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About Our Team

CHI Staff

Argelia Diaz is the Program Specialist for the Community Health Initiative (CHI) of Kern County, a Dignity Health program. She provides administrative support and acts as the liaison between CHI, The Department of Special Needs and Community Outreach, funders, and agency partners. She also helps coordinate trainings, meetings, and community events. Her passion for helping others has led her to Dignity Health. For the previous five year, Argelia worked for Community Action Partnership of Kern County as the Program Assistant of the Family Services Department. Argelia enjoys spending time with her friends and family.
Cecilia Flores is a Certified Enrollment Counselor for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health program. Her main role is to assist families with enrollment applications and case management. She decided to work with CHI because it is a well recognize agency who loves working and providing excellent service to the community in many different levels, an excellent program and great team. She worked with Clinica Sierra Vista for 12 years and, as a Service Representative for both Health Net and Kern Health Systems. Cecilia’s passion is to promote high standards of client satisfaction and medical enrollment assistance and knowing that at the end of the day she has done her job by assisting someone and making their day easier. She loves to travel with her family, ride her bike and long walks while listening to music. Cecilia is part of the church choir and also the ministry of hands of praise. Her favorite quote:  Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14
Nancy Gonzalez is the Enrollment Specialist for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health program. She is also a mother of five beautiful children, which are her motivation and reason to provide adequate-respectful help to those in need. Her passion is helping those in need and those that do not understand or do not know the health care system. She likes to help make a difference in this world, making a difference a person at a time. Nancy also likes to dance, travel, write poems, take pictures and spend time with her family, friends and loved ones.
Marisol Guillen is the Program Coordinator for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health program. Her main role is to coordinate outreach and education events, provide support and oversee the work of CHI Promotoras. Marisol manages CHI social media accounts and website content; she is responsible for coordinating media relations activities. Her passion for helping the underserved and low-income communities started in high school and it led her to join the leadership team of a pre-health organization during college, in which Marisol committed to work together to improve healthcare quality, provide health education, deliver health services and reduce health inequities. Now, as part of the CHI team she continues her passion and commitment of helping the underserved community and work towards reducing health inequities in Kern County. Marisol enjoys watching medical shows and loves to travel. One of Marisol’s favorite quotes is from the movie – Mulan “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.”
Rodrigo Vazquez is the Program Analyst for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health program. His unique blend of passion for helping people and his ability to understand data makes him a valued member of the CHI team. Rodrigo has been working in public health programs for 22 years since he began as a program assistant for a tobacco use prevention program in California’s Monterey Bay area where he grew up. Rodrigo has been a part of the CHI since 2004 and in his spare time loves photography and singing karaoke with friends and family.
Beatriz Basulto is a Promotora for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health Program. She was born in Mexico City. She was an agricultural worker for seventeen years until she was introduced into the role of a Promotora.  For the last ten years she has been an active Promotora sharing the knowledge acquired through several trainings she attends to the Spanish-speaking community, as she finds that that is the community who is most vulnerable today. Her active involvement has given her the opportunity to understand the resources and information this particular community needs. It has also led her to advocate for them with the different organizations she keeps in touch with through both her professional and personal work environment.  She finds her work very rewarding and valuable as it has been able to inform and educate the community she serves on how to understand and navigate the health system, how to take advantage of their health benefits, teach them how to identify signs of suicide and in result be able to save lives. She conducts several educational health workshops that show individuals how to take control of their health when already living with major chronic diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic pain, and more. Her experience working with the low-income Spanish-speaking immigrants is rewarding as they are always so grateful in receiving the information that the majority of them do not know it exists.
Maria Bucio is a Promotora for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health Program. She has been a Promotora for the past 15 years. She has been facilitating trainings for the Parent Institute for Quality Education program for more than 7 years. She teaches parents how the school system works in the state of California, what the requirements are to graduate from High School, and go directly to a University.  She also works with various different agencies that help her expand her knowledge in various subjects, which in turn helps her serve the community, especially the low-income Hispanic community.  Through the years in working with this specific community she has found that many people benefit greatly of the information she has been able to provide to them. Her greatest satisfaction is that the information that she gives whether it be on how to manage their health, how to acquire health coverage, understanding their health benefits, learning how the school system works, and how they can advocate for their own community changes their lives for the better. This is one of the main reasons she continues to be active in the community.
Socorro Molina is a Promotora for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health Program. She has been a Promotora for the past 11 years. She has dedicated her life in helping others as she went through a difficult time in her life that made her realize how vulnerable people are when they do not know where to turn for help. Her son was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age. She didn’t have any guidance to resources nor the financial support to help her overcome the circumstance. She started speaking with other parents who were dealing with the same thing, and this is where she got involved with the Spanish-speaking immigrant community. She now volunteers her time attending cancer support groups and churches prayer groups where she in turn shares various community resources. She has establish many community partnership that help her better serve the community such as partnership with the United Farmers Workers Foundation, Dignity Health Hospitals, San Joaquin Cancer Society, and many more. She also attends Promotora trainings, educational workshops, and community forums to further her knowledge and continue being an asset to the community. The heartwarming moments she has experienced with some individuals and the appreciation they show make her continue providing her services to the community.
Maria Robles De Cruz is a Promotora for the Community Health Initiative of Kern County, a Dignity Health Program. She currently works for both the Exceptional Family Center (EFC) and the Community Health Initiative (CHI). The work that she does at both locations has helped her shape into the Promotora she is today.  This has benefited her tremendously as what she learns through workshops, special community projects, and educational events has helped her give back to her community, specifically the Spanish-speaking community. Through the Exceptional Family Center she is able to provide families of children with a developmental disability with the tools and resources that they need to help their children succeeds. She finds that many families do not know where and to who they should reach out to for help due to the language barrier, limited resources, and knowledge around the particular subject. This is why she finds her work as a Promotora so crucial as all the resources and services she gives to the community truly has an impact in their lives.