Nickie Bazell

Nickie Bazell [1], MPH, is a manager for the Organizational Capacity Building branch at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), a national health justice organization which influences policy, mobilizes communities, and strengthens programs and organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

Nickie manages all program objectives and activities for the National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV Capacity Building Partnership funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nickie works closely with health departments, community planning groups, community-based organizations (CBOs), and individuals and provides capacity building assistance around the areas of organizational development and community planning via trainings, curriculum and tool development, and impact evaluation. To increase the visibility and leadership of Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiians, she also works on local and national legislative and administrative advocacy efforts.

Prior to joining APIAHF, Nickie was a program associate for the Academy for Educational Development, Center on AIDS and Community Health. In that role, she coordinated the Technical Support of HIV Prevention Community Planning Project, and the HIV Prevention Among Injection Drug Users Project; was the training coordinator for the Holistic Health Recovery Program (HHRP+) Intervention as part of the Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) Project; and was the Volunteer Coordinator and Basic Prevention Track Chair for the National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC), all projects funded by the CDC. Nickie provided technical assistance, training, and presentations at meetings and conferences. In addition, she created materials and website development, evaluation, and needs assessments for the previously mentioned projects.

Other HIV/AIDS prevention experience includes serving as a Maternal and Child Health Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco with a focus on HIV/AIDS prevention, and working for the California Department of Health, State Office of AIDS at the Santa Cruz AIDS Project as a community health outreach worker. In addition, Nickie served as a member of the District of Columbia HIV Prevention Community Planning Group (CPG), and was a community speaker in the Santa Cruz Speakers Bureau.

Nickie's experience outside of HIV/AIDS includes implementing a CDC-funded five-year research project at the University of California, Berkeley studying the relevance of substance abuse and violence prevention curricula for Bay Area public high schools. She developed and implemented qualitative and quantitative research instruments and worked closely with the original curricula developers, students and teachers to adapt the curricula based on research findings.

Nickie also worked for Prevention Institute on various projects focused on promoting social indicators and reducing health care costs through primary prevention efforts. She also provided consultation on various projects, including designing a program and evaluation plan for a school-based community garden, and designing a plan for the Alameda County Public Health Department to evaluate mental health services provided to Oakland Unified School students.

Nickie received a Masters in Public Health in Health and Social Behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While at UC Santa Cruz, she also created and directed the STAIRS program, a mentoring program that links college students with underachieving high school students through in-class and after school mentoring and tutoring.