Melinda Cordero-Bárzaga has dedicated most of her professional career to working with Promotores in several capacities including, designing and directing programs, developing curricula, training, mentoring, evaluating projects and is approaching 28 years of service. She is one of 5 co-founders of Visión y Compromiso and joined the organization in 2004 as the Director of its California Network of Promotoras and Community Health Workers (CHW’s). Currently she serves as the Associate Director of the organization and in this capacity oversees their statewide programmatic work and operations including its Network statewide annual conference, annual legislative day in Sacramento, CA and the development of the Promotores Institute.
Ms. Cordero-Bárzaga has been recognized for her work with women and girls as well as with Promotores. She is the recipient of the 1999, Los Angeles Women’s Foundation Mentor Award and 2001 received an award from Comision Femenil de Los Angeles for her work with Latinas and health. Ms. Cordero-Bárzaga was also recognized in 2009 by the California Assembly for her work with Promotores in the state and and in 2011, she received the Helen Rodriguez-Trias award from the California Office of Women’s Health for her dedication to the health of women in California. In June 2013, she was awarded the MENDing Poverty Nonprofit Leadership Award which recognized her effective organizational and community leadership in Southern California on behalf of individuals living in poverty.
She has served on many advisory boards and is currently serving as a member of the California State Program Committee for the March of Dimes, the California HPV Vaccination Roundtable, Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) University of Southern California (USC) and is serving on her second term on the Los Angeles County Community Prevention and Population Health Task Force.