A BIT ABOUT US
MISSION AND VISION
Queer Wellness Network is committed to dismantling systems of oppression, recognizing that Black and queer liberation are the same struggle. We’ll do this by using a pay-it-forward model to get more BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ people matched with a therapist they can feel good about. We’ll also provide high quality, intersectional education to help people move past the shame and structural limitations imposed on them by our dehumanizing society.
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By providing community support and resources, we can lift up LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people and create a world where difference is valued and people can thrive, no matter how they identify. A world where good help isn’t so hard to find and where people value learning, unlearning, and taking care of each other.

Meet The Team
We're so proud to have such diverse, highly educated, and passionate people at the helm of this incredible project. Take some time exploring our founders' and board members' bios and check out their socials and personal websites to learn about the great things they're doing outside of QWN, too!
Jermisha McCoy (she/her), Co-Founder, Chief Program Officer
Misha is an educator deeply dedicated to dismantling white supremacy and increasing access to quality, comprehensive, and inclusive sexual wellness information. She has extensive experience supporting individuals and organizations in expanding their community outreach and diversifying networks. Her expertise lies in workshop facilitation and advocating for equity for all marginalized communities in interdisciplinary ways that encompass storytelling, poetry, and introspection. Misha is a fourth-year human sexuality doctoral student at California Institute of Integral Studies and Certified Sexologist. Her research centers Black sexuality, systems of power, intersectionality, and script theory. Navigating life as a non-monogamous Black lesbian in America motivated Misha to create spaces for individuals to authentically process experiences in brave communities. QWN is her contribution to collective wellness.

Jake Ryan (he/they)
Co-Founder, Chief Development Officer
Jake is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California (LMFT #136624). He is also the author of “Be Your Own Therapist” and working on his PhD in human sexuality with a focus on creating a healthier masculinity that allows for emotional connection, vulnerability, and interdependence. Jake is invested in helping our society shift to allow men to soften in this way. He’s always had an interest in learning and rooting for the underdog so is excited to be in a position to use his education to help LGBTQ and BIPOC people thrive in a society committed to erasing them. As Chief Development Officer, Jake is responsible for connecting with other organizations to build our support network and then connect individuals with resources and other orgs. He believes in the goodness of others and helping people turn their good intentions into meaningful action.


Adrian Neil, Jr. (he/they), Chairperson of the Board
Adrian has over a decade of experience working in HIV, Social Justice, and Sexual Health and employs a people-focused leadership style that comes from a solid history of coordinating local and state programs, designing and implementing leadership trainings, developing strategies to reduce healthcare incidences, and working with healthcare providers and government leaders to engage communities in wholistic healthcare, develop policies that reduces barriers to care, reduce stigma and encourages education. He enjoys working with communities, community-based organizations, healthcare providers, and other healthcare entities to develop and implement realistic visions in an effort to not only reduce HIV incidence, but to address the intersectionality of HIV such as mental health, racism, and homophobia. Adrian is a trained dancer who studied contemporary ballet, modern, jazz and choreography, among other disciplines. One of the most influential moments in his life was when he got the opportunity to teach HIV education through movement. During his spare time, Adrian enjoys teaching dance, trying and cooking new foods, traveling and listening to live music as well as poetry.

Emily Owens (she/her), Vice Chairperson of the Board
Emily is a doctoral student at California Institute of Integral Studies in Human Sexuality who is based in Atlanta, GA. Her studies focus on comprehensive sexuality policies in the United States as they interact socially and economically. She has been a Health and Sexuality Educator for the last 15 years in K-12, university, start-up, and corporate settings with a focus on content development that is applicable to all learners and all identities. Her former role as a Health Education Instructional Coach allowed her to provide educators across NYC with professional development experiences that increased student engagement through skills-based instruction of comprehensive, inclusive, and affirming sexuality education in grades PreK-12. Currently, Emily is in the research proposal phase of her PhD journey where she plans to focus on the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in higher education through an analysis of gender and sexuality policies in masculine spaces and financial prioritizations. She believes that everyone deserves access to relevant and accurate sexuality education and care.
Stef Bell (they/them/femme), Board Treasurer
Stef is a visual artist, a Black queer sci-fi novelist, and a mental health professional and educator centered in the Bay Area. Along with their Human Sexuality doctoral studies and therapy practice, Stef has recently taken on a core faculty position in the Community Mental Health department at CIIS in San Francisco. With nearly 14 years of experience in community mental health, Stef strives to reshape the look and feel of therapy for underrepresented and diverse folk.

Malesha Griffin (she/her)
Malesha is a social worker, author, activist, and sex coach/educator/entertainer. She is the owner and founder of Intimate Spaces, LLC, an organization that aims to provide pleasure-focused adult sex education and access to resources, especially for Black and Brown communities. Malesha is also a current doctoral student in the Human Sexuality PhD program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA. In her free time, Malesha writes poetry and performs spoken word.


Dr. Ericka Burns (she/her)
Dr. Burns is an AASECT Certified Sex Educator and the Founder and Executive Director of Sacramento Peers on Prevention (SacPOP), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth about sexual health and reproductive justice. She began conducting research on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer interventions in 2009 and by 2011, created a Youth Peer Educator HIV Training program. This program was created to effectively train youth on how to become risk-reduction counselors in both clinical and outreach settings and this was also a way to measure increased knowledge and healthy behavior changes. Since 2011, Dr. Burns has continued to implement this program with the SacPOP Youth Peer Educator program. By 2013, she founded SacPOP and became a recognized non-profit organization in 2015. Dr. Burns is also a community activist and focuses their work on creating anti-racist sex education, advocating for the rights of marginalized folks, and specializes in reproductive justice, sexual health, HIV/STI prevention, peer education, health equity, and sexual pleasure.

Chris Medellin (he/him)
Raised in San Diego, Chis and his family are from the Tule River tribe of Yokuts of Central California. As a first generation student, he earned his bachelor's degree in Television, Film and New Media and American Indian Studies from San Diego State University (SDSU) as well as his Masters degree in Postsecondary Educational Leadership with a Specialization in Student Affairs. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at SDSU and Claremont Graduate University. His research focuses are in Native American identity formation, masculine identity formation, issues of access to higher education and decolonization methodologies. Chris has been a student leader and a mentor for programs supporting underrepresented and underserved communities. Working his way through various roles on campus including serving as a student assistant, an administrative support, to an outreach coordinator, he currently serves as the inaugural Director of the SDSU Native Resource Center. Chris also serves as the President of the American Indian Alumni Chapter of San Diego State, and founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Faculty Staff Association as well as the Men of Color Alliance at SDSU.
Mia Davis (she/her)
Mia is an entrepreneur who enjoys helping therapists and educators build websites and learn to sell their services better. She is passionate about sexual wellness and giving people the language to discuss with their partner(s) how to have a better sex life. Calling out taboos, misogyny, and misinformation are other ways Mia likes to help people create equitable sexual relationships.

Natalie Malone (she/her)
Natalie is a counseling psychology doctoral student at the University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on Black women's sexual, spiritual, and holistic wellness. Additionally, Natalie is a 200-hour registered yoga teacher who integrates holistic healing and wellness interventions into her research and clinic work.

Why QWN?
We know that not all LGBT people will see themselves represented in the term “queer” but chose it intentionally because of its focus on disruption. White supremacy is tied in with heteropatriarchal capitalism, ableism, and xenophobia and they all thrive on the hierarchical binaries imposed by colonialism: white/Black, man/woman, hetero/homo, etc. “Queer” disrupts binaries and colonial ways of being. Queer Wellness Network is designed to subvert capitalism by providing care to those that capitalism sees as disposable so that we can all achieve wellness, defined by the World Health Organization as the optimal state of health and not simply the absence of disease. There are lots of great resources for LGBTQ people but none that work as a national network to address the -isms that are as prevalent in our community as the general population (racism, sexism, ableism) and make us a better, more unified community. We know we can’t rely on our government to make things better for us but through education and mutual support, we can band together to shift the status quo away from oppression and towards systems that promote wellness for all of us.