In addition to support from the federal
government, the Health and Wellness Center
receives help from dozens of individual
Marin philanthropists, as well as the Marin
Community Foundation, Marin General
Hospital, Marin Housing Authority, Blue Shield
of California, Good Earth and Whole Foods.
It was also the only beneficiary this year of a
county grant aimed at treating opioid addic-
tion. The center, with 44 employees, operates
on an annual budget of just over $5 million.
And in the middle of it all is CEO JayVon
Muhammad, an exuberant 44-year-old
mother of three and grandmother of three
more, who oversees the entire operation.
Currently, Muhammad lives in San Pablo but
is determined to someday move to Mill Valley.
Can you tell us about your childhood, early
years and current family arrangement? My
mother was a drug addict for most of my life;
she’s been clean now for about six years. And
my father was a drug dealer. But that’s not as
strange as it may sound; in the neighborhood
where I grew up, most folks were involved
with drugs. In the 1980s, crack cocaine is what
devastated most [such] neighborhoods, and
Hunters Point, where I spent many of my teen
years, was no exception. When I was born, all
my family lived in the Fillmore, but when that
got gentrified some of my family moved out
to the East Bay, some to Sacramento, and my
immediate family moved to Hunters Point.
I have 11 sisters. They’re really half sisters:
we all grew up together and knew each other
very well, so we’re really like “sister sisters”;
we just didn’t share the same mother. I also
had three brothers, but one was murdered, so
now it’s just the t wo brothers. Both my mom
and dad are still alive and so are all my sisters;
it’s just that we’re scattered between here and
Sacramento, and we’re hoping to change that.
So, it’s been a journey and it still is a journey.
What type of education did you receive? I’m
a midwife. I completed three years of a mid-
wifery program and received an Associate
Science of Midwifery (ASM) degree. I became
pregnant in high school, so I got my GED a few
years later than most people [my age], but I got
it. Then I attended t wo years of general college
courses in the U. S. and one year of medical
school in Mexico. So I have a lot of education;
it’s just not at the same time or, possibly, in
the right location. But when I was in my teens
and pregnant, I had the worst experience.
I would go to the doctor and it was always
really quick. The doctor would listen to my
baby and measure my belly but no one would
ever ask me, “ Where is the dad?” or “ Who
did this to you?” I was not made to feel like a
mother, or a parent. So when I grew older and
became a parent and was looking for ways to
give back, I decided to become a foster parent
to young mothers. I didn’t want other girls to
go through their pregnancy like I did. At first,
they said I couldn’t because I was too close in
age to the girls who’d be living with me. Then
In the 1980s, crack cocaine
is what devastated most
neighborhoods, and
Hunters Point, where I
spent many of my teen years,
was no exception.
they gave me two psychological assess-
ments and I passed them both and, when I
was 21, I had one of only t wo foster homes
in San Francisco for teenage girls who were
pregnant. Three girls at a time were living
with me until I got married; then it was two
girls. By the way, I selected my second husband very discreetly. I knew I did not want
to live the way I’d grown up; I knew exactly
what I did not want and what I could tolerate. It was always on my mind that things
had to change. My husband and I have now
been married 21 years and, in addition to my
daughter, who has given me three grandchildren, we have a wonderful son who’s 18 and
a beautiful daughter who’s 19. As for foster
children, in all, I helped 20 girls through
their pregnancies and several of us, children
included, are still really close; we often chat
on Facebook. So you could say I learned a lot
about health and wellness in those years.
How did you acquire the leadership and
management skills to be CEO of a $5 million, multitasked organization that employs
44 people? I think part of it comes from
