Irene Yen is the principal investigator and director of the HOPe Lab. She received her B.A. from Stanford University and her MPH and PhD from UC Berkeley. She is a social epidemiologist, a public health professor at the University of California Merced and a Robert Wood Johnson Interdisciplinary Research Leadership fellow. Irene's current research is centered on the question of how place influences health. That is, how things like transportation, walkability, the food environment, and socioeconomic status influence health.
Rebecca Martinez, MPH
Rebecca Martinez, MPH, was born and raised in California’s Central Valley. She received her BA in Public Health at UC Merced and her MPH at the University of Southern California. She is a full-time staff researcher for UC Merced’s HOPe Lab, working alongside residents in Merced and Fresno counties advocating for equitable housing for all. Rebecca is a member of Power CA Action where she is also a member on their policy committee, advocating for bills that ensure safe and affordable housing for all Californians. She also interns at the Iris Cantor WHERC, training and working alongside promotoras, highlighting the environmental effects on women's reproductive health. Through her experience and upbringing, Rebecca is passionate about working towards a California where everyone is housed, healthy, and thriving. During her free time, she enjoys going to the gym, reading a good book, and cuddling with her pitbull Apollo.
Nylah Hassaan-Warren
Nylah Hassaan-Warren serves as a Volunteer Research Assistant at the HOPe Lab at UC Merced. She was raised in the Central Valley and recently earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health from the University of California, Merced. Nylah brings experience from the non-profit sector, where her current work centers around addressing disparities related to cardiovascular health in underserved communities of the Central Valley. With aspirations of becoming a social epidemiologist, she is deeply committed to promoting health equity and diminishing disparities in vulnerable populations. Nylah will begin her pursuit of a Master of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology in the Fall of 2024. During her free time, she enjoys going to the gym, photography, sewing, and traveling.
Faith in the Valley, Fresno
Dr. Janine Nkosi
Dr. Janine Nkosi is a Professor of Sociology at Fresno State and Merritt College. She is also the Director of Housing Justice Initiatives at Faith in the Valley, where she is responsible for strategic planning and action to advance the Homes Guarantee vision. Faith in the Valley is a multi-faith, multiracial, and multicultural grassroots organization that seeks to catalyze an equitable, inclusive movement to reimagine the Central Valley. A movement that's rooted in dignity, abundance and belonging.
Alexandra Alvarado
Cultiva Central Valley
Claudia Corchado
Claudia G. Corchadois the Deputy Executive Director for Cultiva Central Valley in Merced County. She has served in this role for the last 18 years, prior to this role she served as the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Merced County. Cultiva Central Valley improves the lives of our Latino community residents by increasing health equity, improve policies, change systems, and build healthy environments that support the health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable. To achieve this, we must first empower and mobilize community leaders and help build their capacity through training, leadership development and opportunities for meaningful engagement. Then and only then, can we create sustainable changes in our most vulnerable communities that foster healthy lives, one neighborhood at a time. She has worked with many different communities throughout the Central Valley addressing issues such as health inequities, discrimination, and racism. Under this role, she is responsible for planning, organization, and direction of the organization’s operations, implementations, and programs. She works side by side with the network of 187 local Promotoras that work tirelessly to improve their community and create healthier environments for all. She has the honor to work alongside the network of Mujeres Poderosas who are the heart and soul of the work are and who are the experts in environmental, policy and systemic changes in their communities.
David Frausto
David Frausto is a Program Administrator for Cultiva Central Valley. He has over 10 years’ experience working with underserved immigrant communities throughout California’s Central Valley. David is responsible for managing community communications and for assessing needs, developing, implementing and reviewing service plan. He partners and works with other community resources in meeting/achieving the needs of our community residents. He educations and navigates individuals and families in the community about health education, access to services and interrupts systems that fail to support our community’s most vulnerable residents. David specializes in administrative technology, using progressive systems and applications including accounting software, mass communication procedures and organizational apps. For example, he created a system that communicates and connects with over 5,000 community residents in a single text through the infrastructure he built. David’s passion is helping to increase digital literacy and equity in his community and to empower themselves in today’s digital era.
Juan Marcos Zavala- Sandoval
Juan Marcos Zavala-Sandoval is a Program Coordinator at Cultiva Central Valley. Juan Marcos is responsible for coordinating and assessing resident needs, developing, implementing, reviewing support plans, and working with other community resources in meeting/achieving needs. Instruct individuals and families in the community about health education and prevention. Juan Marcos focuses on coordinating community events, creates and coordinates the social media for Cultiva Central Valley. He works closely with a network of community Promotoras/Community Health Workers to ensure meaningful outreach and community engagement. Juan Marcos has eight years of community outreach & advocacy to encourage others to work hard and always fight for themselves and the rights of others. Juan Marcos is inspired daily by his mother who taught him to always fight for equity and to do for others.
Anabel Serna
Anabel Serna has been a Promotora for Cultiva Central Valley for over ten years, she is now the Promotora Coordinator for the organization. Ms. Anabel coordinates, organizes and engages other residents in our program and has been actively advocating for improvements throughout the community. Ms. Anabel has learned English along the way which empowers her and her community to continue to interrupt systems that do not support our Latino Communities. She was in the front lines of the COVID-19 Pandemic, organizing vaccine clinics to those most vulnerable, our Farmworker communities. Every last Saturday of every month for two years she and the group from Cultiva La Salud would set up vaccine clinics, rapid testing, take home test kits at the Merced and Atwater Flea markets to ensure easy access to service for our Latino Communities. She advocates for additional mental health support services, increased access to clean cold water and healthy meals in schools. She was in the front lines in the community of Planada during the floods of 2023 providing hot meals to residents, collecting donations, and supporting residents navigate through the complicated FEMA process. She has supported 2,250 farmworkers by completing their USDA COVID-19 Relief Fund application and has ensured over $1,350,000.00 to their families. Anabel Serna serves as the connection between Cultiva Central Valley, grassroot community residents and local, state and federal systems.
MIT
Sylvia Jiménez Riofrío
Sylvia holds an architecture diploma from the School of Architecture, Design, and Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador-PUCE, where she has served as associate professor, former Dean of the School, and Coordinator for the Master of Urbanism program. She has postgraduate degrees in Development and Planning from University College London, Bartlett School of the Built Environment through an Inter-American Development Bank fellowship.
Currently, she is a doctoral student at MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning as a Fulbright and Norman B.and Muriel Leventhal Fellow at the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism–LCAU while a principal investigator at the Center for Research in Health for Latin America CISeAL-PUCE at the HealthyHomes for Healthy Living Initiative. Her research interests encompass sustainability indicators of the built environment at the building and urban scale and their repercussions on human health and well-being.
Photo Gallery
Claudia (front center) and Juan (bottom right) pictured with the Cultiva Central Valley team headed to "Equity on the Road" (2024).
Rebecca, Janine, and Alexandra picture in front of the state capitol in Sacramento, uplifting SB567 to elected officials with PICO California (2023).
Rebecca captured in the heart of community engagement channeling the hopes and dreams of our youngest voices onto the canvas of change. (2023)
