Jimena Garcia
Board Member, Latino Community Fund of Washington State
Jimena Garcia is an impact-driven health equity leader with a track record of reducing health disparities and improving health outcomes of communities from historically underserved groups. She is a first-generation Mexican American and grew up in Imperial Valley, CA. Her passions include border health, mentorship, and collaborating on innovative solutions to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and access. She obtained her bachelor of science degree in neuroscience from the University of California Santa Cruz and possesses significant healthcare experience working at the intersection of health systems, payors, and federally qualified health centers.
Her curiosity leads her to constantly study and implement best practices to provide the best meaningful care for refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers through digital innovation, advocacy, and capacity building. She enjoys serving the boards of the Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington and the Latino Community Fund of Washington State as well as horse riding, traveling, and cycling.
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.
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 Chair of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs and a Trustee for Cascadia College. In addition, she utilizes her experience and talent as a Public Artist to strengthen community bonds and encourage civic engagement through art. She is a passionate advocate for social and racial justice.
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.
Carolina Lucero
Former Senior Vice President, Sea Mar Community Health Centers (Retired)
Carolina Lucero, MSW, worked with Sea Mar Community Health Centers for the past 33 years, providing instrumental leadership supporting its growth and excellence. 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. She is a strong advocate 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.
Marcos Martinez
Community Member – at large
Marcos Martinez He has worked in nonprofits serving Latinx communities since relocating to Seattle in 2007. including serving 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. 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.
Martin Valadez
Regional Director, Heritage University’s Tri-Cities Campus
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 than 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. Martin 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. Martin 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. He has worked at King County since 2000, including as a lead for equity and social justice at its inception in 2008. 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. 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.