In 2023, Chanel founded the Sickle Cell Empowerment Initiative (SCEI) to transform lived experience into meaningful action. Under her leadership, SCEI has grown into a community-centered organization focused on patient and caregiver support, education, advocacy, access to resources, and building stronger connections between the sickle cell community and the institutions that serve it.

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Chanel brings a unique perspective to this work, combining lived experience with more than a decade of professional leadership in nonprofit and human services operations. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Coppin State University and a Master of Public Administration in Policy and Public Affairs from Metropolitan College of New York.

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Her advocacy extends beyond SCEI. Chanel contributes her patient and community perspective through health equity and patient advisory work, sickle cell advocacy collaborations, educational panels, and conversations with healthcare, research, community, and industry partners. She is committed to ensuring that lived experience is recognized not simply as a story to be shared, but as expertise that can help shape programs, policies, research, and systems of care.

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At the heart of Chanel's leadership is a simple belief: people living with sickle cell disease deserve to be seen, heard, supported, and empowered to thrive.

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Through SCEI, she is working to help build a future where that belief becomes the standard—not the exception.