For over 15 years, Savannah has been committed to working at the interpersonal, community and statewide levels to advance the health of those most vulnerable to structural violence. She is experienced in facilitation, diverse coalition building, and program design. As the Associate Director of National Harm Reduction Coalition, she led the California Harm Reduction Initiative (CHRI), the largest state investment into harm reduction programs in U.S. history. Additionally, while in that role she supported the establishment of 20+ new syringe access programs, and built harm reduction services in emergency departments. Prior to that she created and implemented the first ever countywide overdose prevention and naloxone distribution program for Alameda County at HIV Education Prevention Project of Alameda County (HEPPAC). She received her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan with a scholarship for her work in integrated health care, and her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has extensive experience with HIV clinics, women’s healthcare, jails and prisons, and harm reduction services, and this shapes how she provides technical assistance to organizations, her research and writing, and how she shows up in meetings.
Related Projects:
Developing and Evaluating a Philanthropic Giving Strategy for Gilead Foundation
Facente Consulting is helping Gilead Foundation develop a theory of change and evaluation strategy for their three-year, $20 million initiative to advance education equity throughout the United States.
Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless Strategic Planning
Facente Consulting is working with Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless (ACHCH) to facilitate a strategic planning process, with an emphasis on community input and engagement, to determine priorities for the initiative for the next three years.
Strategic Planning to Better Support Homeless Families
Facente Consulting is helping Raphael House to develop a realistic vision of “what can and should be,” with the explicit purpose of seeking funding that will transform the fiscal standing, scope, and reach of the agency in the future.
Capacity-Building Assistance Evaluation
San Francisco’s Center for Learning and Innovation hired Facente Consulting as an external evaluator for their five-year grant providing capacity-building assistance to CDC-funded organizations focused on non-clinical HIV testing and HIV prevention in the Western Region of the United States.
Tobacco Free Project Evaluation Support
Facente Consulting collaborated with the Tobacco Free Project over the course of three years to guide, design and implement a range of evaluation activities, including survey data collection, key infomant interviews, public opinion polls, and training of community data collectors.
Harm Reduction Training and Capacity Building for the Overdose Response Network
Facente Consulting, through a contract with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is providing multiple trainings to the members of the Overdose Response Network (ORN) to build the capacity and knowledge of its network of TA providers and technology transfer specialists, who respond to a variety of requests nationwide.
California Department of Public Health Strategic Plan Implementation
Facente Consulting is supporting the California Department of Public Health and various counties throughout the state with technical assistance to develop and deploy the Implementation Blueprint in support of California’s Integrated Statewide Strategic Plan for Addressing HIV, HCV, and STIs from 2022-2026.
Curriculum Development on Nevada’s Good Samaritan Law for the Larson Institute at the University of Nevada, Reno
Facente Consulting was hired to develop a curriculum and virtual training for public defenders in Nevada on the state’s Good Samaritan Law.
Development of a Survey and Report to Assess Harm Reduction Capacity in Nevada
Facente Consulting is developing a survey tool to measure statewide capacity of harm reduction interventions and delivering of a report on survey findings and recommendations.
Evaluation for CDC-Funded Workforce Development for San Francisco Department of Public Health
Facente Consulting is working with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Center for Learning and Innovation to support the design and implementation of Project INVEST (Innovations that Value Equity and Stength in Teams), a workforce retention evaluation initiative.
Assessment of San Francisco’s Clinical Implementation of Long-Acting Injectable PrEP and ART
Facente Consulting was hired to conceptualize and complete an assessment of clinical implementation efforts for LAI PrEP and ART.
Affiming Trans Access to Housing Curriculum Development
San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing hired Facente Consulting to develop a curriculum designed to affirm access to housing for transgender and gender nonconforming people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Strategic Support for the California Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Initiative
Facente Consulting is providing strategic support gathering data and stakeholder input and developing a document to guide NHRC’s internal infrastucture and capacity-building work.
Facilitation of the Community Advisory Team for RTI International’s Strengthening Syringe Services Project
Facente Consulting is facilitating a newly formed Community Advisory Team that will guide the Strengthening Syringe Services project, led by RTI International.
Program Planning for Rafiki Coalition’s UMOJA Health Access Point
Facente Consulting is facilitating a retreat to engage the Rafiki Coalition and partners in program planning for UMOJA Health Access Point, a Black-centered Health Access Point in San Francisco.
Strategic Planning to Manage Impending Budget Cuts
Unlike in the last round of strategic planning we did with them in 2021, in 2024 Hamilton Families wanted a scaled down strategic plan refresh, with review and updates to the priorities in the prior plan and a focus on managing expected budget cuts.
Facilitation and Planning Support for the East Bay Drug Checking Collaborative
Facente Consulting is providing facilitation and project implementation support to the East Bay Drug Checking steering committee.
SFDPH Systems of Care Training and Conference
Facente Consulting is supporting the End the Epidemics Steering Committee and SFDPH in conceptualizing and designing a system of care conference and related training opportunities for providers in the fields of drug user health and sexual health in San Francisco.