Early one morning in March, Donald Williams climbed into a twelve-seat van and headed toward San Quentin State Prison. As he drove, he swilled coffee while the rising sun turned the sky a hopeful pink. At the prison gates, he was greeted by guards who remember when he was a drug-addicted recidivist who cycled in and out of prison. The prison vehicle carrying soon-to-be released inmates stopped just outside the gate and Williams gave the guard the name of his pickup. The guard called out: "Copeland!"

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Healthy Oakland and Alameda County are not alone in their view. "The reality is that health care only accounts for 15 percent of a populations' health," explained Brian D. Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC. "What is important for health is not your genetic code, but your Zip code, and the next wave of public health is to address people outside of health care and look at the neighborhood and community factors."

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