PROJECT: Build an integrative health platform that aims to decrease health inequities and increase the accessibility, availability, and affordability of psychotherapeutic services, trauma informed exercise, and nutritional counseling in Los Angeles. The platform will employ a coordinated care model that connects BIPOC and low-income community members to preventive and integrative care via telehealth, at-home services, or on-site with community partners.

Annalea Forrest is an indigenous, dual Master of Social Welfare and Master of Public Health student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, whose work on health inequity has supported violence survivors, families in poverty, and marginalized communities. As a foster-care graduate and first-generation student in her freshman year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Forrest founded REACH, (Rural Education Access for Community Health), an NGO that supplemented the shortage of mental healthcare providers in rural areas.

At UCLA, Forrest’s work is centered on creating access to comprehensive preventative, mental and physical health services for low-income, BIPOC, health-service providers, K–12 teachers, and artists. Forrest is a 2020 recipient of the Public Health Advocacy Fellowship from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and 2020 recipient of the Child and Family Health Fellowship from the UCLA Center of Excellence in Maternal & Child Health.

Originally from the Midwest, Forrest continues to grow her love for art, creating music, and new culinary experiences thanks to her roots in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and the rural farming communities of central Illinois. In Los Angeles, she spends her time rock climbing, adventuring on camping road trips, and connecting to beauty through the eyes of her friends and neighbors living in Skid Row.