Our Leadership

Founder & Principal

Shyrea Thompson has been a noted leader in advocacy, patient navigation, health equity, education, workforce development, community engagement, and nonprofit management

for over twenty years. In 2018, Shyrea founded the IRIS Collaborative to bridge people, purpose, and profit to advance social change, proudly growing collaborations that thrive which include Fund II Foundation’s Black Maternal Health Equity program, the World Health Organization’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative, Tigerlily Foundation’s ANGEL Advocates & HEAL Policy Center of Excellence, National Minority Quality Forum, Pfizer, Inc., Rethink New Orleans Schools and Henrietta Lacks' Family-led HELA100: Henrietta Lacks Initiative.

She was honored to begin her career on Capitol Hill with Congressman Martin Meehan and joined his team again as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Outreach, and Recruitment at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In New York, she gained private sector experience at Schulte, Roth & Zabel, LLP, where she was the Senior Legal Assistant supporting litigation, education, employment, pro bono, and corporate practice areas. 

Applying her public-private partnership insights, Shyrea expanded Washington, D.C.’s only federally funded Area Health Education Center (AHEC). Serving as Program Director, then transitioning to Executive Director. At AHEC, she co-founded DC Pink Divas (DIVAS) - an award-winning, evidence-based breast health education, navigation, and lay health training program that utilizes the DC Pink Divas Intervening Virtually to Advance Saving Lives - DIVAS Model. After 3 years as a Susan G. Komen grantee, she transitioned to Komen as the Senior Advisor to the CEO for Special Initiatives to lead the organization in its goal to advance breast health equity, which included a $27 million partnership with the Fund II Foundation to end breast cancer disparities.

Shyrea's patient advocacy journey began early on when, at only 13 years old, her sister found a lump in her breast. The lumpectomy and biopsy were benign, and their family thanked God for access to world-class health care. Experiencing health care disparities first-hand sparked a passion for health equity to ensure that where a woman lives doesn't determine if she lives. Since 2012, Shyrea has worked to reach people where they are. As the co-founder of DIVAS, she continues to reach Black women where they live, work, play, and pray to improve health outcomes. She has proudly expanded the DIVAS Model by collaborating with patient advocacy organizations such as Tigerlily Foundation since 2019.

She's been featured in over 30 local print, news, radio, and television programs, including Good Morning Washington, Washington Business Journal, Essence, O The Oprah Magazine, MadameNoire, The Root, Campaign US, and TheGrio and served as a national spokesperson for the award-winning Know Your Girls breast health education Ad Council campaign.

In 2014, then-Vice President and Dr. Biden recognized Shyrea’s leadership and contributions to advance breast cancer patient navigation. The White House and the United States Office of Personnel Management recognized her role in implementing the Affordable Care Act in 2015. In 2016, she was honored to be selected as a National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health, awarded by the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, and joined the 2018 NMQF Advisory Board. She served on the University of California’s California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) Steering Committee and was the first chair of its CBCRP Equity Review Committee Panel. In 2024, she joined Mom Congress' Board of Directors.

 
Since 2015, Shyrea has championed various family-led efforts to honor Henrietta Lacks and the impact of her immortal HeLa cells, including drafting H. RES. 638, the first U.S. Congressional Resolution Honoring the Life & Legacy of Henrietta Lacks. She was proud to join the Lacks for the historic visit with the World Health Organization (WHO) honoring Henrietta Lacks with a WHO Director-General’s award and supports their work as World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassadors for Cervical Cancer Elimination. She remains humbled to collaborate with the Lacks Family to implement HELA100.

She served as an HRSA co-principal investigator, co-created an internationally recognized curriculum and community advisory board that impacted more than 10,000 patients and trained 40 lay workers to improve health outcomes. Developed Standardized Patient Exercise and continuing medical education trainings, managed the DC medical school preceptor program, and served as The George Washington University (GWU) Interdisciplinary Student Community-Oriented Prevention Enhancement Service (ISCOPES) Faculty Advisor to MD, NP, PA, Midwifery, and PT students.

Shyrea is committed to supporting the next generation of nonprofit enterprise students and femtech founders to bridge their “why” with their impact. In 2021, she served as a Bridge for Billions AARP Foundation’s Work for Yourself@50+ Incubator Program mentor. In 2024, she was thrilled to support the Carnegie Mellon University - Africa Entrepreneurship Delegation visit to Washington, DC, AfroTech, and Rwanda as a Guest Lecturer and Tartans Innovate Hackathon Judge.

As a sought-after moderator, interviewer, storyteller, guest lecturer, facilitator and producer, Shyrea has gathered over 100 narratives to bridge communities through hope and connection. Her recent production credits include the “The Human Body” series on NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation - Japan's only public media organization. Educating over 100,000 people through Fund II Foundation’s NurtuHER Campaign’s 100 Voices of Hope: Black Birth Stories series, Check-In & Check-Up patient education episodes, Taking Off the White Coat podcast-style conversations and workshops. Gathering over 600 digital and video responses to the NurtuHER Tech for Us Survey, presented in collaboration with Qualtrics, to better understand how AI and technology can improve Black maternal health resources, access, and outcomes.

Shyrea earned her B.S. and Nonprofit Management certification from The George Washington University (GWU). In 2025, she joined the GWU Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration faculty as a Nonprofit Enterprise professorial lecturer.

Today, Shyrea is a “mompreneur” raising 15-year-old boy-girl twins with her husband in the Washington, DC, area, passing on the same commitment to the community that was instilled in them early on.