Born and raised in Nassau, The Bahamas, Tezel Lightbourne is a Global Public Health Professional with a demonstrated history of knowledge, experience, and skills across health topics such as non-communicable diseases, mental health, communicable diseases, and public health emergencies via nonprofit, non-government, government, and commercial organizations in the Caribbean region and the United States of America for more than eight years.

She credits her passion for advancing health equity to her liberal arts education and extracurricular engagement at Philander Smith University, the first historically Black college and university in the state of Arkansas, where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology Pre-Medicine and became an advocate for social justice. Her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health refined her passion for improving health for underserved populations.