Over the next few months, we will be running features on Teen Health Mississippi’s staff and partners. Teen Health Mississippi is the only organization that partners with young people to provide sustainable and holistic sexual health programs and services for youth in schools, clinics, and communities across the state. Visit our website.

Emily Feher, MPH

Director of Teen Health Mississippi/Focus4Teens Project Director 

Emily first became interested in public health while volunteering at a mobile HIV testing unit in West Hollywood, CA. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Master’s in Public Health from UCLA and completed her Master’s fieldwork in Kolkata, India, where she worked to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of marginalized workers in India. Emily spent over two years in Cameroon as a Peace Corps volunteer where she worked in rural villages to improve community health. It was in Cameroon where Emily came to understand the power of the partnership between young people and adults to promote adolescent health as well as the overall health of communities. She worked with teachers and health care providers in her local community to develop the capacity of youth to become agents of change for issues relevant to their lives, such as access to sexual and reproductive health services and basic preventive health care.

Upon returning from Cameroon, Emily started working with Mississippi First as the Teen Health Training Coordinator where she provides trainings for evidence-based sex education curricula, skills-based training, and other professional development for educators teaching sex education. In partnership with youth, she also works to develop and deliver youth-friendly services trainings and resources for health centers across Mississippi. Currently Emily serves as the Director of Teen Health Mississippi and the Project Director of Focus4Teens, a 5-year project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Reproductive Health. This project helps expand access to youth-friendly sexual health services in the Mississippi Delta.