Staff

Sandi Galvez, MSW, is the Executive Director of BARHII. She has worked in a variety of roles in public health and on the social determinants of health over the past 20 years, including HIV/AIDS prevention, community and labor organizing, and immigrant rights. Sandi most recently served as a Senior Associate with BARHII, having lead responsibility for the organization's health department organizational development, built environment, and climate change work. Prior to that, she spent eight years at the Alameda County Public Health Department, where she developed initiatives to build capacity both within the health department and in the community to engage in public health practice focused on social determinants of health and health equity and also served as a Planning Commissioner in the City of Oakland. She has a Master's degree in Social Welfare with an emphasis in Management & Planning and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

Amy Smith, MPH, is the Program Manager of BARHII. She has developed and directed numerous culturally appropriate health education and professional capacity-building programs in STD/HIV prevention, health promotion, social determinants of health and addressing health inequities. For 9 years at the California Department of Public Health's STD Control Branch, Amy directed an STD/HIV primary prevention program which provided training and technical assistance to local health departments throughout the state and her most recent position was as the Director of the Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion at ETR Associates, a national leader in the dissemination of evidence-based programs and professional capacity building in "best practices." She earned an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a BA in American Studies and Biology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

 

 

Amber Benson is the Administrative Assistant for BARHII. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Health Education from San Francisco State University.