Biography

Yolo Akili Robinson (he/him/his) is a non binary award-winning writer, healing justice worker, yogi, and the founder and Executive Director of BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective). BEAM is a 501(c)(3) non-profit national organization that builds ecosystems of care for Black and marginalized communities. BEAM funds, resources, and trains a network of Black therapists, wellness practitioners, and Black mental health organizations to provide wellness care to our most exploited and under-resourced communities. Under Yolo’s leadership, BEAM became one of the leading Black orgs that funds mental health in Black communities, the organization has been given support from foundations and celebrities including the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, celebrities Jordan Peele, Kelly Rowland, Chloe x Halle, Debbie Allen and many more.

For his work Yolo has received numerous accolades including being recognized by the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy for Minority Mental Health Month 2023. He has been an invited presenter at the National Academy of Sciences, Math and Engineering, The Milken Institute, The Congressional Black Caucus Conference and much more. He has been awarded the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Health Equity Award” for his work and featured at the BET Awards as an “Empowerful Spotlight”, highlighting his work facilitating the vision of BEAM.

Notably, his writings and work have appeared on Shondaland, GQ, Women’s Health, USA Today, Vice, BET, Ebony, and Everyday Feminisms. He is the author of the social justice themed affirmation book, “Dear Universe: Letters of Affirmation & Empowerment for All of Us” (Michael Todd Books, 2016) and a contributor to the New York Times Best Seller, Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown’s anthology on Black vulnerability and shame resilience, “You are Your Best Thing” (2021, Random House Books). He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Personal Statement

As the founder and executive director of the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM), my life’s work has been shaped by the intergenerational trauma, systemic neglect, and cultural erasure that Black and marginalized communities have experienced in the US healthcare system—specifically concerning mental health. As a result of this history, as well as from my personal journey and professional experience, I have built my platform and founded an organization to advance health equity rooted in justice and care.

My professional background spans more than two decades of work at the intersection of mental health, social justice, and community organizing. I founded BEAM in response to the gaps in mental health infrastructure, seeing a need for practices that specifically affirms, supports, and centers Black communities. As a Black queer non-binary person and a healing justice practitioner, I’ve experienced and witnessed how Black people are often criminalized, pathologized, or completely excluded from mainstream wellness resources. BEAM was created as a response to this injustice, to disrupt the systems that harm us and to build new ones that heal.

BEAM is not just a mental health nonprofit, we are an ecosystem that trains, funds, and resources Black therapists, community leaders, wellness practitioners, and organizations to engage mental health care in ways that are accessible, culturally relevant, and community grounded. In under three years, we have given more than half a million dollars to 62 organizations such a Movement 4 Black Lives and University of Houston’s Sustain HIV/AIDS program. Since 2020, we have trained more than 10,000 individuals on healing justice and crisis mental health support skills.

We’ve developed a model of “liberatory mental health,” which recognizes that wellness does not exist in isolation from systemic oppression. Liberation and healing are intertwined. Our programming spans peer support training, grantmaking, grassroots mental health projects and public engagement initiatives that normalize conversations around Black mental health and give our communities practical tools to reframe, process and heal.

In our work, we challenge clinical models that often alienate or retraumatize Black people. Instead, we build capacity in communities to care for themselves and each other. Whether it’s equipping barbers and stylists with crisis support and peer counseling skills, resourcing LGBTQ+ youth-led wellness initiatives, or producing digital campaigns that de-stigmatize therapy, BEAM’s work reimagines what mental and emotional wellness looks like. It is not systems built on profit over people, but it is community-driven wellness practices, rooted in traditions of mutual aid and cultural healing.

Our impact has been recognized and supported by institutions including the MacArthur Foundation and Ford Foundation as well as by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former United States Surgeon General, public figures such as Jordan Peele and Kelly Rowland. While recognition is not the goal, adequately resourcing mental health transformation is. Our commitment is to reach those who have been ignored or abandoned by healthcare systems. Through BEAM, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how healing-centered innovation can prevent crisis, restore dignity, and allow communities to thrive on their own terms.

This is why BCPH’s vision deeply resonates with me. The commitment to advancing equity and social justice in health is not just a professional alignment—it is a shared value and lifelong mission. I believe that public health must be led by those who live at the intersection, those who know what it means to survive systems not designed for their wellbeing. My work, my story, and my practice all embody this belief.

Being recognized as a Health Innovator by BCPH would expand BEAM’s impact and reach. I see this opportunity as a way to both contribute to and learn from a collective of public health leaders and changemakers who understand that health is political, cultural, and deeply personal. I bring to the table lived experience and a proven model of community-based health innovation that has shifted narratives and saved lives.

Healing justice is not a trend—it is a necessity. And health equity will not be achieved through inclusion alone, but through the transformation of the systems and assumptions that have long defined who is worthy of care.