Florida Family Network

Founder & Executive Director

Florida Family Network

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Ms. Sokoya Finch is the founding executive director and CEO of Florida Family Network, Inc. Ms. Finch has been working with minorities across the southern region of the United States for over 20 years in the following areas of disparities: public health, education, incarceration, poverty and wealth. She is a foot solder in keeping the conversation of disparities going in the light that engages diverse key stakeholders, promotes capacity building opportunities, and creating a natural flow of collaborative partnerships resulting in outcomes and positive impacts.

A few outcomes from her work include: Partnership with U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, where she educated and trained hundreds of female inmates on reentry employment and parenting skills. Partnerships also include Tuskegee University, and a nine-member consortium of historically black universities and their state community-based organization, Southern Food Systems Education Consortium (SOFEC) resulted in a new approach and a model for a regional commission. This work culminated into Public Law 110-246, which authorized the establishment of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission in 2008 as part of the Farm bill. In a national role, Ms. Finch served on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Risk Communication Advisory Board, (2008-2012). She shared her experience and her voice in the importance of social and cultural factors in communication effectiveness on behalf of health literacy among the low-income, underserved, uninsured, and those with limited English proficiency. Ms Finch assisted Health & Human Service, National Office of Minority Health in the development of its national health plan to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. Ms. Finch also coordinated efforts in writing Florida’s first health disparities strategic plan. Ms. Finch continues collaborative partnerships with Florida A & M University’s Institute of Public Health, Environmental Sciences Institute and College of Agriculture and Food Sciences Cooperative Extension to impact changes in Florida’s communities.