Yolanda Vera oversees health care, public health and mental health issues for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

She is the former director of LA Health Action, an organization that seeks to expand access to health coverage and care to all Los Angeles County residents through policy and advocacy, coalition-building, linking of existing resources and grant-making to local, community-based organizations. LA Health Action is funded by The California Endowment and is run out of this grant-making foundation's headquarters in Los Angeles.

Ms. Vera has served as a board member of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California and the Centinela Medical Fund. She is Co-Chair of the Health Committee of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce and was previously appointed by Los Angeles City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Board of Civil Service Commissioners.

Vera also has worked for the Western Center on Law & Poverty, National Immigration Law Center, the National Health Law Program and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. She was recognized by American Lawyer Magazine in 1997 as one of the country's top 45 public sector lawyers under age 45. She is a 1987 graduate of the UCLA School of Law and received her B.A. in English from Loyola Marymount University in 1983.

Updated 9/15/2009