Session 8: Mutual Aid as Community Resistance for Public Health Regeneration

Описание: This week we are joined by Nancy Valentin, Daniela Medrano, and Karina Sanchez.

Nancy Valentin is a graduate student researcher committed to validating and learning community-led food access interventions that exist outside traditional nonprofit and institutional structures. Through immersive, participatory research, she studies hyperlocal mutual aid networks and grassroots food justice work to understand what makes these interventions effective, for whom, and in what contexts. Her work sits at the intersection of participatory evaluation and implementation science, centering community expertise while building the evidence base that grassroots organizers need to sustain and scale their impact - or to demonstrate why their hyperlocal approaches should remain uniquely tailored to their communities.

Dani Medrano is a Chicago-born, first-generation Mexicana and organizer with Veggie Mijas Chicago. Raised in the city and shaped by time spent in her family’s ranchito in Durango, México, she comes from a lineage of farmers, educators, and birthworkers. Organizing with Veggie Mijas since 2019, Dani is driven by love for her community and opposition to factory farming and capitalist systems that harm people and animals alike. She brings a background in education, animal advocacy, plant-based nutrition, and birthwork to her work, and considers herself a friend to all animals—even the “creepy” ones. Her organizing is rooted in care, culture, and the belief that food and community are powerful tools for justice, health, and liberation.

Karina Sanchez (she/they) is a holistic health and wellness practitioner and food justice organizer based in Pilsen. She co-leads Veggie Mijas Chicago, supporting plant-based education, mutual aid, and community programming for Queer BIPOC communities. Karina is an herbalism apprentice with Urban Growers Collective, a yoga teacher through the Latina Sweat Project, and an energy healing apprentice at Verde Holistic Wellness Studio, where she studies Mesoamerican healing practices and facilitates trauma-informed, culturally rooted wellness offerings.