Lessons from AltaMed on Advocacy and Systems Changes
On May 1, LPPI policy fellows visited AltaMed Corporate Headquarters in Commerce, CA, for the leadership programming on advocacy and systems changes. The visit offered a close look at how one of the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center networks is redefining the role of a healthcare provider, from patient care to civic power.
The fellows’ program began with welcome remarks by Alberto Vargas, senior policy analyst at AltaMed and LPPI policy fellow alumnus. The panel that followed featured AltaMed executives Lizette Escobedo, Bertha Alisia Guerrero, Rolando Chávez Carranza, and Talar Alexanian. The fellows also had the opportunity to have lunch with Berenice Núñez Constant, senior vice president of government affairs and external affairs, whose career spans Molina Healthcare and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute fellowship. She is now leading AltaMed’s full policy and civic engagement agenda.
Panelists brought perspectives from across the government-to-provider pipeline, from congressional chief of staff offices to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the U.S. House of Representatives. The message was consistent: understanding how power works is not optional, it is the job.
Through its policy and advocacy work and its flagship civic engagement initiative, My Health, My Vote, Núñez Constant shared how AltaMed has built infrastructure that connects patient wellbeing to political participation, recognizing that for Latino communities, health and civic power are inseparable.
The discussion provided a perspective that challenged fellows to think critically about systems design. Programs like Medi-Cal were built to be complex, Núñez Constant observed, and that complexity is rarely accidental. As federal cuts reshape the landscape, she shared a different perspective, “use this moment not just to defend what exists, but to rebuild with equity by design.”
As LPPI fellows grow into the next generation of Latino policy leaders, site visits like this are a reminder that systems change requires people willing to be in uncomfortable rooms and who come prepared to stay.
