Tag: Bios

Yessenia Hernandez

Yessenia Hernandez, MPH

 Intervention Methods Group Coordinator

 
 Yessenia Hernandez is the Project Manager for Research Project: Goal Oriented Activities for Latinos with Chronic Spine Pain (GOALS/Metas), one of the research projects funded through the first fund cycle of SDSU HealthLINK Center. She also currently serves as the Intervention Methods Core Coordinator, assisting projects with intervention development and adaptation, and utilizing mixed methods approaches such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. She completed the dual Master of Public Health and Master of Social Work program at SDSU. She has extensive experience working with Latino communities in both research and clinical settings. Yessenia has also provided project management to other research projects in the areas of chronic pain and youth mental health. 
 

Doug Neary

Doug Neary

Health Sensors Methods Group Coordinator

Doug Neary is the Wireless Sensor Technology Coordinator for the SDSU HealthLINK Center’s Research Infrastructure Core.  Doug has 30+ years of engineering and management experience.  Doug has worked in the process and chemical fields, as well as the architecture, design, implementation, and management of complex software systems.
 

Rodrigo Valdez

Rodrigo Valdez

Web Platform Administrator

Rodrigo Valdez  is the Web Platform Administrator at the SDSU HealthLINK Center and Institute for Behavioral and Community Health. He  build, manage, review and maintain Digital Platforms in the Center.

Shayna Davenport, MPH

Shayna Davenport, MPH

Project Specialist, Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation, San Diego County Office of Education

County: San Diego

Shayna Davenport is a Project Specialist for the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) Teacher Effectiveness and Preparation (TEP) team. SDCOE provides programs that address pre-service preparation, advanced teacher credentials and authorizations, and professional learning for educators. Shayna’s goals as an experienced educator of 17 years, are to continue to provide a safe space for all students and upcoming educators to learn, to ensure that there is equitable access to earn a degree that matters, and to continue her work within the community to better understand the diverse backgrounds and demographics that encompass our surrounding areas. Shayna holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and continuously advocates to create equitable opportunities for learning that foster growth and promise for the next generation.

Rosa Diaz, BA

Rosa Diaz, BA

CEO/Founder, Donnelly Community Services Center

County: Imperial

Rosa Diaz was raised in Brawley, California. After graduating from high school, Rosa moved to Los Angeles County and received a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college. Rosa worked as a California Youth Correctional Counselor in both Whittier and El Centro and retired 13 years later. Rosa worked for 10 years as a caseworker and social worker for the County of Imperial. Rosa is a certified Domestic Violence Facilitator, HIV counselor and tester, and has been working with the HIV population for 25+ years. Rosa Diaz founded the Imperial Valley LGBT Resource Center in 2015. The mission of the Center is “to create a safe place and empower the LGBT community by connecting them to essential resources.” Its motto is “here to help the community.”

Richard Montenegro Brown

Richard Montenegro Brown

Editor, Calexico Chronicle/Imperial Valley Weekly and Holtville Tribune

County: Imperial

Richard Montenegro Brown is the editor of the Calexico Chronicle/Imperial Valley Weekly and Holtville Tribune, a pair of 110-plus-year-old weekly print publications that were often viewed as being on the periphery of local journalism. Not so today. Brown was hired before the pandemic broke out, and when he took over the papers, they were operating on an antiquated model of print first, which is death for a weekly. In the darkest days of the pandemic, when the public wanted local statistics and news from its authorities and others, Brown overhauled the websites, went digital-first and began to operate like a daily newspaper with a weekly print product. In many people’s estimation, the Chronicle and Tribune ARE the local news sources in the Valley. The ability to do that came from a solid foundation practically growing up in the newsroom of the Imperial Valley Press, where Brown started as a news clerk at age 19 and worked for 24 years before leaving for a short stint at the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, where he quickly ascended to Breaking News Editor. In that role, he was part of the team that responded to the San Bernardino mass shootings/terror attacks, coverage that won the paper a national Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award, one of the highest honors for excellence in the field. At the Chronicle/Tribune, the publications won 12 California Journalism Awards in 2021. On a personal level, Brown is married to Priscilla, who is an ad sales rep and digital web uploader at the papers. Together they have two children: Tyler, 12, and Riley, 18, a freshman at SDSU.

Herminia Ramirez, MPH

Herminia Ramirez, MPH

Chief Regional Community Coordinator, County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency

County: San Diego

Herminia Ramirez is a Chief Regional Community Coordinator supporting the North Coastal Region in the Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities (HSEC) within the County of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA). Ms. Ramirez joined HHSA in 2022, bringing over a decade of experience working with Federally Qualified Health Centers and on advancing community-based efforts. She has proudly served the North San Diego County community her entire career and holds a Master’s in Public Health. In her work, Ms. Ramirez has successfully led community engagement efforts, which land on the continuum of direct service delivery, research, health promotion, advocacy, and policy programs. During the height of the pandemic, she led COVID-19 response efforts that included organizing outreach, education, and vaccination efforts for our most vulnerable communities in the North Coastal region of San Diego.

Over the years, Ms. Ramirez developed a career focus to work to serve migrant, farmworker and underserved communities as well as to l lead efforts to train and mobilize Community Health Workers. In her current role as Chief Regional Community Coordinator, she is still supporting these communities and working to support HSEC’s focus to achieve better coordination of existing and new County homeless and equitable community efforts, serving as a central point of collaboration for outside partners to ensure equity among all San Diegans and reduce homelessness in the region.

Ms. Ramirez has served in the following leadership positions: Community Advisory Board Member for Communities Fighting COVID!, Board Member for Community Health Improvement Partners, Co-Chair of the San Diego County Promotores Coalition, and Vice-Chair of the Farmworker CARE Coalition, and Stewardship Committee Member of the San Diego Food Vision 2030’s steering committee.

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