Christal Omni
Chris Omni, MPH, affectionately known as The Health Hippie, is a multi-disciplinary, award-winning entrepreneur, scholar, and artist who exclusively and unapologetically focuses on the health and wellbeing of Black women.
Chris’s life is woven in between the words of Audre Lorde, “Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it.” Her greatest pain occurred on March 21, 2016 when her Mama’s oncologist said, “I’m sorry Clara, nothing else can be done.” Ten days later, Chris’s Mama, Clara M. Simmons, would take her final breath from a 26-year battle with cancer. THIS moment would breathe life into Chris’ new journey as a Black women’s health advocate, documentary filmmaker, interventionist, researcher, and artist.
Health and humanities help to inform Chris’s work. She explores the intersectionalities of racism, sexism, and even sizeism in some of her pieces. After completing her Master of Public Health degree, Chris felt a spiritual calling to not just research health disparities that disproportionately impact Black women, but to disseminate that research via culturally sensitive mediums such as documentaries, live storytelling experiences, art installments, and even podcasts.
