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.

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.

Dr. Leo Morales

Co-Director

Faculty Bio

Dr. Leo Sergio Morales is a professor and assistant dean for healthcare equity and quality in the UW School of Medicine and founding co-director of the Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington. He received his M.D. and MPH degrees from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. from the RAND Graduate School in Policy Analysis. After completing a residency in primary care internal medicine at the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital, he was recruited to the UCLA School of Medicine where he held faculty positions as assistant and associate professor, and co-directed the UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research.

He is a past recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Minority Foundation Medical Faculty Development Award and a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award. His research focuses on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health and the measurement of patient resorted outcomes in diverse population settings. In recognition of his research contributions, he was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2007.

In recognition of his efforts to improve the health of Washingtonians, he was 2023 the recipient of Washington State Public Health Association (WSPHA) Annual Secretary’s Award and a recipient of a 2021 Washington State Medical Association Grassroots Advocate Award.

Dr. Gino Aisenberg

Co-Director

Faculty Bio

Dr. Gino Aisenberg, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, is a bilingual/bicultural Latino mental health researcher. He is the founding co-director of the Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington. Previously, he served as associate dean for diversity and student affairs of the Graduate School from 2013-2019.

Dr. Aisenberg is staunchly committed to addressing inequities in the access and utilization of health and behavioral health services by diverse populations. His research interests focus on three interrelated areas impacting underserved ethnic minority populations:

1. traumatic exposure of children and families to community violence and associated post-traumatic stress disorder,

2. depression care for adults, and

3. evidence-based practice.

Dr. Aisenberg obtained his MSW and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California. Since coming to the University of Washington in 2002, Dr. Aisenberg’s research and teaching have been deeply informed by culture and authentic partnerships with community-based agencies serving marginalized and rural communities.