Meet our Founder

Dr. ‘Demi Fauziyyah Adebo-Adelaja is the founder and Executive Director of The Aafiyah Project. As a trained public health researcher with almost 25 years of experience in community development, Dr. 'Demi Fauziyyah is passionate about finding ways to reduce health disparities in the minority and underserved communities. This interest was first sparked by her experience as a peer health educator during her undergraduate years. She was further inspired to work with minority communities when she was selected to be trained as an HIV counselor and health educator working with inner city Baltimore youths faced with inadequate access to healthcare. She went on to work with various international development organizations providing HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and in the US. In 2020, a renewed interest in addressing health disparities emerge in light of the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on minority communities in her home state of Maryland, and particularly in Prince George’s County where she resides.

 

Dr. ‘Demi Fauziyyah leads The Aafiyah Project on its mission to build a legacy of health and wellness by addressing health disparities through health promotion programs, community engagement, scholastic achievement programming, and ethical organizational governance.

 

Dr. ‘Demi Fauziyyah earned her doctorate in Management of Public Health Services from the University of Maryland Global Campus, a Master of Public Health degree in Global Health from Emory University, and her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.