April 29, 2022

Erikka Gilliam, MS, MPH, data manager, Urban Health Collaborative (UHC), recently participated in the Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) Mentor Program in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research. The DASH Mentor Program supports experienced organizations in creating opportunities that foster learning and implementation for small groups of mentees. The program focuses on communities sharing a common interest in improving their local capacity to share multi-sector data.

The UHC sat down with Erikka to discuss her experience serving as a mentor with the program. Erikka’s favorite aspect of the program was the opportunity to collaborate with organizations and individuals across the United States. At the UHC, Erikka works with the West Philly Promise Neighborhood where the data is targeted towards a very specific geographic area. The DASH Mentor Program allowed her to use those skills and apply them to areas across the United States. She also learned a lot from the experience that she was able to bring into her own work. “A mentorship goes two ways. While I gave my expertise to my mentees, I learned just as much from them as they learned from me.”