FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 16

Decolonise All and Melanin Science Expand Oakland Tech Week with Two Conversations on Health, Innovation, and Community Power

Oakland Tech Week programming connects Oakland’s history of community-led health with the future of care, biotechnology, research, and technology

OAKLAND, Calif. — September 2026 — During Oakland Tech Week 2026, Decolonise All and Melanin Science will bring together community members, healthcare professionals, researchers, advocates, and innovators for two conversations exploring Oakland’s history of community-led health and the future of health, science, biotechnology, and technology.

Building on their inaugural Oakland Tech Week work in 2025, including The Merge, a cross-sector gathering connecting people across technology, biotech, healthcare, medtech, science, and entrepreneurship, Decolonise All and Melanin Science are expanding their work in 2026 through the Oakland Tech for Health Equity Series.

The 2026 series connects Oakland’s history of communities creating their own pathways to care with the people shaping the next generation of health innovation.

SEPTEMBER 28 — FROM OAKLAND’S FREE CLINICS TO THE FUTURE OF CARE

Sickle Cell, Health & Innovation
Monday, September 28, 2026 | 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Black Panther Party Museum | 1427 Broadway, Oakland, California

During Sickle Cell Awareness Month, the first event will explore the connection between the Black Panther Party’s legacy of community health activism and the rapidly evolving landscape of sickle cell treatment, clinical research, biotechnology, and health technology.

The program will feature Dr. Tolbert Small, longtime physician and figure in the Black Panther Party’s community health movement; Dr. Marsha Treadwell, a nationally recognized leader in sickle cell care, research, and patient advocacy at UCSF; Dr. Libnir Telusca, Founder and CEO of the Oakland Institute of Health and a clinical research executive; and Aurora, a young Oakland author and sickle cell patient, who will read from her book Living with Sickle Cell before joining her mother for a conversation about the patient and family experience.

The conversation will examine how sickle cell care has evolved, continuing gaps faced by patients and families, the role of clinical trials and community-based research, and the potential of emerging treatments, biotechnology, data, AI, and digital health.

Registration: https://luma.com/sicklecellawareness

SEPTEMBER 29 — TECH FOR HEALTH EQUITY

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Oakland, California

The second event expands the conversation into the broader intersection of community, health, STEM, biotechnology, and technology.

Tech for Health Equity will bring together people working across healthcare, science, technology, and community to explore what it means to build innovation around the needs and realities of Oakland communities.

The program will look beyond technology as an end in itself and consider how research, biotechnology, health technology, and emerging tools can connect more meaningfully to community needs, access, and participation.

Registration: https://luma.com/techforhealthequity

FROM OAKLAND’S LEGACY TO ITS FUTURE

Together, the two events trace a larger story: from community-built healthcare to modern medical innovation, and from innovation to community participation in shaping what comes next.

Oakland has a powerful history of communities creating solutions when traditional systems did not meet their needs. The Oakland Tech for Health Equity Series builds on that history while creating space to ask how today's researchers, clinicians, innovators, and community leaders can help shape a future in which communities are not simply recipients of innovation, but participants in defining it.

“Technology alone does not create health equity,” said Caroline Washington, Founder and President of Decolonise All. “Oakland has a powerful history of communities creating solutions when systems failed them. Our work during Oakland Tech Week asks what that same spirit of community leadership can teach us as we enter a new era of biotechnology, health technology, and innovation.”

The series is designed to bring together patients and families, healthcare professionals, researchers, biotech and technology leaders, educators, advocates, and community members across two days of conversation and connection.

ABOUT OAKLAND TECH WEEK

Oakland Tech Week is a citywide celebration of technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the people building Oakland’s future. Decolonise All and Melanin Science are using their platform within Oakland Tech Week to center health, community, and the history of Oakland’s grassroots innovation.

Their Oakland Tech Week work began in 2025 with The Merge, and expands in 2026 through the Oakland Tech for Health Equity Series.

ABOUT DECOLONISE ALL

Decolonise All is a community-centered organization advancing Indigenous and Pasifika visibility, decolonial education, climate justice, and health equity. Decolonise All creates spaces that connect community knowledge, cultural leadership, research, and systems change.

ABOUT MELANIN SCIENCE

Melanin Science works to increase representation, visibility, and opportunity for people of color in science, technology, healthcare, and innovation by creating connections between communities and the broader scientific ecosystem.