OPUA was founded in 2005 by Shavonne Reed with the desire to live on purpose and to bridge the financial gap for her family. As our founder launched various ventures, she had to pause and restart; there were many pivots and swivels along the way. She maintained a very successful corporate career, but was always uncomfortable not being tied to her organization’s purpose. Majority of her career was specifically in healthcare marketing. She and her husband suffered several abrupt personal losses due to preventable chronic diseases. This brought an awareness to the forefront as she strived to maintain her very own health to overcome common health challenges that often adversely affect low-income African American communities. With her husband's support, she began to solely focus on building her company and that is just what she did. As she spent her final days watching her mother deteriorate from several chronic illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease and kidney failure, she discovered this was where her true passion and purpose met a crossroad. As a mother of two teen daughters, Lauren and London, it was not an option for her to compromise her health and risk not being here for them. She started to adopt more discipline around her very own-self care and believed that if her mother and other women like her had more awareness they too would make decisions for future health. Given her commitment and enjoyment of spending time with her girls, she embarked on a specialty niche in communications targeting Gen Z to improve health literacy and awareness of how to live healthier lifestyles. It’s our belief we can be the change for healthier future generations.