MSS/LSW

Sherry is a licensed social worker who founded the nonprofit grassroots organization the Community Enrichment Fitness Network (CEFN) in May 2007. The CEFN spawned from Hill's nondenominational, nonprofit organization the Christian Entertainment Fellowship Network, which provided singles in the Delaware Valley with fellowship opportunities for 10 years. The organization not only ran a talk show on 1240 WHAT radio station for a year, but it was featured in local newspapers and TV programs in Philadelphia. 

Born and raised in New York City, Hill received her degree in Communications from City College of New York, later graduating from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Research. She has worked in the social work field for almost 30 years, primarily with the elderly population. Her passion for social work has led her to address the obesity epidemic as well as health disparities in the African American community. One of the Hill's and CEFN's main goals is for the Focus on Fitness TV program to appear on a major network so that the organization can spread its message of leading a healthy lifestyle to a wider audience.

The Reverend Jesse W. Brown, Jr. is a Philadelphian Lutheran minister who has been on the cutting edge of a theology that combines faith, community and justice. Brown a 1987 graduate of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Illinois, and a 1979 graduate of Concordia College in Bronxville, New York was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1988 along with his wife Sandra. The two were the first people ordained in the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a merger of several Lutheran Church bodies. Following his ordination, Brown accepted a call to Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Central Philadelphia, serving this congregation for 10 years. 

 As a powerful preacher he is frequently called on to preach revivals and to serve as a guest preacher. His messages often combine faith and health. One of his major themes is the importance of health in communities of color and the need to prevent young people from being poisoned by alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Brown has spoken at hundreds of conferences and meetings, often serving as the keynote or closing speaker. He has provided testimony before state legislatures, city councils, and the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He also was elected as president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, a multi-denominational body. Within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Brown served as president and treasurer of the local chapter and as the National Corresponding Secretary for the African American Lutheran Association. 

In 1990, Brown became the primary spokesperson in a community-based fight against the introduction of Uptown, a cigarette brand targeted specifically to African Americans. Black Philadelphians did not allow the test marketing of Uptown cigarettes, and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company subsequently decided not to introduce the cigarette anywhere else. That victory was celebrated throughout the nation and around the world. Brown is featured in the Pathways to Freedom and Quit Today! videos, which are designed to decrease smoking rates among African Americans and the excessive marketing of tobacco products in black communities. 

In addition to his work with the Coalition Against Uptown Cigarettes, Brown has been active in the national campaigns against PowerMaster malt liquor, X cigarettes, Camel Menthols and Marlboro Milds. His leadership positions include work with the Committee to Prevent Cancer Among Blacks, the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer and Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco (STAT). In 1991, Brown convened the founding meeting of the National Association of African Americans for Positive Imagery (NAAAPI) in Greensboro, North Carolina, and served as its President for four years. He was co-project director of the Philadelphia "By Our Own Hands" project, part of the Urban Youth Campaign of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) of the U.S. Public Health Service. 

In recent years, Rev. Brown has emerged as one of the nation's best-known and most widely-quoted tobacco control advocate. As a result he has been quoted in major media such as Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and on all the major television and radio news networks. Brown has also been a strong voice against violence. He was a leader in the "Guns No More in '94" campaign that encouraged inner-city communities to rid their neighborhoods of firearms. He is active in "Safe Corridors" programs which recruit adults to protect children on their way to and from school. He also served as volunteer chairperson of Emergency Services for the Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania, one of the largest Red Cross programs in the nation. 

In 2006 Brown was recognized as the Outstanding Advocate of the Year by the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Division, American Public Health Association. From 1994-2001, Brown served as vice president and general partner of The Onyx Group, a marketing communications firm that specializes in health-related and community mobilization issues. He resides in North Philadelphia with his wife. Jesse and Sandra are the parents of four adult children.