Urban Health Science Initiative, Inc.
Providing and researching novel scientific solutions to chronic health problems
The Board of Directors
UHSI Board Chairman, Djehuty Ma'at-Ra,
Celebrity Herbalist and CEO, Dhealth Store
Djehuty Maʼat-Ra is a self-taught and trained herbalist who began his study of herbs in 1996 in the Los Angeles area of California, USA. He is also a writer, health researcher, spiritual advisor, aroma therapist, life coach, as well as an inspirational and motivational speaker. Djehuty has created over 500 products since going public with his first herbal business in late 1999. His most successful and world renowned product is his famous Full Body Detox, a 20-day herbal cleanse that cleanses the major eliminative channels of the body, which he launched in November 1999. Shortly after going public, Djehuty attracted a host of celebrity clients such as Brandy, Shemar Moore, Stevie Wonder, Bill Duke, Boris Kodjo, Nicole Ari Parker-Kodjo, Laz Alonso, Big-Boy, Ghostface Killer Dru Hill, and Mary Mary, thus gaining him the title of “Herbalist to the Stars.” In April 2011, after seven years of establishing a multi-million dollar online herbal business with several partners, Djehuty opened an independent herbal business, DHealth Store (also known as Dhealthstore.com), in the city of Glendale, California. In 2013 he opened another Dhealth Store location in Los Angeles, California.
Susan L. Taylor, Founder and CEO, National CARES Mentoring Movement and
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Essence Magazine
Susan Taylor is synonymous with Essence magazine, the brand she built as its chief editor for nearly three decades. A legend in the magazine publishing world, her focus and passion today is the National CARES Mentoring Movement, a call to action, which she founded in 2005 as Essence CARES. The CARES mentoring movement is a massive campaign to recruit able adults to help secure the many Black children who are in peril and losing ground. The goals of National CARES are to increase high school graduation rates among African American students, end the violence in Black communities and the over-incarceration of our young. Susan Taylor is a native of Harlem. She received a bachelor of science degree from Fordham University.
Honorary UHSI Board Member, Gerald W. Deas, MD, MPH,
Professor of Preventative Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Dr. Gerald W. Deas has dedicated his life to serving his community and empowering the youth of the black community. Dr. Deas made history as the first black recipient of the New York State Medical Society Award, and now serves as an associate professor of preventive medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. He is renowned for leading the campaign to get Argo laundry starch, which many African-Americans ate like candy (starch tastes sugary) but which contributed to diabetes and anemia, off store shelves. Argo manufacturers not only moved the starch from the candy section to the laundry aisle in most stores, they stopped making the starch in chunk form. Dr. Deas has also been an influential figure in the media. He was the first black medical columnist for the New York Daily News , the chief medical correspondent for television's McCreary Report for ten years, and a contributing writer for the Amsterdam News and other local papers in New York. Dr. Deas also hosted a weekly radio show on WLIB, which led to his contributions on the 1991 film "Straight Out of Brooklyn."