Archives: Our Team
Mary L. (Nora) Disis, MD
Mary L. (Nora) Disis, MD, is the Athena Distinguished Professor of Breast Cancer Research, Associate Dean for Translational Health Sciences in the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at UW, and a Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She is the Director of the Institute of Translational Health Science and the Center for Translational Medicine in Women’s Health at UW. Dr. Disis is an expert in breast and ovarian cancer immunology and translational research. Her research interest is in the discovery of new molecular immunologic targets in breast and ovarian cancer for the development of vaccine and cellular therapy for the treatment and prevention of those malignancies. In addition, her group evaluates the use of the immune system to aid in the diagnosis of cancer and develops novel assays and approaches to quantitate and characterize human immunity. She holds several patents in the field of targeted cancer therapy and cancer diagnostics. Dr. Disis is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. She is the Deputy Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Federico Cruz-Uribe, MD, MPH
Federico Cruz-Uribe, MD, MPH, has had a 25-year career in public health. He has managed public health departments in four states at the local and state levels. Most recently, Dr. Cruz-Uribe was the director of the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department for 15 years (1992-2007). From 2008 to 2013, he and his wife established and ran a diabetes control project in southern Nicaragua. For the last 12 months, Dr. Cruz-Uribe has been working as the Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Sea Mar Community Health Centers based in Seattle. His current projects involve developing specialty care services and a care management system for Sea Mar.
Sam Byrd
Sam Byrd currently serves as the director of the Centro de Comunidad y Justicia, a nonprofit community-based organization. Since 1996, Centro has worked to achieve social, educational, and economic justice for Latinos in Idaho. Mr. Byrd has more than 30 years of experience in working with a variety of public and private sector organizations. He speaks English and Spanish fluently, is a dynamic public speaker, adept at strategic planning and an expert in diversity issues. Mr. Byrd has been the recipient of a number of awards including the Larry G. Selland Humanitarian Award by the Boise State University Women’s Center, the national Howard Swearer Humanitarian Award by the Campus Compact, the University of Idaho President’s Medallion and the Distinguished Leadership in Human Rights award by Hewlett-Packard.
Maria Benavides, MEd
Maria Benavides, MEd, is the Director of Outreach for the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. She is bilingual, bicultural, and has over 20 years of experience working in healthcare in the Yakima Valley. She has experience in program implementation, working with federal, state, and private grants, and has vast knowledge in collaborating with social service agencies, school districts, and institutions of higher education. Ms. Benavides received her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Master of Education in Program Administration degrees from Heritage University in Toppenish, WA.
Mayra E. Alvarez, MHA
Mayra E. Alvarez, MHA, is the Associate Director for the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS). As an OMH senior staff member, Ms. Alvarez is leading the coordination of OMH’s work related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), community health workers and promotores de salud, and language access, as well as serving as the Project Director of OMH’s Center for Linguistic and Cultural Competency in Health Care. Previously, Ms. Alvarez served as Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at HHS where she was responsible for coordinated and timely implementation of the public health, prevention, and health care workforce policy provisions in the ACA. Previously, Ms. Alvarez served as a Legislative Assistant for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Majority Whip of the U.S. Senate, where she advised the Senator and helped develop his legislative agenda on health issues. Before that, she served as a Legislative Assistant for then-Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis, the chair of the Health Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Ms. Alvarez began her work in Washington D.C. as a David A. Winston Health Policy Fellow in the office of then-Senator Barack Obama. She completed her graduate education at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley. She is originally from outside San Diego, CA.
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.
Peter Adler
Community Member - at large | Former President, Molina Healthcare
Peter Adler, MS, has served as the president of Molina Healthcare of Washington since 2014. As a managed care organization, Molina is the state’s largest Medicaid plan with over 400,000 members and is ranked the top Medicaid plan in the state by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The healthcare organization serves low-income Medicare recipients and participates in the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which provides healthcare coverage to many of Washington’s Latino communities. Molina operates primary care clinics and arranges services for low-income individuals and families who are eligible for government-sponsored programs in eleven states, including Washington, Molina’s largest health plan. Prior to joining Molina, Mr. Adler served as chief strategy officer at PeaceHealth, where he played an instrumental role in the organization’s growth and affiliation strategy in the Northwest.
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.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola
Director, UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities Professor, Clinical Internal Medicine
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally renowned expert on mental health in diverse populations. As on-site principal investigator of the Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey, the largest mental health study conducted in the United States on Mexican Americans, he identified the most prevalent mental health disorders in communities with Mexican-origin in California’s Central Valley; showed that the rate of disorders increases the longer the individual resides in the United States; and demonstrated that children of immigrants have even greater rates of mental disorders. From this study, he developed a model of service delivery that increased access to mental health services among the Central Valley’s low-income, underserved, rural populations.
Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola conducts cross-national epidemiologic studies on the patterns and correlates of psychiatric disorders in general population samples. He is the coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Survey and coordinates the work of the National Mental Health Institute surveys in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica and Portugal. He also develops culturally and linguistically appropriate diagnostic mental health measures and translates mental health research into practical information for consumers and their families, health professionals, service administrators and policy makers.
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.