, what they did right, what they did wrong with their own kids. It seems like, in the black culture, there's a lot of women that are single women and they need their mothers, while the women are still out working and providing for the family, so the grandmothers come in with their age-old wisdom and their kind hearts, but they're smart.
[0:04:40] QM: I think grandmothers are able to provide that nurturing that a lot of mothers cannot, because they are actually busy with trying to do all of the other things. They're busy trying to provide. They are being a mother. They are not just what most people would consider being the father, bringing in the bacon and cooking it. A lot of black mothers are doing that. They're having to go out and do the grit work, as opposed to being able to do the warm and fuzzy work. That's where grandmothers come in, grandmothers come in, and they give the hugs and they give the gentleness. Whereas, mom is making sure you have the things that you need.
[0:05:26] KM: Well said. Faith is very important to you, isn’t it?
[0:05:28] QM: Yes. Faith is very important to me.
[0:05:30] KM: Education is important to you.
[0:05:32] QM: Absolutely.
[0:05:33] KM: You're a single mother, speaking of single mothers, and your daughter works with you. You know when I was watching her on TV with you doing interviews, and I thought of her as your age advocate, because she's young, and you work with young people.
[0:05:49] QM: Yes.
[0:05:50] KM: Talk about working with your mother about education and faith and how they all tied together, because you were the first person to ever go to college in your family, right?
[0:06:01] QM: Yes.
[0:06:02] KM: Then you went to a lot of college.
[0:06:03] QM: I did. I went to a lot of college.
[0:06:04] KM: Why was that important to you?
[0:06:05] QM: Yes. Well, let me say this. My mom did go to college. She just didn't finish. My mom and my aunts and uncles were very blessed that my grandfather served in the Vietnam War. They had benefits. They were provided an opportunity to go to college. However, she had my brother and she had me. She did not finish then. She did later on go on and finish. When it comes to that, faith, family, and finance. When I think about my core –
[0:06:35] KM: Faith, family, and finance.
[0:06:36] QM: Yup. When I think about my core, I dropped off education, because I'm done educating. I'm tapped out. Doctor, it is it. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
[0:06:48] KM: You love to learn. I can tell you love to learn.
[0:06:50] QM: I love to learn. Faith, family, finance, and education. That's the core values that I teach my children. Without faith, none of those other things align. You have to keep family first. When you lose the grandmother of your family, that often tends to break the family down. I see that in my family. What I'm teaching my children is that it's important that they stay true to one another, and that they value one another. If something was to happen to me, the expectation is that they stay connected, and that they love one another and support one another. I make sure that that is very front and center in my household, because I'm close to some of my siblings, not close to some of the others, and I don't like that.
[0:07:38] KM: Right.
[0:07:39] QM: Because you should – your sisters and brothers are your first best friends. They should be your forever best friends, and that's what I'm trying to teach my kids.
[0:07:48] KM: Honestly, if something was to happen to you and you needed a handout, or a help, hand up, you could go to your friends all day long, they might quit answering the phone, but your family would feel obligated to help you. They really would. There's something about that bloodline that makes you feel guilty if you don't do it.
[0:08:13] QM: Right. Exactly. Exactly.
[0:08:15] GM: Then like, somebody from a big family.
[0:08:19] KM: You are a wonderful writer and this is a lead-in, reading about. Most people fill out those forms. To our listeners, we send out forms to all of our guests. We ask them these questions to fill out. Some of them do it. Some of them don't. Some of them slap something together that's not much. I don't think of ever anybody fill it out as eloquently, or as complete and as long as you did. It was beautiful and it really was like reading poetry. I want to read to our listeners what you wrote in one of your questions that you were asked.
“My children are the heart of everything I do. They are both my mirror and my motivation. My oldest reminds me of how far I've come and my younger two keep me grounded in the joy and innocence of discovery.”
[0:09:08] GM: Oof. Yeah, that is like poetry.
[0:09:09] KM: It is like poetry. One of the questions also was about family and how family played a part in your life, which we've been talking about. You write, again, so you write, So, yes. My family absolutely contributed to my success. Not by clearing a path, but by walking with me as I built it. Their presence, their prayers and even their needs have shaped my resilience and inspired me to create spaces, where other families can thrive too.”
[0:09:38] QM: Yes. I think it's important to note that when I say that one's my mirror and then the other one's helping me navigate, so my daughter's a 21 and four. 21 and six. My son is four, right? When I look at my 21-year-old, that is the resemblance of the struggle that my mother had. Now that I've evolved and I have a four and a six-year-old, they're getting a different mom. I'm able to raise them from a different perspective. They're getting a calmer mom. They're getting a gentle mom. They're getting what my grandmother was to me on purpose. That's the thing I'm very intentional about the little kids, because I see the reflection of my oldest.
[0:10:29] KM: I bet you and your daughter that you’re best friends.
[0:10:31] QM: Yeah. That's my homie, for sure. That's my little homie.
[0:10:35] GM: That's very similar to you, mom.
[0:10:36] KM: I know. I totally related to everything she said. Yeah. When you're young, you're just running in every direction. You're doing your career. You're doing everything. I wouldn't give that up for anything.
[0:10:45] QM: I wouldn't either.
[0:10:47] KM: I a little bit worry about all these women and men and couples that put off having children to late in life, because now that I have grandchildren, you put it off very late, you don't get to enjoy your grandkids. You're missing the biggest, best part of parenting.
[0:11:02] GM: Okay. Maybe a little selfish.
[0:11:04] KM: Oh, a little? My whole life is about me. What do you mean?
[0:11:08] QM: She earned that.
[0:11:09] GM: She’s right. Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah.
[0:11:10] KM: Thank you.
[0:11:10] QM: She earned it.
[0:11:11] KM: Thank you. The origin story. Tell our listeners who may not really know you, what inspired you to get into public health in the first place. Then you founded the Village Public Health in 2018. I think you went to school about science and health and realized there was a gap. Talk about that.
[0:11:32] QM: I'll actually allude to how I got to Arkansas. I came to Arkansas with Tennessee Valley Authority to work on a project in Pine Bluff. It was the first time that I was able to engage with community health, because we were doing some work at the arsenal that resulted in smoke coming off the smoke stacks that was alarming the community. They had a community meeting. I did not like that the community had a lot to say, but didn't necessarily know how to properly advocate for themselves. Since I was going to be at work 60 hours a week, I decided, “Well, I'll go get a master's degree in public health, because I'm going to be part of the solution.”
In getting my master's degree, I was then introduced to the Marshallese population. The Marshallese population comes from the Marshall Islands. They are permitted to come to the United States because of things that we done to their island that was making them sick. Now we allow them to come into the United States and take up residence, but they don't have all the liberties that we have. They are a very close-knit culture. They are very private. They value church.
As a public health practitioner learning how to go in and do things with people, not to them and not for them. I accredit my work with the Marshallese population and my understanding of that, and is really a foundation to how I do work with young people. I don't do work to them. I don't do work for them. That's why they work for me, so that they can guide me on how to help them.
[0:13:08] GM: Love that.
[0:13:10] KM: You first founded the Mumford and Associates in 2018 to provide health education with local physicians. Just to help me with the timeline, you've gone to Pine Bluff, you're working on the smoke stacks, you're advocating for the people in Pine Bluff. What did you discover about that, before we move on?
[0:13:29] QM: I did that work for quite a while. I couldn't really use my voice, because I didn't have the appropriate degrees. I'll say, this is a plug. Degrees are to get you a seat at the table. It's your character that will allow you to shake the table. While I was there, I wasn't able to do much. It was where the fire was lit in me that I wanted to be an advocate for those that didn't know how to use their voice. I wanted to teach them how to. That's when I went and got my master's in public health. I went from the arsenal to the Department of Health. I started in the Department of Health in the Lead-Based Paint Prevention Program. There, my job was to address children who had elevated blood lead levels.
[0:14:10] KM: Is that still a thing?
[0:14:11] QM: It is still a thing. It's a big thing in Arkansas, and the reason why is because the majority of our housing stock is old. It's going to be that older housing stock that poses a risk and more than likely in our rural, lower income areas where people have not had the funds to renovate. What I would do is I traveled across the state. I traveled. If a child showed up in our database as a case with elevated blood lead levels, I would go to their house, to their school, wherever I needed to go in order to identify the source of exposure, because your clinician is going to treat your symptoms.
With lead poisoning, you have to get rid of the cause. I bridge the gap between clinical medicine and environmental health by developing a program where we would go out and run lab tests to identify the source of exposure, communicate that back to the physician, so that then we could help mitigate the source of exposure.
[0:15:07] KM: Are they eating the paint?
[0:15:09] QM: Yes. In some cases, kids are eating the paint.
[0:15:11] KM: Because if it's just steel, you're not eating it.
[0:15:14] QM: If it's steel, if the paint is intact, it's not harmful. It's when you start to get paint chips, when you start to have it in the soil. Sometimes when kids are missing key nutrients, they will eat the paint, or – lead paint is sweet, by the way. It has a sweet taste. The kids will eat the paint, because it's sweet. In fact, as a kid –
[0:15:38] KM: And colorful.
[0:15:39] QM: And colorful. As a kid, I used to chew on my bed frame. My parents would try to get me, and my mom and my aunt would try to get me to stop. They tell me that all the time. It’s like, “Yeah, you used to chew on the bed.” I'm like, “Y'all, that bed probably had lead in it. I've probably got some developmental delays, because of lead poisoning. Y'all don't even know it.”
[0:15:57] GM: Oh, my gosh.
[0:15:58] QM: I'm just masking them. Interesting.
[0:16:01] GM: Full circle, huh?
[0:16:02] QM: Full circle. Full circle. Yes. That's how I've made the transition from working in environmental health solely to actually working for the health department.
[0:16:11] KM: When did you decide that you wanted to go from working with the health department, or what was the path to get to founding in 2018, Mumford and Associates?
[0:16:21] QM: I always knew that I would be an entrepreneur. While I was working at the health department, I decided to go ahead and establish Mumford and Associates, because although I was using a lot of my skills, I was not using all of them. I believe in using everything that God puts in you and everything that you pay Sallie Mae for student loans.
[0:16:39] KM: Okay. I’m glad to know.
[0:16:41] QM: You got to get your money's worth. I started working with physicians that had patients that were not compliant. They were not following the treatment protocols. There are various reasons why people don't follow their treatment protocols. I'll give you an example. If you want me to take medicine three times a day, but I am food insecure, the medicine makes me sick. I've got to choose between getting sick, or feeling okay, because either way, I don't got enough food, right?
I wanted to start working with physicians to try to address some of the complexities that come along with wellness. A lot of people think that it's all about clinical care. Well, you can give me the prescription, but if you don't address the environment that I'm in, or my mental stability, or I have financial concerns, then I still got a problem. By me going into the office, we're able to look at the person as a whole person and address some of their other concerns, and in turn, our patients were more compliant, because they had someone else to talk to. They didn't just have the 20-minute visit with the doctor, because I checked in on them throughout, between their doctor visits.
[0:17:49] KM: Did they come to you, or you went to them?
[0:17:51] QM: I actually had an office in the doctor's office. We had a pathway. They would get their vitals. They would see the doctor. They'd get their results and then they would come see me. We'd go over what the doctor said and clarify a path forward and when I would follow up with them.
[0:18:06] KM: Then you said, “I want to start my own business.”
[0:18:09] QM: Yeah. That was the initial of me starting my own practice.
[0:18:11] KM: That was your original business.
[0:18:12] QM: That was my original business. During the pandemic, I started to realize how much of an impact the pandemic was having not only on my child, but on other children in terms of their mental health. I decided, I would get certified as a mental health provider, right? I provide youth mental health, first aid training. I'm a mental health, first aid provider. My first class, my very, very first class, it filled up. Within a month, I had trained over a hundred people. There were tons of people from youth serving organizations, lots of judges, lots of even mental health professionals that was like, what are kids are enduring? We don't recognize. We are definitely in a crisis. Our kids are suffering.
Seeing the number of classes I was able to provide, I just kept going. I pivoted from working with adults to solely working with children, which is why the business changed from Mumford and Associates to Village Public Health, because it's my goal to create the village that we're currently missing. When we grew up, we could run around the neighborhood and we were safe, because everybody was essentially our caregiver. Our kids still have that nowadays.
[0:19:28] KM: There's no more village.
[0:19:29] QM: There's no more village. I'm putting a village back into the community.
[0:19:33] KM: This is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford, Founder of Village Public Health in Little Rock, Arkansas. We'll be right back.
[BREAK]
[0:19:43] GM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Since 1975, with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. Since then, the business has grown and changed, along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge. In 1995, she embraced the Internet and rebranded her company as simply flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. Since then, she has founded the non-profit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom. In 2016, branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel and podcast. In 2021, Flag and Banner expanded to a satellite office in Miami, Florida, where first-generation immigrants keep the art of sewing alive and flags made in America. Telling American-made stories, selling American-made flags, the flagandbanner.com. Back to you, Kerry.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:20:34] KM: Thank you again, Gray. We're speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta, Mumford, Founder of Village Public Health, a youth and young adult health care organization with a fresh approach. Okay, here's your challenge. Arkansas has been rising in the rates of STIs among young people. Is it STDs, or is it STIs?
[0:20:53] QM: I use them interchangeably.
[0:20:56] KM: Which is trying to mess me up. I never got another acronym I got to learn.
[0:20:59] QM: Yeah. we'll just be consistent. We'll say STIs.
[0:21:03] KM: It’s sexually transmitted infection, versus sexually transmitted diseases.
[0:21:08] QM: Well, let me ask you a question.
[0:21:09] KM: Okay. Shoot.
[0:21:11] QM: How do you feel when someone has a disease?
[0:21:13] KM: Yeah. I figured you were going to say that. Yeah. I'd rather have an infection.
[0:21:16] QM: You'd rather have an infection. Are you more empathetic?
[0:21:19] KM: I'm thus scared.
[0:21:21] QM: There you go. You're less scared when someone – when we talk about someone having an infection, as opposed to –
[0:21:26] KM: It's curable.
[0:21:27] QM: It's curable. There you go. The reframing and shift to STIs is about reducing the stigma.
[0:21:35] KM: Arkansas's STIs are on the rise. But the nation's STIs are declining. What do you think is the biggest contributor to this gap and how is the Village Public Health, your business, working to close it?
[0:21:50] QM: All right. When we talk about STIs, specifically, we're going to specifically talk about gonorrhea and chlamydia. When we look at the gonorrhea and chlamydia rates in Arkansas, it's predominantly among 13 to 24-year-olds. To be even more specific, the majority of our cases in Arkansas are amongst 13 to 24-year-olds that are black. They need some education. But not just education. They need culturally relevant education. When you look at health education and even prevention for STIs, gonorrhea and chlamydia cases are predominantly occurring amongst 13 to 24-year-olds in our state.
On our books, our legislation says, sex education is not required. If you do teach it, you must teach abstinence. They’re not abstaining, because they got STIs. On top of that, we got high teen pregnancy rates, which is problematic. We want to take away Medicaid, but the kids have babies. Now this past year, we mandated that students learn about adoption, but they don't have to learn how not to get the baby. If we would prevent a pregnancy, we wouldn't have to put the baby up for adoption. I just want to know why. My opinion is that we have to get real. Although we are in the Bible belt, our kids do have sex.
[0:23:26] KM: Thank you. Just, come on. Let's quit putting our head in the sand. They're going to have sex.
[0:23:31] QM: They're going to have sex. Teen pregnancies have been pretty consistent. Even when we see rates decrease, it's still of concern, because of the population that is being impacted. If you're between the age of 13 to 24, you've got a long time to have sex. You're going to be doing a lot of sex. But if you don't teach sex education, so if your kids didn't learn sex education, and you didn't learn sex education, and your mama didn't learn sex education, just generationally, where are we supposed to learn the facts? Where are we supposed to get it from? If it's not in the text, if you're not being taught at school, and nobody else is talking to you and we shame, and we still act like kids don't have sex, where are they supposed to learn it? Your mama can't teach you what she weren’t taught. That's where Village Public Health comes in.
[0:24:17] KM: Yeah. Boy, it's a complex issue.
[0:24:19] QM: It makes it difficult.
[0:24:20] KM: What's at stake if we don't take action?
[0:24:23] QM: If we don't take action, not only are we going to see that Arkansas is one of the states that gets ending the HIV epidemic dollars, because of our high burden of HIV, right?
[0:24:33] KM: Really?
[0:24:34] QM: We got STIs. When we have STIs, that puts us at risk for HIV, because that means that you're not learning from your risky behaviors. Your risk is elevated. If we do not invest in educating our youth, we will not swing the pendulum on our current trends, but those trends are likely to increase as well. But I want you to keep in mind the data that we're looking at, those are cases. In order to be a case, that meant you had to go to the doctor.
There are a lot of young people that are potentially asymptomatic, that don't have the knowledge base, or the resources in order to become a case. That means that they went to the doctor and they had a test and they was verified. If we got people that are running around asymptomatic, then what do we think we're going to have in the long run? There's some complexity that we just need to educate, not just the young people. It's not enough to educate just the young people. We have to educate the entire system.
Our parents need parenting education on, how do I engage in these conversations? If my child is non-binary, if my child is transgender, sex is sex, everybody's going – Regardless of how you identify, regardless of who you decide to love, sex is something that you're probably going to partake in. We have to get our, like you said, head out the sand, and make sure that we're not just being culturally relevant, but we're being inclusive, and we're covering all sex.
[0:26:08] KM: Love it. You built a portfolio and lead initiatives called Vibe Safe, Resilience Lab, Pinky Promise Pathways. You know I love alliterations.
[0:26:20] QM: Yes.
[0:26:21] KM: Could you walk us through what each of these program does and the impact that you're seeing?
[0:26:26] QM: The Vibe Safe Campaign is our sexual health campaign. We travel across the state. We go to any organization that is willing to have us. We've been to churches. We've been to schools. We've been to the detention center. Wherever we can go, if you invite us, we will come. What we bring to you is you get to decide. If you just want a one-hour education session, you got it. If you want a four-hour session, you got it. You want us to do eight hours, you can have that, too. You want to do multiple weeks of sessions? We can do that, too.
[0:26:57] KM: How many boys you’ve got working for you?
[0:26:58] QM: It varies. We have anywhere from four to 10 at any given time. We are blessed to have some great partnerships. Right now, I have four young people that are with me from Pulaski County Youth Services. Again, I want young people. I hire 13 to 24-year-olds. I can get ambassadors from the schools. If you want to do your 75 community service hours, I want you to do it in a meaningful way. You come tell me what matters to you and then you tell me how you want to get it done and I fund it. I'll help you get it. We get there. We are able to tap into some of the systematic opportunities in order to keep a flow of young people. That's important, because our initiatives are meant to be youth led.
[0:27:40] KM: All right. Resilience Lab.
[0:27:41] QM: The Resilience Lab is a six-month health coaching program in partnership with Mosaic Templars. What they get is monthly group sessions and bi-weekly one-on-one health coaching sessions with me. What we do is navigate the complexities of the transition from adolescents to adulthood. That comes from your mental wellness, your financial, like what do you want to do? Do you want to go to college? How you going to get there? All the things. I help them road map to their next level.
[0:28:10] KM: Pinky Promise Pathways.
[0:28:12] QM: Pinky Promise Pathways is –
[0:28:13] KM: I love the name of that.
[0:28:13] QM: It is my baby. It is a comprehensive sex education curriculum that I am designing in partnership with my mirror.
[0:28:25] KM: Your daughter.
[0:28:25] QM: With my oldest daughter, but also with my baby girl.
[0:28:30] KM: Oh, really?
[0:28:32] QM: In this comprehensive sex education, what you're getting is my knowledge base as a public health practitioner, Mackenzie's lived experience, and then a toolkit that Nova is actually helping us design for girls that are six to 12-year-olds, 12-year-olds. It is intended to be three pieces. One piece is to provide guidance for the mother. I want her to learn before she engages with the second piece, which is a workbook for them to work together. Then the third piece is for the daughter to journal on her own. I'm trying to create a comprehensive learning experience, so that the mom does not feel like she cannot lead.
A lot of times, what we hear is with the sex education material that's out for young people is that “Mom just handed me the book.” There was no opportunity, no guided discussion, no family dynamic. We're trying to change that about the resources that are available.
[0:29:29] KM: I think the earlier you talk about sex education, the better it is. Look, Gray is nodding. I mean, the minute they were five-years-old, we started talking about sex education, because everything's weird then.
[0:29:40] QM: Yes.
[0:29:41] KM: When I found out in junior high, what sex was, I was like, “That's not – They don't do that, do they?” I mean, I was totally freaked out by how you had babies, when we found a condom on the playground.
[0:29:54] GM: Oh, yeah. I remember the story.
[0:29:56] QM: That's interesting. I just want to level set around that, too. A lot of people think that when we talk about sex education, they're like, “Oh, you just want to talk to the kids about having sex.” I'm like, “Y'all, sex education start way before that.” We got to talk about consent. We got to talk about boundaries. We got to talk about power dynamics. Why is power dynamics a part of this discussion? Go to the news. Look at the number of cases where we have teachers, or coaches that are engaging in activities that young people are not ready for, because they don't know that it's not okay.
[0:30:31] KM: You need to talk about that stuff when everything's weird.
[0:30:33] QM: Yes.
[0:30:34] KM: I mean, potty training is weird. I mean, you just start talking about all the body functions early.
[0:30:40] GM: Think about how young children are when they start asking where babies come from.
[0:30:42] QM: Yes.
[0:30:43] GM: I mean, that's just a part of that conversation.
[0:30:45] QM: We start to tell them that it comes from the stork.
[0:30:48] GM: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[0:30:48] KM: That’s so stupid
[0:30:50] QM: By the time you try to course correct on telling them that the baby came from the stork, now they think you’re a liar.
[0:30:57] KM: Well, they're traumatized.
[0:31:00] GM: Yeah, right. They're too old and they're traumatized. Yeah. Because they weren’t on the playground.
[0:31:03] KM: One girl cried on the playground and refused to believe it.
[0:31:06] GM: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:31:09] KM: You talked about meeting news where they are in schools, churches, detention centers. What have you learned about teaching young people where they are? Can you share a story where the approach made a difference? Do you have a success story out there?
[0:31:21] QM: Yes, I do.
[0:31:22] KM: Tell me one.
[0:31:23] QM: First of all, the success comes from what I learned from them. One of the biggest projects that we did this last year was working in the detention center. We would go over to Pulaski County and work with those young men and young women weekly. The conversation went, young people want facts. That's one of the takeaways.
[0:31:46] KM: They do.
[0:31:47] QM: They want to know the truth. They want to know that they are getting information from a reputable source. Also, they don't want to be judged when they're sharing. They want to be able to have a space where they can be seen, heard, and understood without adults trying to mold them into what they think they're supposed to be. We give them the freedom to share. I'll just be quite honest with you, you're like, “Oh, they're cussing. It's okay. That's fine.” That show artistic expression, don’t it? Because I want to get to the essence of you. I'm not trying to get the textbook version, or the prim and proper version. I want to get the real you, because when you go out and you're taking these risks, you're showing up as your real self. I want to educate you from that perspective. I mean, really, we're just learning to let kids be and to not try to control the situation, but to be fluid enough to follow their lead.
[0:32:43] KM: When do you feel like you've succeeded? When you've done an event and you walk away, when do you say to yourself, “Oh, I really nailed it that time”? Is there some mark, a bar that you can just recognize, or is it always a moving target?
[0:32:59] QM: What we always do pre and post assessments, so anytime we see knowledge change, that's a difference. That's a measure for us. The qualitative data means a lot more to me is when the students are writing notes on their own free will and letting us know how we impacted them. When they change from the beginning of class, where they're closed off and they're like, they don't want to hear anything to the end of class, where they are openly sharing and they're telling us how we've shifted their mindsets, that's when I think we won.
I get the biggest joy when I see young men, particularly young black and brown men in the course and realize that their body matters, and that they have value, and that they don't want to just go out here and take these risks, particularly sexual risk, because that's not the cool thing to do. Because they're putting themselves in jeopardy, and their health and well-being. Seeing that shift in value, that's what matters. That's why we do the work.
[0:34:07] KM: How do you make a living doing this? I mean, this is a full-time job for you, right?
[0:34:10] QM: It is a full-time job for me. We offer health coaching. There are some individuals that can pay for this. Not all of our services are grant funded. Some of them are private pay. We also have some contracts. Our biggest contract is actually with the Oakland Unified School District. In addition to sexual health and wellness and all things adolescents, we also do service, youth serving organizations. Particularly for Oakland, we help them with their school readiness for the –
[0:34:37] KM: Do you come in Oakland, California?
[0:34:38] QM: Oakland, California, for the after-school program. We want to make sure that they have proper emergency preparedness, so we do a lot of the training in Oakland and other areas, just helping organizations make sure that they can provide safe, nurturing environments for young people.
[0:34:53] KM: What about the Delta region? Don't you work in the Delta region?
[0:34:55] QM: We do do work in the Delta region. A lot of our work in the Delta region is grant funded.
[0:34:59] KM: One of the things that I saw that you did that I watched an interview with you is you talked about trying to teach parents about testing and prevention. Instead of thinking of it as testing and prevention, you said, it's self-care.
[0:35:16] QM: It's self-care.
[0:35:17] KM: How do you get them to buy into the testing, like you said? Because a lot of people don't want to go to the doctor and they don't want to find out.
[0:35:25] QM: Honestly, you got to reframe the narrative and you've got to get to know your audience. Everything that we do, we curate it based on who we're serving. If we are servicing a church group, we are going to make sure that we tie in faith and that we show them how to make the connection.
[0:35:40] KM: How do church groups think about you coming in there and talking about sex?
[0:35:45] QM: Actually, we've had a lot of pastors that have challenged me to make sure that I am reframing it in a way that I can fill the gaps that they cannot, because there are some things that people have a certain level of respect, that they're going to be closed off when they come to that pastor, right? They realize that. The pastors are inviting me in, and they're actually schooling me on, “Okay, you said that good. But in order for it to resonate, I need you to think about this.” Them challenging me helps me refine my approach in reaching the faith-based community.
[0:36:22] KM: Yeah, that seems like a tricky spot. All right, this is a great place to take a break. We've been speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford, Founder of Village Public Health in Little Rock, Arkansas, a youth-centered organization rooted in creating inclusive spaces for young people to speak openly about self-care and sex, a pathway to thrive mentally, emotionally and physically, especially to those historically underserved populations. Still to come, opportunities from her minority-led non-profit of the year, the Village Public Health Training Center with certification opportunities for young people seeking a career in health care and questions from our listeners. We'll be right back.
[BREAK]
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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:37:48] KM: We're speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford. I like to call her Dr. Q. That could be for cute. Yeah, she is cute. The Founder of the Village Public Health, a youth and young adult health care organization and nonprofit training center with a fresh approach to conversations about self-care and career opportunities. In 2018, you Founded the Village Public Health, which we've been talking about. Now, you have a nonprofit arm, the Village Public Health Training Center. I just want to say something here, as a marketing guru, which I think I am. So modest.
[0:38:26] GM: Go ahead. Go ahead.
[0:38:28] KM: You talked about all these arms you had before the –
[0:38:32] QM: Pinky Promise.
[0:38:33] KM: And the Resilience Lab, and another one.
[0:38:36] QM: Vibe Safe Campaign.
[0:38:38] KM: But they're all under the Village Public Health.
[0:38:41] QM: Mm-hmm.
[0:38:41] KM: I need to let you know this. I had a hard time connecting the dots that all of those were part of the Village Public Health program. To me, when you start renaming stuff, it starts to get re-disjointed. I haven't told you this yet, Gray. Just an example, I just recently started a new limited liability corporation for this bar that I'm going to have downstairs. I registered under the name, Kerry Lou's. A name that my mother gave me that I thought was really cute to name my bar after my mother's pet name for me. I realized that the Dreamland Ballroom is on the third floor and that Kerry Lou's is going to be the bar on the second floor and that there's this disconnect, because everybody's going to say, “Well, where's Kerry Lou's?” And they're going to say, “At the Dreamland Ballroom.” Then I'm going to have to re-spend money trying to educate everybody that Kerry Lou's is part of the Dreamland Ballroom's building. So, Gray, son Gray, I decided to not use Kerry Lou's Incorporated name, but we're going to do business as the Dreamland Ballroom Bar.
[0:39:46] GM: Sure. Yeah. Because so that you get –
[0:39:50] KM: So, I don't have to educate everybody that that is a part of this organization.
[0:39:54] QM: Yes.
[0:39:55] KM: When I was putting this together, as a marketing person, I wanted to give you my feedback, which they're going to probably cut this completely out of our show today.
[0:40:07] GM: You getting feedback? What?
[0:40:08] KM: But I did have a problem going, is that in the same company? Is that a different company? Is that something else? I thought of it, if everything could start with the village labs, the village this, like you did the nonprofit arm is called the Village Training Center. I completely knew what that meant.
[0:40:28] QM: Exactly. Those are initiatives.
[0:40:29] KM: Is that different?
[0:40:30] QM: Mm-hmm. They're not individual companies. They're just initiatives that we do. We'll say, hey, the Resilience Lab, Village Public Health Initiative. That's always our sub one.
[0:40:43] KM: That makes it easier to get a nonprofit to get some sort of this – why does that –
[0:40:48] QM: Well, because those are just initiatives that are funded under the for-profit. When we talk about the relationship with a nonprofit, the nonprofit is our training center. That's how I bring in bodies and how I'm able to make sure that I have staff. But they converge. I never used the training center as a business name. I always use Village Public Health. That's why the initiatives live up under Village Public Health. The workers come from the training center, because that's how we're able to train them at no cost. That's made to all converge together.
[0:41:16] KM: Yeah. In 2018, you founded the Village Public Health and now the nonprofit arm of that is the Village Public Health Training Center. Let's talk about why creating this workforce development arm is so important to the next step of your organization.
[0:41:29] QM: Awesome. I had the privilege of transitioning from the Department of Health to the CDC Foundation and I supported the New Mexico Department of Health. What I realized as their Chief Informatics Officer was that our public health workforce is aging, but our public health workforce is also tired. A lot of people are leaving post-COVID and just funding changes. A lot of things are shifting. Public health is where you live, work, play, learn, worship and grow, so it's not going anywhere. It's important that we continue to get young people to see the value of community and the importance of staying in their community, specifically when we talk about our rural areas, specifically when we talk about the Delta where we see a lot of outmigration. The goal is to get those young people to see the value in their environment and want to go back there. That's why I developed the training center, so that I can show them how they can swing the pendulum on some of the things that they don't like in their communities.
[0:42:27] KM: Well, and you can use them as your human resources to go out and get experiential knowledge by working in your workshops with the community.
[0:42:37] QM: That's exactly what they do.
[0:42:38] KM: They get certifications, don't they? Can you tell us what the youth community health worker certification, or the public health ambassador program is and how that prepares young people?
[0:42:47] QM: Yes. All of our ambassadors go through the Morehouse College of Medicine youth community health worker program. It provides them with a knowledge base in order to understand how to go and do things with the community, not to the community. They learn everything from advocacy to public health communication, understanding the language, but also, they learn how to take blood pressures and how to do weight and what BMI means, and how to do a mental health screening. So, that when they are out, they are actually doing the work, not just as stand by. They're not just bystanders looking and watching. They are actually the ones that are engrossed in the work.
Imagine you're a 17-year-old that shows up to a health fair. What is the experience like when a 40-year-old takes your blood pressure, as opposed to a 17-year-old? Not only the experience of the transaction of what needs to happen from a clinical perspective, it's the dynamic and the communication that happens, because now while they're running the tests, or they're waiting for the STI results, those two young people can converse. They can share from the same level, in opposition to you waiting on your STI results, and I'm just sitting there looking at you, because you don't want to talk to me.
Now what we see is we see cackling. We see them playing. We see them dropping real knowledge, factual information, because they are the first line of defense. The training, making sure they get the certifications is important, so that when they go out into the community, I know that they know what they're doing and I can stay in the background and they call me when they need me.
[0:44:35] KM: What year did you start the training center?
[0:44:37] QM: I actually started the training center last year.
[0:44:40] KM: So, it's new.
[0:44:40] QM: It's new-new.
[0:44:42] KM: Have you had anybody graduate and get certified?
[0:44:43] QM: I have.
[0:44:44] KM: How many?
[0:44:45] QM: We've had about a dozen students come through the program.
[0:44:47] KM: In one year, that's pretty good.
[0:44:48] QM: Yeah.
[0:44:49] KM: Yeah. How many people like to start and then go, “Oh, this isn't for me”?
[0:44:53] QM: This is the first year that we've actually had a partnership with the school district, where for the 75 community hours, they can come in and be ambassadors. We will start our data collection this year. We currently have four students over from Southwest High School that are in the program. We'll start to try to pick up on the number of students that realize that this is a viable option. For them to not just get some of their community hours, but they could truly get all 75 with us.
[0:45:19] KM: You are planning to take some of this on tour to counties in Arkansas with the highest STIs. How do you plan to do that?
[0:45:27] QM: Oh, the Vibe Safe tour?
[0:45:28] KM: Yeah.
[0:45:28] QM: Oh, so we currently take the tour across the state. We have actually hit every public health region. Let me just be clear. That particular program is funded by the Arkansas Department of Health, or was funded by the Arkansas Department of Health. They took our funding, but we're going to keep it going. In the six months that they funded the program, we were able to touch every public health region. We made contact and fostered relationships with at least one organization in every public health region. We were able to reach well over 2,500 students covering all five public health regions. We've been able to travel across the state to churches, to schools, to youth serving organizations to speak to young people, 13 to 24.
[0:46:16] KM: Oh, my God. That's so good. You've been defunded.
[0:46:19] QM: We've been defunded, but the tour continues, because we are able to shift some of our priorities and make some adjustments. We're always looking for additional funding to support that. But then, also, just using some of our own resources to keep the tour going, because I believe in the tour, and I want to see the data change. And so, it won't stop.
[0:46:39] KM: If everything went the way you hoped, what would youth health and wellness in Arkansas look like in five years from now?
[0:46:48] QM: In five years from now.
[0:46:51] KM: If you could dream the biggest dream.
[0:46:53] QM: All young people in Arkansas would be thriving, not just surviving. That is looking at holistic wellness. Taking in consideration where they live, work, play, learn, worship and where they're growing. That those environments would be conducive for them to thrive. That would be ideal for me.
[0:47:11] KM: If you could change one thing about how society supports young people's health, what would it be?
[0:47:17] QM: See them and hear them, and do your best to understand them and realize that they want to be part of the solution. They don't see themselves as a problem and they're not a problem. They can be part of the solution. Trust them to do that.
[0:47:33] GM: I'm glad you didn't say something like, social media, or something like that.
[0:47:36] QM: No. Social media has its place. There are some things that we need to be concerned about, but it's here. It's much like, when we fought having the computers, when IBM first, we had the first box computer, nobody wanted it and it was going to be problematic. But here we are with laptops, and moving forward. It's here. The question is, what are we going to do?
[0:47:56] KM: This is our last break. We've been speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford, Founder of the Village Public Health and the Village Public Health Training Center, focusing on youth and young adults' health and well-being. When we come up, we'll wrap up the show with some last-minute questions from our listeners. We'll be right back.
[BREAK]
[0:48:12] ANNOUNCER: It might seem like a long time away, Valentine's Day, 2026, but it's really not. If you're a dancer, you might already be ready to make history on the same stage where legends like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald once performed. We're talking about the stage in the Dreamland Ballroom and the once-a-year fundraiser called Dancing into Dreamland. It'll be held on February 14th, 2026. It's our only fundraiser of the year and it's always fantastic. Judges, great crowd, great food and drinks. Get signed up as a dancer now. Showcase your talent in this historic ballroom. Fill out the registration form now, dreamlandballroom.org.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:48:53] KM: We're speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford. Dr. Q, as I like to call her, Founder of Village Health Public, a youth and young adult health care organization founded in Little Rock, Arkansas. Before the break, we talked about STDs on the rise in Arkansas and what she's doing. If you haven't heard the beginning of the show, you need to. This woman speaks from the heart. She's passionate. We need more service-oriented, educated women like her in our community that speak up for women, and our youth in Arkansas and across the country. Here are the questions from our listeners. If you weren't working in public health, what career do you think you'd be in?
[0:49:28] QM: Man, if I wasn't working in public health, what would I be doing? Man.
[0:49:35] KM: I don't think she thinks of anything else.
[0:49:37] QM: I don't. That's the crazy thing. I love this. I love this. I can't imagine doing anything else, especially now that I – You know what? I would have a school. I don't want to be a teacher. I don't want to be a teacher. I won’t be that. I want to be from a systems perspective. I want to design what I think school should look like. I'd be a school administrator of my own school. That's what I’d do.
[0:50:01] KM: Well, you are an entrepreneur. What's one fact about you that most people don't know?
[0:50:06] QM: Most people don't know that I really can't see.
[0:50:10] GM: Say it again?
[0:50:12] QM: I really can't see. I got real, real, real, real, real bad vision, y'all. My glasses is thicker than a Coke bottle. I don't wear them for that very reason. I remember when I was growing up and I would go to the eye doctor and my vision was getting progressively, progressively worse. My glasses was getting thicker and thicker. The doctors, that's when doctors didn't really speak life. They was negative, man. They’d tell my mama, “She ain't going to be able to see. She's going to be legally blind.” This is what I love about my mama. Because, “I don't care what them folks say. You're going to go do what you supposed to be doing.”
She gave me tenacity that, “Okay, if you can't see, you better figure out how to navigate around that.” Eventually, I got gas permeable contacts. If you know what those are, you know how bad my eyes are. Those are those hard contacts that you got to stick in your eye. Eventually, technology changed and contacts got better. My prescription’s real strong, but at least now I can get soft contacts. I can see and I push through. I worry that one day I may truly lose my vision. But for right now, I have it. Because God let me have it, I'm going to do what I can. If I don't have to, I won't drive at night, because I can't see.
[0:51:23] KM: Well, they'll have driving cars here before long.
[0:51:26] QM: They'll have driving cars. Then besides that, I got three kids. Somebody to drive me around.
[0:51:31] GM: Man, you and my mama are just these two ladies. I tell you.
[0:51:35] KM: We really are. I know, right?
[0:51:37] QM: Yeah. You don't stop. I mean, you can't let that be a hindrance.
[0:51:39] KM: What's something that brings you joy right now, either at work or in your personal life?
[0:51:42] QM: Man, what brings me joy? I’ll tell you what brings me joy here lately, is just watching the lessons that I'm being intentional about giving my little kids unfold, right? My son goes to play therapy, because he can go from zero to a hundred in two seconds. When I get upset, he's like, “No, you've got to breathe. Roll your shoulders. Roll your neck. Come back home. Come back home. You've got it.” Just seeing that –
[0:52:12] GM: How old is he?
[0:52:14] QM: He's four.
[0:52:14] GM: Oh, that's amazing.
[0:52:14] QM: My son is four.
[0:52:15] GM: That’s amazing.
[0:52:16] KM: I didn't know there was a thing called play therapy.
[0:52:17] QM: It is. It's called play therapy, man. She is dynamic. She has helped me understand that not all kids have a diagnosis, or need a diagnosis. Some of them just need to manage their emotions. Me having to be intentional about him managing his emotions and seeing it play out, that gives me a lot of joy.
[0:52:35] KM: I had one of those. I had two of those, actually. It wasn't you, Gray. You were very good.
[0:52:41] GM: Oh, I know who it is and I won't say it out loud.
[0:52:43] QM: You won’t say it out loud. Yeah.
[0:52:46] KM: Don't name him. Don't name him. If you had to sum up your mission in three words, what would it be?
[0:52:53] QM: Three words. Thrive, not survive.
[0:52:57] KM: Oh, that's good.
[0:52:58] GM: It is good.
[0:53:00] KM: I thought you might say something in one of your interviews I saw. I meant to go write it down, something about know your purpose.
[0:53:09] QM: Yeah. You definitely got to know the purpose of your while. A lot of times, I will say, I don't like the word empower, because I have no power to give our young people. What I want them to do is recognize their power and then leverage how they're going to use it, so that they can make an impact in our community.
[0:53:23] KM: Understand the purpose of your why. I loved that. I saw that in an interview you did. For young people listening, here's your last thing, what message would you want to take them away from this today?
[0:53:35] QM: You matter.
[0:53:37] KM: For community members and listeners who want to support your work, what's one simple thing they can do after hearing this conversation? How do they contact you?
[0:53:43] QM: They can go to villagepublichealth.org, join our mailing list. We're always looking for adult volunteers. If we can be of service in your community, please invite us. We will go anywhere that we are invited.
[0:53:56] KM: Wow, that's great. Every time I speak with somebody like you, I always think I'm going to do more service work. It's always so inspiring.
[0:54:02] GM: So inspiring.
[0:54:05] KM: Thank you so much for coming on today. We've been speaking today with Dr. Quinyatta Mumford, Founder of Village Public Health, a youth-centered organization rooted in creating inclusive spaces for young people to speak openly about sex and self-care, a pathway for them to thrive mentally, emotionally and physically, especially to those historically underserved populations, and her minority-led nonprofit of the year, the Village Public Health Training Center with career opportunities for young people wanting a career in health care.
Thank you so much, Dr. Q, for sharing your passion, your mission to our listeners. We hope and we pray for your continued success. Here's a desk set for you. That is the US flag, that is the Arkansas flag, and guess what flag that is?
[0:54:48] QM: What is that?
[0:54:48] KM: That's Alabama. Aren't you born in Alabama?
[0:54:51] QM: I was born in Alabama. Love it.
[0:54:53] KM: There you go.
[0:54:56] QM: That's amazing. Thank you.
[0:54:57] KM: You're welcome. This show was recorded in the historical Taborian Hall in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas and made possible by the good works of flagandbanner.com, Mr. Tom Wood, our audio engineer, Mr. Jonathan Hankins, our videographer, Ms. Delora Devore, production manager and my co-host, son, Grady McCoy IV.
To our listeners, we'd like to thank you to for spending time with us. We hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening and that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence, or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on the radio. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:55:34] GM: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, go to flagandbanner.com, select radio show and choose today's guest. If you'd like to sponsor this show, or any show, contact me, Gray. That's gray, gray@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel, or podcast, wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple. To help you live the American dream.
[END]
