I am a Licensed Master Social Worker specializing in administration and policy practice, and I bring over ten years of both boots-on-the-ground program coordination and public health infrastructure experience right here within Austin and Travis County. For me, public service is about balancing two equally important sides of health equity: understanding frontline clinical execution while designing the high-level administrative tracking systems that protect state-funded programs. As an openly public person living with HIV since February 2015, I intentionally leverage both my professional background and my lived experience to drive meaningful public policy changes.

Outside of my employment history, I have maintained a highly visible profile in public health advocacy. I was featured prominently as the anchor narrative in The Austin Chronicle's cover story, 'Season of Risk,' which focused on the realities of navigating systemic care barriers and public safety nets. Following that, I was selected as the public face of Austin Public Health’s citywide 'HIV Ends with U' campaign. I shared my personal story through on-camera video testimony, print posters, and regional municipal transit bus wraps to drive community engagement, challenge public medical stigma, and promote treatment accessibility and U=U literacy as far as the campaign can reach. My professional employment track record is built on program coordination and data system management. I served as an Outreach Coordinator for Austin Travis County Integral Care, where I did community outreach, HIV testing, sexual health education, harm reduction, and developed and coordinated healthy eating workshops.

Following that, I spent five years as the HIV Prevention Navigator at Lone Star Circle of Care, where I built our agency's HIV Prevention PrEP program completely from the ground up. In that role, I helped manage our contract lifecycles, vendor agreements, and data entry across multiple internal program requirements. I also helped guide our clinical teams through the complex data systems transition from NextGen over to Athena EHR while separately learning how to perform data entry and navigate platforms like Take Charge Texas and PROVIDE. To ground my administrative work, I bring a solid clinical care panel baseline from my early Planned Parenthood background. My academic training is backed by my certified DVPHA AmeriCorps project coordination tenure within the Travis County District Attorney’s Office Victim Services division. Furthermore, my administrative oversight is grounded by my formerly active (still working on recertification) credentials as a Community Health Worker and a certification in Mental Health First Aid.

In addition to my daily employment, I have heavily invested myself in macro-level board governance and national policy engagement. I completed a two-year tenure as an appointed board member and Head of the Governance and Membership Committee for the Austin Area Comprehensive HIV Planning Council. In that role, I analyzed localized epidemiological trends to allocate resources, updated committee bylaws, and officially represented the Planning Council from the podium before the Austin City Council and our former Mayor Steve Adler, accepting the city's 2022 World AIDS Day Proclamation. Nationally, I’m always trying to keep my policy practice sharp through continuous engagement at major summits, including the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the National Ryan White Conference, and the National Latinx Conference on HIV, HCV, and Substance Use Disorder. In fact, to continue my lifelong pursuit of high-level system transformations, I have currently applied to sit as a council board member on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, or PACHA. Locally, my system-level policy execution is further backed by my work as a Central Health Community Health Champion.