Noha Aboelata, MD

Dr. Noha Aboelata – “Dr. Noha” to her patients, colleagues, friends, and community — has devoted her career to eliminating health disparities and improving the health of marginalized communities. Dr. Noha is the founding CEO of Roots Community Health, where she has pioneered the provision of a community-based, community-driven and community-empowering model for improving wellness that Roots calls “Whole Health.” As part of Whole Health, Dr. Noha has designed culturally responsive, wrap- around medical, social, employment, nutritional and educational services, and community-led public policy engagement. By delivering Whole Health, Dr. Noha empowers Roots members to address and to change the conditions that impact the well-being of individuals, families, and the communities in which they live and work. Dr. Noha, an Oakland native, has grown Roots from a 2-person volunteer effort to a multi-campus, multi-county non-profit with over 200 staff serving over 10,000 members.

Some of the many services that Roots offers include: physical and behavioral health care, including pediatric and elder care, mobile medical services for unsheltered patients, programs for young mothers, and walk-up COVID testing and vaccine clinics; workforce enterprises and job placement assistance, such as Clean360, that provide persons with marketable skills and experience to obtain living-wage jobs; health navigation to connect persons, including those leaving jail and prison, to social and medical services and housing; food pantry and cooking classes; and housing assistance.

Dr. Noha also is a medical and public health leader beyond Roots. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors for the Alameda Alliance for Health, is the past Chair of the Alameda Health System Board of Trustees, has filled senior executive roles for Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, the Native American Health Center in Oakland, and has been instrumental in expanding publicly funded primary care services throughout the Bay Area.

Dr. Noha earned her medical doctorate from Howard University School of Medicine and was a National Health Service Corps Fellow.

Dr. Noha’s transformational work has been recognized by many public leaders and institutions including the Opus Prize, the Boards of Supervisors of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, California members of Congress, the Mayor of Oakland, and the Governor of California. In 2022, she received the prestigious James Irvine Leadership Award. And in 2020, she was named Women Health Care Executives’ Woman of The Year, and received The Oakland Citizen’s Humanitarian Award.