Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Uwumarogie.
Hi Linda, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have spent my entire career watching the same problem from different angles. I started at UnitedHealthcare in New York City managing community-based incentive programs for Medicaid members. New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and the work reflected that. I managed a multilingual outreach team covering all five boroughs. We made calls, sent mailers, partnered with physician offices, and set up on-site health screening events so members could access mammograms, wellness visits, and preventive care without having to navigate a broken system on their own. We used geo-tracking to find the people who had fallen through the cracks and figured out how to reach them in a way that actually worked. I did that work for over three years, and it showed me what it really takes to close a gap in care. It is not a brochure or call alone. It is a relationship.
I eventually moved into regulatory and quality work and later became a surveyor at the National Committee for Quality Assurance, where I evaluated health plans against accreditation standards. What I kept seeing from that side was the same problem in a different form. Health plans are required to connect their members to community resources. The requirement is real but the infrastructure to actually do it was never there. Directories were outdated. Referrals went nowhere, and nobody knew what happened to the person on the other end. When I moved to Houston, I started doing something I had never seen prioritized well in my years working alongside health plans. I hired a research contractor to go county by county and verify what community health resources actually existed. Not just what was listed online but what was real, active, and actually serving people.
In my consulting work, I had seen health plans conduct research, but it was often driven by regulatory requirements for network management or quality improvement. The community partnership piece rarely got the attention it deserved, and even when it did, the reasoning behind why those partnerships mattered was never fully connected. Organizations were checked off a list, but nobody was asking whether they were actually reaching the people who needed them.
What our research in Houston confirmed was exactly that. Incredible organizations doing work that is completely invisible to the health systems that needed them most. Walking groups like Baddies Walk HTX. Wellness communities like BLK Beetles. Activation points that people were showing up to every week, but that you would never find through a health plan directory or a hospital referral system.
So I built Uyi Wellness which is a professional services firm that connects health organizations with the right community partners through consulting, research, and training, so the people who need help can actually get it. Part of closing that gap is also making sure the people doing community health work every day understand the system they are working inside. That is why we are launching Uyi System Sessions later this year. A virtual education series for community health professionals who want to understand how health plans and managed care actually work from the inside. It is the knowledge I spent fifteen years building, and it is finally in a format that is accessible to the people who need it most.
Uyi exists at the intersection of community and systems. That is the gap I spent fifteen years watching widen. This is my answer to it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No. It has not been smooth. The hardest part has been figuring out what the business actually is, especially in an evolving regulatory landscape that is reshaping what public health professionals do and how institutions are expected to serve their communities. I started with one idea, and it has evolved significantly. I came in thinking I was building a directory and a resource platform. What I learned is that the real value is not in listing resources. It is in verifying them, contextualizing them, and helping institutions act on them. That pivot took time and cost me some early momentum.
Additionally, building while balancing other professional obligations has been its own challenge. Every hour I put into Uyi is an hour carved out around existing commitments. There is no runway or investor backing. There is just a belief that the gap is real and someone has to close it. And lastly, the other struggle has been learning to tell the story simply. I spent years inside complex systems where the language is technical and layered. Translating that into something a community member, a hospital executive, and an MPH graduate can all understand at the same time is genuinely hard. I am still working on that. There are days when the vision is clear, and the path feels obvious. There are other days when you are not sure if anyone else sees what you see. But the gap has not closed itself. So here we are.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Uyi Wellness?
Uyi Wellness is a professional services firm connecting health organizations with the right community partners for real impact. The focus is on helping organizations such as hospitals, FQHCs, and community organizations identify, verify, and document real community partnerships that meet compliance requirements and actually serve the people they are meant to reach. What makes this work different is the perspective behind it. Over a decade inside managed care and national accreditation means seeing this problem from both sides of the system. Understanding what health plans are required to demonstrate and what communities actually need. That combination is rare, and it is the foundation of everything here.
The services include consulting for organizations building and documenting community partnerships, research to verify what community resources actually exist and where the gaps are, and training for clinical and community staff on social needs screening and connecting people to real resources. Uyi is also home to Uyi Uncovers, a community health interview series featuring practitioners, advocates, and public health professionals having honest conversations about the issues that matter most to communities. Speakers and guests are always welcome. If you have expertise and a story worth sharing, this is the platform for it.
This fall/winter brings the launch of Uyi Institute System Sessions. A virtual education series for public health and community health professionals who want to understand how managed care and health systems actually operate from the inside. Practical. Accessible. Built on real experience.
The name Uyi comes from the Edo word for honor. The tagline is What You Honor, Echoes. That is not just branding. That is the belief the whole thing is built on.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
If you work in community health, public health, or anywhere near the space where healthcare and community intersect, know that the work you are doing matters even when the system makes it harder than it should be. The gap between what institutions are required to do and what communities actually receive is real. It is not a people problem. It is an infrastructure problem. And infrastructure can be built, and we are here to help.
If any part of this resonates, whether you are a practitioner, a community health professional, someone building your own path in public health, or an organization looking for a real partner, the door is open. Follow along at uyiwellness.com and on Instagram at @uyiwellness. And if you have a story worth telling, Uyi Uncovers wants to hear it.
Pricing:
- UYI System Sessions ($45-60) Introductory Price
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.uyiwellness.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/uyiwellness
- Twitter: https://x.com/UyiWellness
