Matías Valenzuela

Director of the Office of Equity and Community Partnerships for Public Health, Seattle & King County

Matías Valenzuela, PhD, is the director of the Office of Equity and Community Partnerships for Public Health – Seattle & King County. In the COVID-19 response, he directed community mitigation and recovery. He was also co-lead in the county’s team for the declaration of racism as a public health crisis in June 2020. Previously starting in 2015, he was the first director of the Office of Equity and Social Justice in King County, spearheading a countywide effort to address the root causes of inequities, especially racism, working with all county agencies and the community. Matias has worked at King County since 2000, including as a lead for equity and social justice at its inception in 2008. Previously in his career, he was a print and broadcast journalist in the United States and abroad. He has been a Fulbright professor in Nicaragua, and he is an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine. He currently serves on numerous local and national boards and advisory groups.