Hey y’all. I’m Lillie.
My name is Ruby Reed, but I’ve always been known as Lillie (credit that to Southern/Appalachian culture). I was born in Western and raised in Eastern North Carolina, raised in a mixed family of Melungeons and Mexican immigrants. I feel strongly connected to the communities and cultural roots that this upbringing gifted me, and I have also been privileged to connect to many communities worldwide through my 10+ years of work in global and community health. Most of this work has focused on community mental healthcare and gender-based violence prevention and intervention, and I have largely partnered with US Latino communities and with marginalized and vulnerable youth in Latin America and Southern/Eastern Africa.
I am passionate about community empowerment, social justice, mental health, medical education, care quality improvement, and storytelling. I want to combine all of these passions to improve mental health and prevent trauma and violence in vulnerable and marginalized communities in the US and internationally. Eventually, I hope to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist focused on trauma-related disorders, a public health worker, a researcher examining innovative methods in trauma care, an educator, and a human rights advocate - hopefully while writing best-selling books on the side. A girl can dream!
