Our Team
Dr. Imani Ma'at
CEO
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Dr. Imani Ma’at is a Health Educator and Behavioral Scientist who worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 22 years. She specialized in community and international health, HIV/AIDS, and chronic diseases. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Master of Public Health (MPH) Program of Morehouse School of Medicine teaching courses such as Women’s Health and Development, Research Methods and Intercultural Communications and Health. Dr. Ma’at is the CEO of her own business appropriately titled Focused Health, LLC which specializes educational workshop design and implementation, focus group design, implementation and analysis of data.
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Due to her passion for working with youth and the arts, she co-founded a non-profit teen theater/health education group entitled Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.) 4 Health, Inc. Most recently she launched a poetry workshop series for youth entitled Healthy Haiku 4 Youth, which has been systematically evaluated, with a Fellowship from Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University and University of Alabama documenting the effectiveness of this unique strategy.
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Dr. Ma’at has published three books based on the workshop entitled: Promoting Healthy Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors Among Youth Using Haiku and Creative Expression: A Training Manual for Mentors which provides information on health issues such as delaying sex, HIV, violence, self-esteem, diet and exercise (and much more) and provides examples of Haiku and other poetry written about the issues. The second book, published in 2010, is entitled, Healthy Haiku Poetry: Using Creative Expression to Transform Youth.
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The third book in the Healthy Haiku Series is Healthy Haiku 3: How to Fight Childhood Obesity One Poem at a Time! This book is 1) Serves as a health awareness discussion platform for teachers and mentors. 2) Acts as a guide for helping children, teens and their mentors explore important nutritional health issues;3) Introduces children and teens to the world of the English Language Arts and Haiku poetry,4) Engages teens in using their creative talents to describe feelings and experiences related to diet and nutritional health issues — using a self-reflective process; and5) Creates a Power Source Prompt (PSP) for youth to draw upon when faced with real-life challenges regarding their diets and habits related to nutritional health.
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Dr. Ma’at has earned degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Teacher’s College of Columbia University.
James Bernard Kynes, Sr.
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James Bernard Kynes, Sr., is an African American ordained Methodist minister (M.Div.) and a state licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in private practice. He is a Clinical Member and an Approved Supervisor with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and an ACPE Psychotherapist. He has been in practice since 1992. His experiences inform me that we seek an understanding and relief from our emotional, social, spiritual, and relational stress surrounding our daily activities. He provides coaching and consultation for individuals, couples, families, groups, and workplace organizations, by creating a safe space and place for open conversation and dialogue, in hope that a process for healing and growth from these complexities can be experienced. Bernard says that being featured in a major motion picture film entitled Master of Light, was a recent highlight of his career! His character was seen counseling a young African American urban painter and illuminating the issues of trauma and transformation. He is also a 27-year US Army, Guard and Reserve Veteran. He has published articles and essays and has both post-graduate work and a graduate degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center and undergraduate degree Georgia Southwestern University.
Garry A. Ogden, Sr. JD
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Garry A. Ogen, Sr. JD is co-founder of Y.E.S 4 Health, Inc. and is a graduate of Northwestern University of Memphis' Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Since 1969 he has worked as an educator and in a number of Youth Development positions. During his career he has worked to provide opportunities for children and youth who have been marginalized because of their socio-economic standing. Much of his experience occurred in the inner-city of some of America's largest cities, such as New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta. He has provided direct services in schools, churches and community centers and he has had the opportunity to start, manage and improve programs in the cities listed above.​
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Mr. Ogden's most recent positions were National Program Director for an organization that provides after-school Youth Development, computer tutorials and mentoring for over 1,000 young people in grades 3-9 and as the Family, Transition and Mentoring Coordinator for over 800 youth in grades 6-12 at an Atlanta alternative school. Prior to becoming the National Program Director in his last position, with the same organization, he started a program in Atlanta as a Center Director. As the Center Director, he started with no staff, no students and no physical location for the program. Between April and September, he successfully hired two paid staff members, 20 volunteers, created a partnership that provided funding for an additional 8 teachers and created a collaborative that added 6 more staff and 20 computers. Also, during that time he recruited 218 students, and then created a database for them and began to see academic and behavioral improvement by the end of the first semester. His accomplishments and contributions have been recognized in the community by such organizations as Judge Hatchett's (K.I.N.D) Kids in Need of Dreams and by the former Benjamin Carson School; both located in Atlanta.​