Health Educator Spotlight: Jessica

Raised in northern California, Jessica Faville studied International Development and Economics at UCLA but she realized early on that she was loving her international health classes.

“All my extra-curriculars were health based,” she said. “That’s where my interests were. I was involved with organizations on campus that raised money for pediatric AIDS and I interned for an organization that does summer camps for HIV positive youth. I always knew I wanted to work with HIV. It was the first real disease I saw as a kid. My uncle died of HIV so it drove me to want to do health care.”

From there, she spent time working with HIV and AIDS promotion in a village in Tanzania, working in schools with kids doing health education and was working in San Francisco at a homeless clinic and in a shelter when she heard about CFH.

Now, as a part of the health education team at CFH, Faville works with families, senior citizens and LGBT youth, trying to help homeless people understand the importance of healthcare.

“Health can get lost with everything they (homeless people) have going on,” she said. “So as a health educator, to remind them the littlest thing can make a difference in their life. CFH matters because we’re addressing a population that a lot of people shy away from. The fact that we show up every week and show them that we’re interested in their lives does a lot for their well-being overall. For someone to remind them about their health can make all the difference.”

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