Angie Hinojos
Executive Director, Centro Cultural Mexicano
Angie Hinojos is currently the executive director and co-founder of Centro Cultural Mexicano in Redmond. She received a degree in architecture from UC Berkeley and utilizes her experience as a public artist to strengthen community bonds. As a community organizer, Angie has focused on equity in education to increase access to higher education for underserved communities. Angie is a Trustee for Cascadia College, serves on the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs, and is a passionate advocate for social and racial justice.
Martin Valadez
Regional Director, Heritage University's Tri-Cities Campus | Interim Executive Director, Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Martin Valadez is currently the regional director for Heritage University’s Tri-Cities campus and the interim executive director of the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He was previously vice president for business development and external affairs at Tri-Cities Community Health and spent more that eight years at Columbia Basin College where he served as professor of history and intercultural studies, vice president for diversity and outreach, and CEO for the CBC Foundation. Valadez has served on a number of local and statewide boards and currently serves on the following boards: Gesa Credit Union, Mid-Columbia Libraries, ACLU of Washington, Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges and Charities Advisory Council for the Secretary of State of Washington. Valadez was born in Mexico, grew up in South Central Los Angeles, and has resided in Pasco, Washington since 2006.
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.
Jesús Hernández
CEO, Family Health Centers
Jesús Hernández, MPA, received his BA in business administration from Washington State University in 1992, and an MPA from the University of Washington in 2006. A first generation college graduate, Hernandez’s career has spanned three decades of progressive responsibility in areas of leadership including workforce development, education, healthcare, and finance. As CEO at Family Health Centers and previously for Community Choice Healthcare
Network, he led numerous undertakings to move the organization’s strategic priorities forward. This included reorganizing bylaws, leading network strategic planning, and serving as the lead grant writer to secure over ten million in federal grants for network development and health information technology.
Jimena Meladze
Board Member, Latino Community Fund of Washington State
Jimena Meladze is a mission-driven health and life science leader with a track record of reducing health disparities and advancing health. Her passions include mentorship and collaborating on innovative solutions to advance health outcomes for all by integrating ethical and societal considerations in life science research and healthcare practices.
She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
At the heart of her mission are communities.
With over decades of extensive experience, she currently leads program development and strategy to champion fair access, collaboration and build trust in scientific knowledge.
In previous roles, she has managed enterprise health equity initiatives for a multi-state health system, managed oncology and immune health research programs, launched multi-state community health worker (CHW) programs and has grown community partnerships to improve population health outcomes. She has also improved access to primary care services by leading clinical operations and managing compassionate and excellent teams within Federally Qualified Health Centers.
Melissa Hill-Hinojosa, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Office of Mission and Opportunity, Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences (PNWU)
Dr. Melissa Hill is the Executive Director of the Office of Mission and Opportunity at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences (PNWU).
With more than 30 years of experience in higher education, she has devoted her career to advancing equity, expanding access, and strengthening educational pathways for students from historically marginalized and underserved communities. Before joining PNWU, Dr. Hill served in multiple senior leadership roles at Heritage University, including Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and Vice President for Student Affairs. In these roles, she led institution-wide initiatives that improved academic quality, expanded student support systems, and deepened community partnerships, particularly in service to first-generation, low-income, immigrant, and Indigenous students.
At PNWU, Dr. Hill oversees mission integration, equity-centered programming, and community-engaged initiatives that promote student belonging, reduce structural barriers, and enhance pathways into health professions and graduate education. Her work emphasizes culturally responsive support, strategic partnerships, and evidence-based approaches to increasing retention and completion. Throughout her extensive career, Dr. Hill has collaborated with K12 districts, community colleges, universities, tribal partners, and regional organizations to strengthen college readiness, develop transfer pipelines, and address systemic disparities affecting rural and underserved communities.
Marcos Martinez
Community Member - at large
Marcos Martinez has worked in nonprofits serving Latinx communities since relocating to Seattle in 2007. Most recently he served as executive director of Casa Latina, which offers practical programs and services to low-income Latino communities and advocates for policy change that affect Latinos directly. Services include day labor dispatch, ESL classes, job skills and safety trainings, and community organizing. Mr. Martinez also served as the executive director of Entre Hermanos, a community-based non-profit that serves the Latino LGBT community of Seattle and King County. The organization was created to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Latino community, and to provide advocacy and support. Mr. Martinez has served on the state of Washington’s HIV Prevention Planning Group; on the steering committee for the National Latino AIDS Action Network; and as co-chair of the University of Washington Center for AIDS Research Community Action Board (CFAR CAB). He also served on the board of the Public Defenders Association, the Minority Executive Directors Coalition, and the Citizens’ Telecommunications Technology Advisory Board. Mr. Martinez first gained interest in working with non-profit organization after working 20 years in community radio in Albuquerque New Mexico.
Carolina Lucero
Community Member - at large | Retired. Former Senior Vice President, Sea Mar Community Health Centers
Carolina Lucero, MSW, has worked with Sea Mar Community Health Centers for the past 33 years. Her service has provided her with expertise in primary care clinics, preventive health services and care coordination, community-based senior care services, and facility service lines for nursing and assisted living personnel. Her responsibilities have spanned from direct service provider, to management, to her current role in senior leadership. Currently, Ms. Lucero has oversight of the long-term care coordination services in several primary care clinics located in diverse communities throughout Western Washington. She is involved in many of Sea Mar’s community outreach projects and has advocated over the last 38 years for underserved communities, specifically in the areas of health and education.
Ms. Lucero has been instrumental in addressing gaps in nursing education and shortages of bilingual and bicultural nurses in Washington State. She is a member of technical advisory committees for a number of institutions of higher education in the area, including the University of Washington, South Seattle Community College, Bellevue College, and sits on the President’s Advisory Council at Lake Washington Institute of Technology.
Previous Board Member
Bertha Lopez
Senior Director of Community Health Planning and Development, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital
Bertha Lopez, MBA, was appointed the director at Children’s Village in 2017. She was previously senior director of Community Health Planning and Development at Virginia Mason Memorial. Ms. Lopez has a master’s degree from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. She brings over 10 years of experience in health advocacy and work that aims to reduce health disparities. Children’s Village is a regional integrated center for children with special health care needs and their families, with multiple service providers all under one roof. The comprehensive family-centered organization aims to meet each child’s need for individualized care with over 30 different kinds of specialized services. There are medical specialty clinics, developmental evaluations and collaborative diagnostic clinics, dental services, occupational, physical and speech therapy, mental health counseling, education services, behavioral intervention and nurse home visiting programs. The Village also offers a comprehensive parent and family support program called Parent to Parent, which serves families from birth through life in the Yakima Valley.
C. H. Hank Balderrama
Clinical Director, Comprehensive Life Services
C. H. Hank Balderrama, MSW, LICSW, co-founded and was the first executive director of Consejo Counseling and Referral Service in Seattle in 1978, which still serves Latino community members with culturally competent direct behavioral health services. He has worked extensively in organizational cultural competence to promote increased access and positive service outcomes for Latino communities. Mr. Balderrama co-chaired a SAMHSA national panel responsible for developing mental health standards of care for Latinos. He advocated for Latinos and other under-served groups as a senior administrator at the Washington State Mental Health Division, from 1989 to 2013. His professional responsibilities and experiences include developing policy; creating training curricula; and providing consultation at division headquarters, state hospitals, regional mental health authorities and mental health centers. His areas of expertise include client services, community engagement, training and education, technical writing, contracting, and program administration. His motivation for being a Latino Center for Health advisory board member includes continued advocacy for the Latino community, especially in the implementation of the national initiative of primary behavioral health care integration.
In Memoriam – Adrian Dominguez
Scientific Director, Urban Indian Health Institute | Member, Seattle Indian Health Board
Adrian Dominguez, MS, hailed from Los Angeles California and had over 25 years of experience in work spanning academic research, the government sector, and non-profit work. He received his Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles and he was awarded the Harvard University Health Professionals fellowship and attended Harvard University to study neurology, which introduced him to the field of public health. Over the course of his career, Mr. Dominguez worked with academic institutions and communities on topics that include pediatric lead poisoning in low-income areas, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, diabetes, breast and cervical cancer, social determinants of health and health equity, and community health assessments and evaluations. He was the Scientific Director for Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle Indian Health Board and serves as a board member for the Washington State Public Health Association and the University of Washington Latino Center for Health. In 2015 Adrian was inducted into Eastern Washington’s Upsilon Phi Delta Honor Society for his work and contributions to public health in the state of Washington.
In Memoriam – Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney
Community Member - at large | Retired. Former Representative, WA State House of Representatives, 46th District
Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney was born to migrant farm workers and grew up in the Yakima Valley, where she began her career as a community activist. Ms. Gutierrez Kenney was appointed to the Washington State Legislature where she served for 16 years in the House of Representatives. She chaired and served on multiple committees that addressed issues of housing, education and healthcare access. This led to her appointment by the governor to serve on the Governor’s Aerospace Council and the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.
Ms. Gutierrez Kenney is a former small business owner and has served on local, state, and national boards and commissions regarding education, economic development, and national and global health. She has always championed higher education efforts by supporting programs and funding streams that provided educational opportunities for minority students. In 2005, Ms. Gutierrez Kenney sponsored a bill that allows branch campuses to offer four-year degrees and another that offers undocumented students in-state tuition for their education. She was instrumental in getting the REAL Hope Act (aka Dream Act), paving the way for Opportunity Grants that provide training for low income students in high demand fields, and the I-BEST Program that helps ESL students learn a trade while learning English, which was nationally highlighted as a model program by President Obama.