Damien J. Leach, MPH

Co- Founder & Vice President

Damien J. Leach (he/him/his) is a Black community organizer, artist, and educator currently pursuing his doctorate in Community Health Education at UMass Amherst. His work centers on advancing health equity through culturally grounded, arts-based approaches. Drawing from his lived experiences growing up in Roxbury, MA and years of grassroots organizing, Damien collaborates with community members across generations, artists, and local leaders to address structural violence, mental health disparities, and cultivate collective healing through cultural and artistic programming.

His artistic roots in graffiti and poetry reflect his belief in storytelling as a powerful tool for resistance, connection, and cultural affirmation. Prior to his doctoral studies, Damien led youth and community engagement efforts at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Office of Equity and Community Health, where he helped launch public health campaigns and wellness initiatives tailored to marginalized communities.

Damien is passionate about creating intergenerational spaces of joy, resilience, and imagination.

  • Youth leadership roots in Boston organizing spaces, such as the Boston Student Advisory Council (2005 - 2013)

  • Massachusetts General Hospital (2015 - 2023)

    Over a span of 8 years, Damien held a number of roles at MGH, including:

    • Youth and Community Engagement Project Manager

    • Community Care Van Manager

    • COVID-19 Outreach Strategist

    • Youth Community Advisory Board Facilitator

    • Community Partnership Manager for STEM & biomedical literacy programs with youth, including interactive simulation workshops (YSIMS)

    • Communications Specialist

    • Healthcare Systems Administrator

    • Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor

  • Founded and ran a community-based wellness initiative in 2017 called One Love Health Club

  • Teaching Fellow, Instructor, and Teaching Assistant in School of Public Health & Health Sciences, UMass Amherst (2023 - Present)

    • SPHHS150: Great Challenges in Public Health | Graduate Teaching Assistant

    • FYS 191: U-Thrive & Explore First Year Seminar: Reimagining Healthcare | Graduate Teaching Fellow

    • PH 323: Public Health Communications | Instructor (TO)

  • Graduate Student Researcher in School of Public Health & Health Sciences, UMass Amherst (2024 - 2025)

    • Developed a comics-based research project with Dr. Aline Gubrium based on data from the STRIVE research project.

    • Created an ethnographic fiction comic book called “The Phantoms of Mistrust that Follow”.

  • Co-Principal Investigator & Graduate Research Assistant for The Graffiti Storytelling Project through the Center for Community Health Equity Research at UMass Amherst (2024 - 2025)

  • Partner Engagement Strategies Associate for Promoting Good (2025 - Present)

  • Principal Investigator for The Healing Frequencies Studio Project (2025 - Present)

Damien’s Work

Grants

Creative Experiences Grant, Mass Cultural Council — $5,000
November 2026 – June 2027
Project: The Healing Frequencies Studio
Role: Principal Investigator

The Healing Frequencies Studio is a community-driven creative project in Springfield, MA where BIPOC young adults will collaboratively write, record, and produce an original music album centered on mental health, community well-being, and addressing structural inequities. Co-led with the young adult artists, this project encourages creating music and telling stories, while doing healing work together, having honest conversations, and building the mutual encouragement and collective empowerment that affirms who they are as people and as artists. Grounded in Hip Hop’s tenet of knowledge of self, young adult participants will engage in dialogue, music exploration, freestyling, and multimodal artmaking. The work is rooted in Afrofuturism centering imagination, ancestral wisdom, and collective wellness as acts of resistance and power. Through counter-storytelling, young adults will draw on their own lives, cultures, and communities to tell stories that are reflective of their realities.

The experience has two parts. First, collaborative workshops where young adults create the album and make decisions about its delivery and dissemination. Second, community listening events they will design and lead themselves, performing the album and opening honest dialogue with community members, leaders, and policymakers about what BIPOC young adults need and deserve.

Predissertation Research Grant, University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate School — $1,500
January 2026 – May 2026
Project: The Healing Frequencies Studio: Co-creating a Community-Based Project Using Hip Hop Multimodal Media to Explore Young People’s Experiences, Well-Being, and Social Conditions
Role: Principal Investigator

Using Hip Hop multimodal media, we explored how young adults use music, storytelling, and creative expression in their daily lives to process their experiences and emotions, and to explore issues they want to address through cultural and artistic media. This study uses a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach and served as a formative study to inform the development of a larger dissertation project. Together, we imagined and designed a PAR project that reflects what young adults believe is most important when it comes to mental health, and what community leaders should understand about how to better support young people.

Public Scholarship

Leach, D. J., Puerto, G., & Leshner, S. (2026). We invite you to take a stroll down Dwight St, Final Destination: "Flower Power" at the intersection of art and public health. Substack. https://healingartsreimagined.substack.com/p/we-invite-you-to-take-a-stroll-down

Presentations & Abstracts

Leach DJ, Valdez ES, Gubrium A. Exploring trust and structural challenges with young parents through comic-based qualitative research. American Public Health Association Annual Meeting 2024, Minneapolis, MN. November 2024.

Leach DJ, Puerto G, Evans B, Shaw S, Evans L, Chan J, Gubrium A. Amplifying Youth Voices Through Body Mapping: Graffiti, Storytelling, and Health Equity. Annual Springfield Public Health Month Kick-Off Event 2025, Springfield, MA. April 2025.

Leach DJ, Valdez ES, Gubrium A. Exploring trust and structural challenges with young parents through comic-based qualitative research. UMass Amherst School of Public Health & Health Sciences Research Day 2025, Amherst, MA. April 2025.

Leach DJ, Gubrium A, The Healing Frequencies Studio Crew. The Healing Frequencies Studio: Co-creating a Participatory Action Research Project Using Hip Hop Multimodal Media to Explore Young People's Experiences, Well-Being, and Mental Health Priorities. Annual Springfield Public Health Month Kick-Off Event 2026, Springfield, MA. April 2026.

Leach DJ, Gubrium A, The Healing Frequencies Studio Crew. The Healing Frequencies Studio: Co-creating a Participatory Action Research Project Using Hip Hop Multimodal Media to Explore Young Adults' Experiences, Well-Being, and Mental Health Priorities. National Organization for Arts in Health Annual Conference 2026 (Virtual). October 2026.

Panels & Workshops Organized

Leach DJ, Juma the Light, Puerto G. Flow & Flames: Rebirthing Hip Hop’s Alchemical Roots Towards Communal Healing. Black Artistic Freedom Conference 2025, Amherst, MA. February 2025.

Leach DJ. Building Strong Relationships with Communities. Young Adult Action Collective Workshop for the Gambling Awareness Research Initiative, Springfield, MA. April 2025.

Guest Lectures

“Mental Health & Narrative Power” ID108: What is public health?

Clark University (November 2026)

“Introduction to the Power of Storytelling in Public Health” ID108: What is public health?

Clark University (February 2026)

“The Phantoms of Trust that Follow: Exploring trust and structural challenges with young parents through comic-based qualitative research” HPP608: Communication Theory

University of Massachusetts Amherst (November 2024)

“Introduction to Public Health” Public Health Equity Young Scholars Summer Enrichment Program

University of Massachusetts Amherst (July 2024)

“Political and Economic Determinants of Health” SPHHS150: Great Challenges in Public Health

University of Massachusetts Amherst (February 2024)

“What’s equity got to do with it?” EXSC100: Introduction to Exercise Science

Simmons University (September 2023)