Urban Health Partnerships
turns 15.

Pat's career spans three decades of community and civic engagement work, from his early volunteer roles with New York Cares and a D.C. soup kitchen, to coordinating volunteer relief efforts after Hurricane Andrew, to helping grant more than thirty Make-A-Wish requests for children in New York and South Florida. After moving to Miami in 1990, he co-founded Hands On Miami and later served as its CEO, mobilizing thousands of volunteers across the region. He went on to hold senior leadership roles at the YMCA of Greater Miami and as Community Affairs Officer for Wells Fargo, where he directed philanthropic giving to local causes. Today, he serves as Director of Civic & Philanthropic Partnerships in Miami-Dade County's Office of the Mayor, connecting government, business, and the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

It was through Pat's relentless support, vision, and encouragement that the Food and Nutrition for All Collaborative (FNFA) launched in Miami-Dade County and has grown into the widespread, impactful initiative it is today. Pat was also instrumental in helping establish the Zero Drowning initiative, examples within a much longer legacy of bringing the right people and organizations together around a shared goal.

Throughout Miami-Dade, Pat is known as one of the easiest people to meet with, and someone who consistently offers valuable, insightful advice. Colleagues describe him as generous, kind, and consistently willing to help, without any expectation of something in return. This is just one of the many ways he has made a lasting impression, not just on UHP, but on the entire community.

Healthy Little Havana is a grassroots, nonprofit initiative committed to enhancing the health and vitality of its residents. With a mission centered on fair access to nutritious food and community wellness, the organization addresses the pressing health needs of the community it serves. Through community-centered programs, Healthy Little Havana empowers residents to make healthier choices while celebrating cultural culinary traditions. Collaborating with healthcare providers and local organizations, Healthy Little Havana offers a range of services including linkage to care, community education, and outreach, all aimed at removing institutional challenges to health. By fostering partnerships and collective action, Healthy Little Havana embodies resilience and solidarity, creating a healthier and more vibrant community for all.

Healthy Little Havana is more than an organization, it's a movement. By amplifying community voices, fostering resilience, and driving meaningful change, HLH is transforming Little Havana into a healthier, more accessible place for all.

FHEED is grounded in the belief that healthy food is a fundamental human right and that communities should have the power to shape their own food systems. Anthony's approach is rooted in hands-on, community-level work. In 2019, he trained students at MDC to use paper and digital maps (now SparkMap) to develop strategies for closing the gap in diabetes outcomes. When Anthony works with groups, especially students, he often finds that he learns as much from them as he teaches.

This reflects a career built on showing up directly in the community: from volunteering with local food organizations, to co-authoring a policy paper that helped shape Miami's farmers market ordinance, to years of consulting on CDC-funded community health initiatives in Broward County.

Anthony believes durable solutions to challenges like gaps in community health outcomes emerge when people can collectively see the relationships among community needs, existing assets, and opportunities, in a space they know and belong to. As an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, Anthony treats mapping as more than a technical product. It's a tool for building shared understanding, cross-sector collaboration, and the mutual learning needed to advance community-led change: seeing a problem clearly is the first step toward solving it, and maps let people see and understand together.