Mavis A. Flowers

Mavis Flowers, MPH, MSc, is a project manager at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and president of Strategies for Growth, which partners with healthcare systems to facilitate sustainable organizational change that improves safety, quality, the patient experience, and employee well-being.

As project manager, Mavis leads the TRIUMPH (Transforming Your Mental Health through Prayer and Healing) study, which uses a community health worker model to partner with Black Churches to provide free screening, brief counseling, and linkages to clinical care for community residents and congregants who screen positive with moderate to high levels of anxiety and depression. Her team leads the community health workers, event planning, community engagement, recruitment, and compliance-related functions for the study.

A nationally certified mental health first aide instructor and New York State Opioid Overdose Prevention Educator, Mavis convenes multisector stakeholders to conduct community-based participatory research to reduce racial mental health disparities, decrease stigma, and improve community health. Mavis holds a master of public health degree with a concentration in community health education from the City University of New York School of Public Health and Health Policy. Additionally, she holds a master of science degree in organizational leadership from Nyack School of Business and Leadership, a bachelor of science in organizational development from Nyack College, a certification in Christian studies from New York Theological Seminary, and serves on the adZvisory Board for the Community Coalition for Mental Health funded by the National Institute for Mental Health.

Her greatest passion lies in serving and volunteering with community and faith-based organizations that seek to empower communities of color that have been systematically marginalized. Mavis is the proud mother of one daughter, Marquita, and the very proud grandmother of Seneca.