2025 Finalists

Taylor Carty, Jahmil Lacey, Mami Horikawa, and Halee Yue were selected as the grand prize winners of the inaugural UCLA Health Equity Challenge. Read the press release. 
 

Meet all 15 finalists and learn more about their projects.

Amani Carson

Project: Community art program for low-income neurological patients and caregivers from the Black community. Patients, loved ones, and caregivers would perform stories of their experiences

Taylor Carty

Project: Work with community to plan and add inclusive playground equipment, such as wheelchair-accessible swings, ramps, sensory play zones, and communication boards to a playground in South Los Angeles.

Naomi Castellon-Perez

Project: Improve air quality in schools to decrease absenteeism. Her proposal would provide air filters, box fans, and installation supplies to classrooms and educate students about air quality and climate change.

Tiffany J. Chen

Project: Partner with existing mobile clinics to expand dental cleanings, hand out dental kits, and share oral health information to address oral health care disparities for people experiencing homelessness.

Tiffany Y. Chen

Project: Culturally relevant, multi-language program for patients with Parkinson’s that would conduct workshops, provide a telehealth platform with support groups, and use vans to bring care to people where they are.

Angela Rose David

Project: Mental health support program tailored specifically for Filipinos, which would offer peer support circles, cultural mentorship and guidance, mental health resources and counseling.

Suhong He

Project: Afterschool program for preventive mental health care for Asian youth. The program would consist of peer-led workshops that use mindfulness, meditation, Traditional Chinese Medicine, guided imagery, and art.

Mami Horikawa

Project: Improve emergency department care for people with autism by conducting a needs assessment to identify components for a toolkit of resources that are practical in an emergency department setting.

Denise Jimenez Tapia

Project: Improve health literacy among farmworkers, specifically for occupational hazards, such as heat-related illness and pesticide exposure, and increase insurance enrollment by holding education sessions at laundromats. 

Jahmil Lacey

Project: Reduce mental health disparities for young Black men by turning barbershops into health hubs with tailored mental health resources, mentorship, and psychosocial support, including one-on-one and group therapy sessions and resource navigation.

Hannah Lee

Project: Targeted mental health program for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youth that provides culturally sensitive mental health services, including curriculum on body image and eating disorders, gaming addiction, among other topics.

Zeena Mestari

Project: A campaign to support caregivers for people with autism that would offer workshops in English and Spanish and provide an online platform to raise awareness.

Wendy Tran

Project: Online platform that has story sharing, mental health resources and guides, and scam prevention education to support overall better mental health for Asian Americans.

Qianyun Wang

Project: An art therapy program for older Chinese immigrants struggling with grief, in which they share photos and stories. Sessions would be led by mental health professionals culturally and linguistically aligned with participants.f change.” 

Halee Yue

Project: Build resilience in and teach leadership skills to youth in foster care by engaging them in a program to train shelter dogs, making the animals more adoptable.