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 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.

Carolyn Bain

Executive Director, Guatemala Village Health

Carolyn Bain, MPH, received her MPH from Columbia University, has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic (’91-’93), and trained Peace Corps volunteers in the Child Survival Program. Carolyn worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights program in Santiago Chile 1999-2005. In addition to working at GVH, she coordinates an HIV clinical trial for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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.

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.