Vickie Ybarra, PhC, MPH, RN

Vickie Ybarra, PhC, MPH, RN, is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Doctoral Fellow and Doctoral Candidate in Political Science at the University of New Mexico. Her research interests include health policy, the social determinants of health, immigration policy, and Latino politics. She holds previous degrees in Nursing and Public Health from the University of Washington.

Prior to returning to school to pursue her doctoral degree, Ms. Ybarra worked for 21 years in healthcare as a public health nurse and administrator at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. In addition, she served as Governor Gregoire’s first Chair of the Governor’s Council on Health Disparities from 2006 to 2010, and in that role oversaw the development of Washington state’s first “State Policy Action Plan to Eliminate Health Disparities” that was delivered to the Governor and Legislature in 2010.

Vickie looks forward to returning home to Washington full time after finishing her studies in 2015.