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Sonya Young Aadam
Sonya Young Aadam
01:02

Sonya Young Aadam

California Black Women's Health Project

Los Angeles, CA USA

"Serve wherever you are. Find a way to serve that makes a difference to you."

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Sonya's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Medicine, and Helping People

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Day In The Life

CEO

I help to fill the gap in health and wellness as it relates to social justice for Black women.

03:06

Day In The Life As CEO Of The California Black Women's Health Project

My Day to Day

My calendar is generally double and tripled booked. After scanning the calendar, I plan the day before opening email to peruse those snoozed from the previous day. The day then proceeds to include approximately 25% administrative, 50% program and operations planning meetings, 25% fund development, and the remaining 25% staff management. At the end of 10-12 hours, the work is never complete, hence the need to snooze dozens of emails that become part of the following day's workload.

Skills & Education

Advice for getting started

A lot of healthcare organizations will say that they treat everybody the same. They certainly don't. The outcome disparities prove otherwise. I'm leading a company now that works to fill the gaps within healthcare as it pertains to social justice. However, I hope that one day we get to a point where we don't even need disparity reduction efforts anymore.

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Business

    Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania

  • Certification

    Financial Management

  • Certification

    Real Estate Development

  • Certification

    Meeting Facilitation

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life took a while to figure out

  • 1.

    I was born and raised in a tough neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.

  • 2.

    I had a passion for both business and community, so I decided I’d pursue a business degree and serve the community by hopefully working for the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.

  • 3.

    I earned my bachelor’s degree in business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

  • 4.

    After graduating, I started my career in commercial and investment banking—it was a good job and I was making great money, but I didn’t feel fulfilled because I wasn’t serving the community.

  • 5.

    When I moved back to Los Angeles, I was shocked by how little had improved within the community, so I started getting involved by working with a church, teaching classes, and donating money.

  • 6.

    I shifted into the entertainment industry and worked in sales and strategy for companies like The Walt Disney Company and MTV Networks.

  • 7.

    I eventually grew a distaste for the work I was doing in both banking and entertainment because it wasn’t feeding my heart and soul—I took two years off to really think about what I wanted to do.

  • 8.

    I made a career shift to work for community-serving organizations, which led to my position now with California Black Women’s Health Project.

Defining Moments

How I responded to discouragement

  • THE NOISE

    Messages from Society in general:

    We treat everybody the same.

  • How I responded:

    A lot of healthcare organizations will say that they treat everybody the same. They certainly don't. The outcome disparities prove otherwise. I'm leading a company now that works to fill the gaps within healthcare as it pertains to social justice. However, I hope that one day we get to a point where we don't even need disparity reduction efforts anymore.

Experiences and challenges that shaped me

Click to expand

  • I grew up in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles. With support from community organizations and my own hard work in school, I earned a scholarship to a college preparatory school and was able to get out of the tough environment around me.