Hernandez is assertive but soft-spoken, with a casual but professional personal style. She comes across as both approachable and serious - perhaps a holdover from her career as a doctor. She still sees patients once a week at San Francisco General Hospital. She fell into her careers in medicine and then in nonprofit leadership almost by accident.
Born and raised in Arizona, Hernandez always planned to go to college but had only vague career goals - maybe teaching, maybe physical therapy - until her high school vice principal helped her get a spot at Yale University. She studied psychology at Yale, and halfway through her years there a mentor encouraged her to go to medical school.
Hernandez had never considered it, but she trusted her mentor enough to give it a shot. She got her medical degree from Tufts University in Boston in and moved to San Francisco for her residency.
By the time she joined the San Francisco Foundation, Hernandez had developed a breadth of public service experience - and some valuable political chops. She'd also earned what seems to be an unshakeable reputation as a straight shooter with a rare talent for building consensus. But Sandra brings you into her thinking. And in the process, she makes you buy into it, too. It's not just Bay Area leaders who look to Hernandez. I was appointed by Governor Newsom to this commission that has appointees from different organizations, and it is still meeting and developing a roadmap to make sure everybody has health care, and that we simplify and integrate care because our system is incredibly fragmented.
The goal is to create simplification and administrative ease and to make sure that at no point is health care unaffordable, especially for low-income Californians. How have women supported your career either as mentors or role models? A lot of women in public health today inspire me — especially women health directors who find themselves in front of the media, making sense out of health care data and trying to do right by the public.
We have a lot of women in those roles, and they inspire me. A lot of the women caregivers during the early days of the HIV epidemic before we knew how the virus was transmitted were caring for gay men who were dying. The courage of people to everyday step forward to do the right thing inspired me.
Have you seen significant change in how diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and accessibility is addressed in health care? Regardless of sector, we have a lot of work to do. I think that the most compelling reason for being deliberate around inclusiveness is in decision making, policymaking and resource allocation. Decisions made in boardrooms are better the more diverse the room. Do you see it more as a pipeline issue or in hiring practices, or a combination of both?
What we have is the lack of opportunity, and lack of enough reach and placement for those folks to step into leadership roles. There are bottlenecks all through the system, but we have a lot of talent in this state. And we leave it by the wayside at our own peril. Resides in Antioch, CA. Related To Maria Siliezar. Includes Address 6 Phone 4 Email 4. Resides in Oakland, CA. Resides in Simi Valley, CA. Includes Address 6 Phone 3 Email 1.
Resides in Orosi, CA. Includes Address 3. Sandra Garcia Hernandez, Includes Address 3 Phone 3 Email 3. Lived In Tucson AZ. Also known as S R Hernandez. Includes Address 5 Phone 2 Email 1.
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