Ms. Scruggs is a compassionate healthcare professional who believes that everyone deserves access to education, resources, and opportunities to create their best life. She is a resident of Sacramento, and has extensive experience working with nonprofits, health centers, and county and state governments. Her areas of expertise include program planning, grant management, marketing, and implementing effective public health campaigns to reduce health disparities.

Valarie’s work in tobacco prevention began early in her career, completing retail surveys. Since then, she has engaged with campaigns and coalitions to support tobacco cessation and prevent tobacco addiction and premature loss of life.  From 2013-2016, she served as the Saving Our Legacy, African Americans for Smoke Free Safe Places (The SOL Project) Community Advocate Consultant. In this role, she established a collaborative focused on addressing social determinants of health to improve health outcomes for African Americans related to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The collaborative work resulted in the development and implementation of The SOL Project “Strategies to Improve Health Equity Where African Americans Live, Work, Learn, Worship & Play Community Action Plan.”

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Valarie is known for her communication and partnership building skills. She has conducted presentations, community engagement initiatives, marketing, and technical assistance in Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. Her passion for helping people and improving their health appears in all the work she has done and continues to do with the SOL Project.