Rita Medina is the Deputy Director at Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC)—the State’s leading policy organization advocating for health equity of the Latino community. In this leadership role, she is responsible for guiding day-to-day operations for the organization and working with the Executive Director and staff to move the organization towards its strategic goals of achieving Latino health equity.
For over a decade Rita has worked with Latino communities throughout the country and California, with a sharp focus on immigrant rights. Most recently, she served as the Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), where she led the organization’s state focused work and legislative agenda, including participation in health-related campaigns such as Health4All and Food4All. She also led the launch of CHIRLA’s “Immigrants Aging with Dignity” campaign focused on safety net support for undocumented seniors. Prior to her position at CHIRLA, Rita was a Chief of Staff in the California State Assembly and led policy and advocacy efforts at the national level in Washington, D.C.
Rita is an alumna of the University of California Riverside and a proud product of the Inland Empire. Growing up in the Inland Empire, Rita witnessed the impacts of an underserved Inland California and the impacts of environmental factors, such as poor air quality and extreme heat, on residents of the region. She believes that investing equitably in healthcare resources and workforce across growing inland regions is critical to ensuring a healthier California for all.