A blueprint for change<\/strong><\/h3>\nBy the time Mukunzi graduated with a Master of Public Health<\/a>, he had more than a degree. He had a blueprint.<\/p>\nHis master\u2019s thesis, \u201cAssessment of Refugee Health Needs in Montgomery County,\u201d outlined practical ways to help immigrants overcome the same barriers he faced: a multilingual hotline; medical information translated and culturally vetted; assistance completing government paperwork in English; and home visits for patients discharged from hospitals with instructions they can\u2019t read or understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuess what?\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cWe are now implementing most of the recommendations we highlighted in our 2011 research.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would take nearly two decades to get there.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Wright State, Mukunzi worked at CareSource, helping Columbus residents, including its large Somali community, to navigate the healthcare system. He later joined Public Health\u2013Dayton and Montgomery County, addressing infant mortality among immigrant families, before becoming a population health project manager at Ohio State University\u2019s Wexner Medical Center.<\/p>\n
But he never lost sight of the organization he envisioned while at Wright State. Eventually, he left Ohio State to build it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to help new Americans address the social determinants of health that affect their lives, fully enjoy the opportunities this country offers and contribute their talents and strengths to building this beautiful nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Creating pathways to care<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi founded Ebenezer Healthcare Access in 2019 with one other employee, in partnership with local health systems and academic institutions. Early on, he worked with Public Health\u2013Dayton and Montgomery County to secure support from the National Association of County and City Health Officials \u2014 funding that carried the organization through its first year and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
That grant also opened the door to key partnerships with the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association\u2019s Community Hub, Dayton Children\u2019s Hospital and Five Rivers Health Centers, laying the groundwork for a coordinated approach to healthcare access for immigrants and refugees. As the need grew, so did Ebenezer, adding more programs, services and partners.<\/p>\n
Today, Ebenezer operates in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati. It employs 32 community health workers who collectively speak 16 languages, including Spanish, French, Amharic, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Russian, Tigrinya and Ukrainian. Calls to the organization\u2019s hotline are routed to staff members who speak the caller\u2019s language.<\/p>\n
Its mission statement \u2014 \u201chealthcare free of health disparities\u201d \u2014 is painted on the walls throughout its Dayton headquarters in more than a dozen languages.<\/p>\n
For staff, that mission means helping clients not just with healthcare access but other needs, including housing, transportation, food assistance and connections to education and employment opportunities. Staff also visit clients after a hospital stay to make sure they understand their discharge instructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile they are in the hospital, language assistance is usually available,\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cBut once they return home, many individuals with limited English proficiency are left without the support they need to navigate the healthcare system. That\u2019s why we go to see them in their homes to make sure there is a continuation of care from the hospital to their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2026\/07\/web__260610_8051ep_Alumni-Jean-de-Dieu-Mukunzi-508x665.jpg\")
<\/a>Ebenezer Healthcare Access, the nonprofit Jean Mukunzi founded in 2019, operates in three Ohio cities, employs nearly three dozen community health workers and fields a hotline that connects callers to help in 16 languages.<\/p><\/div>\n
Ebenezer also partners with the Dayton Equity Center to translate forklift certification training into clients\u2019 native languages, helping immigrants move into skilled jobs. The organization also helps clients navigate the difference between asylum seeker, asylee, refugee and green card status to determine eligibility for Medicaid and other services.<\/p>\n
Staff call the services they provide to their clients \u201cpathways\u201d \u2014 each one is a single, concrete service for a single client. Last year, they logged 37,426 pathways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to be self-sufficient,\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cWe are U.S. citizens, and since this is our new home, we need to build it, to work together with other people so that we can make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
A personal calling<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi\u2019s commitment to serving others began long before he arrived at Wright State University.<\/p>\n
In Rwanda, Mukunzi worked as national youth program manager for Population Services International, a U.S.-based nonprofit, leading HIV prevention and malaria control programs for young people. He saw firsthand how much health education, community outreach and culturally sensitive care could change a life.<\/p>\n
Those experiences inspired him to bring that same community-based approach to the United States. He\u2019d seen how many immigrants and refugees ran into language and cultural barriers trying to get care, and he believed the same community-based health education and outreach models that worked in Rwanda could help new Americans navigate the U.S. healthcare system too.<\/p>\n
Mukunzi eventually immigrated to the United States, landing in Dayton after he heard about a local shelter that took in immigrants. He taught himself English by borrowing CDs and DVDs from the Dayton Metro Library before enrolling at Wright State.<\/p>\n
Wright State provided Mukunzi with much-needed stability during this transition. A university staff member hired him as a personal aide and offered him a place to live, allowing him to move out of the shelter and focus on his education while continuing to serve others.<\/p>\n
One faculty member who made a lasting impression was Sara Paton, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and interim chair of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs a student in Paton\u2019s epidemiology class in 2009, Mukunzi learned research techniques and worked on class projects that formed the basis of his thesis.<\/p>\n
What Paton remembers most, however, is the perspective he brought to every discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean always enriched the class discussion because he had a different lens that he looked at the health outcomes through,\u201d Paton said. \u201cI think it enhanced the classroom environment and the students got a lot out of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She could see even then that he was struggling \u2014 with English, with finding basic services, with a country that wasn\u2019t yet home. What she couldn\u2019t see was where that journey would lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea it was going to be what it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Mukunzi founded Ebenezer in 2019, he asked Paton, by then a colleague in the close-knit public health community, to join its board. She accepted immediately. Today, Wright State\u2019s Master of Public Health program places a student with Ebenezer each year, continuing a relationship that began in her classroom nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment for me,\u201d Paton said. \u201cIt speaks to how far he has come himself from the person that was struggling to speak English and to find a place in our country, and now he\u2019s mentoring and inspiring the next generation of public health professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukunzi\u2019s connection to Wright State is about to grow even stronger: his son will begin classes this fall with a 4.1 GPA and scholarship offers that could have taken him anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I did not have a chance to come to Wright State,\u201d Mukunzi said, \u201ctoday, maybe we would not be able to impact the lives of all these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking beyond Ohio<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi believes the model developed in Dayton can help communities far beyond Ohio.<\/p>\n
He is working with researchers at Harvard to study whether Ebenezer\u2019s approach could expand nationally and, eventually, internationally, to support refugees and immigrants navigating unfamiliar healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst to the national level, second to the global level,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wright State alum Jean de Dieu Mukunzi turned his master’s thesis into a nonprofit now helping thousands of people new to the United States access healthcare and other critical services. Continue reading
His master\u2019s thesis, \u201cAssessment of Refugee Health Needs in Montgomery County,\u201d outlined practical ways to help immigrants overcome the same barriers he faced: a multilingual hotline; medical information translated and culturally vetted; assistance completing government paperwork in English; and home visits for patients discharged from hospitals with instructions they can\u2019t read or understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuess what?\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cWe are now implementing most of the recommendations we highlighted in our 2011 research.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would take nearly two decades to get there.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Wright State, Mukunzi worked at CareSource, helping Columbus residents, including its large Somali community, to navigate the healthcare system. He later joined Public Health\u2013Dayton and Montgomery County, addressing infant mortality among immigrant families, before becoming a population health project manager at Ohio State University\u2019s Wexner Medical Center.<\/p>\n
But he never lost sight of the organization he envisioned while at Wright State. Eventually, he left Ohio State to build it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to help new Americans address the social determinants of health that affect their lives, fully enjoy the opportunities this country offers and contribute their talents and strengths to building this beautiful nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Creating pathways to care<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi founded Ebenezer Healthcare Access in 2019 with one other employee, in partnership with local health systems and academic institutions. Early on, he worked with Public Health\u2013Dayton and Montgomery County to secure support from the National Association of County and City Health Officials \u2014 funding that carried the organization through its first year and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
That grant also opened the door to key partnerships with the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association\u2019s Community Hub, Dayton Children\u2019s Hospital and Five Rivers Health Centers, laying the groundwork for a coordinated approach to healthcare access for immigrants and refugees. As the need grew, so did Ebenezer, adding more programs, services and partners.<\/p>\n
Today, Ebenezer operates in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati. It employs 32 community health workers who collectively speak 16 languages, including Spanish, French, Amharic, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, Lingala, Russian, Tigrinya and Ukrainian. Calls to the organization\u2019s hotline are routed to staff members who speak the caller\u2019s language.<\/p>\n
Its mission statement \u2014 \u201chealthcare free of health disparities\u201d \u2014 is painted on the walls throughout its Dayton headquarters in more than a dozen languages.<\/p>\n
For staff, that mission means helping clients not just with healthcare access but other needs, including housing, transportation, food assistance and connections to education and employment opportunities. Staff also visit clients after a hospital stay to make sure they understand their discharge instructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile they are in the hospital, language assistance is usually available,\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cBut once they return home, many individuals with limited English proficiency are left without the support they need to navigate the healthcare system. That\u2019s why we go to see them in their homes to make sure there is a continuation of care from the hospital to their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Ebenezer Healthcare Access, the nonprofit Jean Mukunzi founded in 2019, operates in three Ohio cities, employs nearly three dozen community health workers and fields a hotline that connects callers to help in 16 languages.<\/p><\/div>\n
Ebenezer also partners with the Dayton Equity Center to translate forklift certification training into clients\u2019 native languages, helping immigrants move into skilled jobs. The organization also helps clients navigate the difference between asylum seeker, asylee, refugee and green card status to determine eligibility for Medicaid and other services.<\/p>\n
Staff call the services they provide to their clients \u201cpathways\u201d \u2014 each one is a single, concrete service for a single client. Last year, they logged 37,426 pathways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to be self-sufficient,\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cWe are U.S. citizens, and since this is our new home, we need to build it, to work together with other people so that we can make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
A personal calling<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi\u2019s commitment to serving others began long before he arrived at Wright State University.<\/p>\n
In Rwanda, Mukunzi worked as national youth program manager for Population Services International, a U.S.-based nonprofit, leading HIV prevention and malaria control programs for young people. He saw firsthand how much health education, community outreach and culturally sensitive care could change a life.<\/p>\n
Those experiences inspired him to bring that same community-based approach to the United States. He\u2019d seen how many immigrants and refugees ran into language and cultural barriers trying to get care, and he believed the same community-based health education and outreach models that worked in Rwanda could help new Americans navigate the U.S. healthcare system too.<\/p>\n
Mukunzi eventually immigrated to the United States, landing in Dayton after he heard about a local shelter that took in immigrants. He taught himself English by borrowing CDs and DVDs from the Dayton Metro Library before enrolling at Wright State.<\/p>\n
Wright State provided Mukunzi with much-needed stability during this transition. A university staff member hired him as a personal aide and offered him a place to live, allowing him to move out of the shelter and focus on his education while continuing to serve others.<\/p>\n
One faculty member who made a lasting impression was Sara Paton, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and interim chair of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs a student in Paton\u2019s epidemiology class in 2009, Mukunzi learned research techniques and worked on class projects that formed the basis of his thesis.<\/p>\n
What Paton remembers most, however, is the perspective he brought to every discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean always enriched the class discussion because he had a different lens that he looked at the health outcomes through,\u201d Paton said. \u201cI think it enhanced the classroom environment and the students got a lot out of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She could see even then that he was struggling \u2014 with English, with finding basic services, with a country that wasn\u2019t yet home. What she couldn\u2019t see was where that journey would lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea it was going to be what it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Mukunzi founded Ebenezer in 2019, he asked Paton, by then a colleague in the close-knit public health community, to join its board. She accepted immediately. Today, Wright State\u2019s Master of Public Health program places a student with Ebenezer each year, continuing a relationship that began in her classroom nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment for me,\u201d Paton said. \u201cIt speaks to how far he has come himself from the person that was struggling to speak English and to find a place in our country, and now he\u2019s mentoring and inspiring the next generation of public health professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukunzi\u2019s connection to Wright State is about to grow even stronger: his son will begin classes this fall with a 4.1 GPA and scholarship offers that could have taken him anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I did not have a chance to come to Wright State,\u201d Mukunzi said, \u201ctoday, maybe we would not be able to impact the lives of all these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking beyond Ohio<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi believes the model developed in Dayton can help communities far beyond Ohio.<\/p>\n
He is working with researchers at Harvard to study whether Ebenezer\u2019s approach could expand nationally and, eventually, internationally, to support refugees and immigrants navigating unfamiliar healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst to the national level, second to the global level,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wright State alum Jean de Dieu Mukunzi turned his master’s thesis into a nonprofit now helping thousands of people new to the United States access healthcare and other critical services. Continue reading
<\/a>Ebenezer Healthcare Access, the nonprofit Jean Mukunzi founded in 2019, operates in three Ohio cities, employs nearly three dozen community health workers and fields a hotline that connects callers to help in 16 languages.<\/p><\/div>\n
Ebenezer also partners with the Dayton Equity Center to translate forklift certification training into clients\u2019 native languages, helping immigrants move into skilled jobs. The organization also helps clients navigate the difference between asylum seeker, asylee, refugee and green card status to determine eligibility for Medicaid and other services.<\/p>\n
Staff call the services they provide to their clients \u201cpathways\u201d \u2014 each one is a single, concrete service for a single client. Last year, they logged 37,426 pathways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to be self-sufficient,\u201d Mukunzi said. \u201cWe are U.S. citizens, and since this is our new home, we need to build it, to work together with other people so that we can make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
A personal calling<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi\u2019s commitment to serving others began long before he arrived at Wright State University.<\/p>\n
In Rwanda, Mukunzi worked as national youth program manager for Population Services International, a U.S.-based nonprofit, leading HIV prevention and malaria control programs for young people. He saw firsthand how much health education, community outreach and culturally sensitive care could change a life.<\/p>\n
Those experiences inspired him to bring that same community-based approach to the United States. He\u2019d seen how many immigrants and refugees ran into language and cultural barriers trying to get care, and he believed the same community-based health education and outreach models that worked in Rwanda could help new Americans navigate the U.S. healthcare system too.<\/p>\n
Mukunzi eventually immigrated to the United States, landing in Dayton after he heard about a local shelter that took in immigrants. He taught himself English by borrowing CDs and DVDs from the Dayton Metro Library before enrolling at Wright State.<\/p>\n
Wright State provided Mukunzi with much-needed stability during this transition. A university staff member hired him as a personal aide and offered him a place to live, allowing him to move out of the shelter and focus on his education while continuing to serve others.<\/p>\n
One faculty member who made a lasting impression was Sara Paton, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and interim chair of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs a student in Paton\u2019s epidemiology class in 2009, Mukunzi learned research techniques and worked on class projects that formed the basis of his thesis.<\/p>\n
What Paton remembers most, however, is the perspective he brought to every discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean always enriched the class discussion because he had a different lens that he looked at the health outcomes through,\u201d Paton said. \u201cI think it enhanced the classroom environment and the students got a lot out of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She could see even then that he was struggling \u2014 with English, with finding basic services, with a country that wasn\u2019t yet home. What she couldn\u2019t see was where that journey would lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea it was going to be what it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Mukunzi founded Ebenezer in 2019, he asked Paton, by then a colleague in the close-knit public health community, to join its board. She accepted immediately. Today, Wright State\u2019s Master of Public Health program places a student with Ebenezer each year, continuing a relationship that began in her classroom nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment for me,\u201d Paton said. \u201cIt speaks to how far he has come himself from the person that was struggling to speak English and to find a place in our country, and now he\u2019s mentoring and inspiring the next generation of public health professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukunzi\u2019s connection to Wright State is about to grow even stronger: his son will begin classes this fall with a 4.1 GPA and scholarship offers that could have taken him anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I did not have a chance to come to Wright State,\u201d Mukunzi said, \u201ctoday, maybe we would not be able to impact the lives of all these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking beyond Ohio<\/strong><\/h3>\nMukunzi believes the model developed in Dayton can help communities far beyond Ohio.<\/p>\n
He is working with researchers at Harvard to study whether Ebenezer\u2019s approach could expand nationally and, eventually, internationally, to support refugees and immigrants navigating unfamiliar healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst to the national level, second to the global level,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wright State alum Jean de Dieu Mukunzi turned his master’s thesis into a nonprofit now helping thousands of people new to the United States access healthcare and other critical services. Continue reading
As a student in Paton\u2019s epidemiology class in 2009, Mukunzi learned research techniques and worked on class projects that formed the basis of his thesis.<\/p>\n
What Paton remembers most, however, is the perspective he brought to every discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean always enriched the class discussion because he had a different lens that he looked at the health outcomes through,\u201d Paton said. \u201cI think it enhanced the classroom environment and the students got a lot out of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She could see even then that he was struggling \u2014 with English, with finding basic services, with a country that wasn\u2019t yet home. What she couldn\u2019t see was where that journey would lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea it was going to be what it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Mukunzi founded Ebenezer in 2019, he asked Paton, by then a colleague in the close-knit public health community, to join its board. She accepted immediately. Today, Wright State\u2019s Master of Public Health program places a student with Ebenezer each year, continuing a relationship that began in her classroom nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment for me,\u201d Paton said. \u201cIt speaks to how far he has come himself from the person that was struggling to speak English and to find a place in our country, and now he\u2019s mentoring and inspiring the next generation of public health professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukunzi\u2019s connection to Wright State is about to grow even stronger: his son will begin classes this fall with a 4.1 GPA and scholarship offers that could have taken him anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I did not have a chance to come to Wright State,\u201d Mukunzi said, \u201ctoday, maybe we would not be able to impact the lives of all these people.\u201d<\/p>\n