Asari Offiong serves as a coach and supports recruitment efforts. As an adolescent health researcher and public health practitioner, she has a decade of experience leading youth development programs; providing technical assistance; and conducting mixed methods, community-based research in various metropolitan areas across the United States related to substance use prevention and reproductive health.
Applying an equity and youth-centered lens to her work, Asari views youth as “at-promise,” not “at-risk.” As a Black early immigrant woman who grew up in Detroit, she understands and personalizes the need for innovations that are designed for and with youth because their experiences are unique, captivating, and worth centering—despite when society says otherwise.