María G. Hernández, PhD
Executive. Health Equity Strategist. Writer.
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My Story
I am a first generation Latina born and raised in California. My early life was based in Southern California where my immigrant parents raised me and my two older brothers. During the first six years of my life, my family lived in East Los Angeles, Watts, Pasadena and Temple City where our family lived for over 50 years. We were one of a handful of Latino families in the 1960s that went outside the inner city to live in a fairly middle class, white suburban neighborhood.
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These experiences no doubt created an early awareness of being different and that social class, culture, race and place matters. My family could afford to live in the suburbs of Los Angeles because my father came to the U.S. as a skilled machinist and the 1960’s and 1970’s still enjoyed a robust manufacturing economy based inside the US. Unlike the inner city neighborhoods just 15 miles away from our home, Temple City had safe streets, strong schools, and access to good jobs. The opportunity to see other parts of Los Angeles where my extended family lived and the ability to travel to Mexico as a young girl helped me appreciate the wealth of my heritage and identity. I have no doubt it is the reason I pursued my studies in the social sciences. After attending Pasadena Community College, I received my bachelors degree in psychology from California State University Long Beach in 1980. I have the privilege of being both a Danforth Fellow and an American Psychological Association Fellow which allowed me to pursue my doctorate in community psychology and graduate from University of Texas in 1985. I graduated at age 26 with a foundation to embrace a life of continuous learning.
Work Experience
My first job was to serve as the Assistant Dean for Special Programs at Saint Mary’s College, a small liberal arts college in Northern California in 1986. While I loved my role in supporting the campus community of diverse students and faculty, I became familiar with the painful experience of “hitting the glass ceiling” that was all to common in academia in the 1980s. It is one of the loudest thuds a woman might never hear or never address.
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In 1994, I began my full time work as a consultant and entrepreneur. I found enormous freedom to build on my knowledge, leverage it to empower others and engage in the hard work of advancing more inclusive workplace environments.
As a consultant, I have worked with hundreds of executives in the public, private and nonprofit sectors providing customized training, change management, executive development and strategic planning focused on diversity, inclusion and equity. It has been exceptionally rewarding to support executive teams as they launch and manage large scale change initiatives in an ever demanding global marketplace. In addition to my consulting, I’ve also had the good fortune to be a commentator for KQED FM Perspective Series and Latino USA and to write for Latina Style Magazine. I also cofounded the nonprofit LatinaVIDA to support first generation professionals with their career advancement. My blog, Latina Cubicle Confidential™ appeared as a syndicated column in several websites before it became part of LatinaVIDA’s official blog. All of these activities have been wonderful outlets to reach a broader audience about workforce issues, immigration, women entrepreneurs, and the increasing role that Latinos are playing in the economic vitality of the United States. I’m often told that my story is testimony of the American Dream. Indeed, my immigrant family enjoyed enormous success and there are countless others with similar stories to be told. Now more than ever, I feel an obligation to advocate that the strength of this nation rests in its diversity and that the ideal of a pluralistic society cannot succumb to the fears of those who lack vision.
My Work Life Today
I am President and Chief Operating Officer of Impact4Health, LLC a consulting firm which promotes innovations to advance health equity through strategy, training and executive education. Impact4Health is one of a few firms designated by the American Hospital Association as an Equity Transformation Partner. Between 2015 and 2021, I served as a Board of Trustee for Alameda Health System in Northern California which gave me a deep appreciation for the importance of providing quality of care to all patients regardless of their circumstance. As one of the co-hosts of the Centering Health Equity podcast, I have the pleasure of featuring healthcare leaders at the forefront of advancing health equity.
I serve as Board Chair for LatinaVIDA.org to continue inspiring the next generation of Latina executives. This is a 501C3 public benefit corporation offering workshops, coaching, webinars and a private online community called the LatinaVIDA Leadership Collective where Latinas and their allies can come together to support and mentor one another as they navigate their careers.
One of my proudest achievements is to serve as a Board of Director for the AAA Club serving over 6M members in seven states.
Please get in touch with me if there's a way I can support your journey and your organization's efforts to advance health equity and create a culture of wellbeing! - Maria
“Well-behaved women
seldom make history.”
Reflections
Get in Touch
If you’d like to get in touch, you can contact me at mgh@mariaghernandez.com or call my office 510.550.7182
You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
