Southeast Arizona Health Education Center

1171 W Target Range Road • Nogales AZ 85621

Tel: (520) 287-4722

Gail Emrick MPH, Executive Director

An Arizona native, Ms. Emrick has been SEAHEC’s Executive Director since 2008.

She also serves as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Arizona, College of Public Health. Ms. Emrick is an International Health and Development Specialist with a joint Master’s Degree in Public Health and International Affairs from Columbia University, with a concentration in Latin American Economic and Political Development.

Ms. Emrick has dedicated her professional life to promote the well-being of individuals, families, and communities in Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border regions. Under her vision SEAHEC has forged strategic alliances throughout Arizona for improving Arizona’s health care workforce development programming and has become a leader in AHEC program evaluation and quality assurance. When not at SEAHEC Gail can be found playing with her newest family addition – grandbaby Keira, playing tennis or hiking in Arizona’s rugged mountains or desert landscape.

gemrick@seahec.org

Erin Sol, Program Coordinator for Service Learning Opportunities & Community Health Worker

Ms. Sol has worked at SEAHEC since 2008. She plans and coordinates service-learning immersions for a diverse group of health professions students and institutions throughout the year, including with Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and the University of Arizona – FRONTERA, BLAISER programs. Ms. Sol is a dedicated community health worker providing COVID education and outreach in Santa Cruz, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima and Pinal counties.

“For many years I have been connecting health professions students to our underserved and rural communities and now I’m happy that as a CHW I can connect our communities with the resources and services they need.”

esol@seahec.org

Lupita Gonzalez, Office Manager, Program Coordinator & CHW

Lupita Gonzalez was born in Obregon, Sonora and raised in Ambos Nogales. Ms. Gonzalez has been working at SEAHEC since 2017. She started as a program data specialist/program assistant and now is Office Manager and Program Coordinator for SEAHEC’s Youth Health Leader Club where she expands the knowledge of health related careers, financial aid and other resources to high school students. She also serves as a bilingual/bicultural Community Health Worker in Santa Cruz, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima and Pinal counties.

“My work at SEAHEC has inspired me to learn more about migrant health, mental health and health care along the US/Mexico border .”

lupita@seahec.org

Brenda Olivia Sanchez, B.S., Public Health, B.A., Spanish Translation and Interpretation Border/Binational Program Manager

Brenda Sánchez, a Tucson native joined the SEAHEC team in May, 2019 as the Border-Binational Program Manager. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Spanish Translation and Interpretation and her Bachelors of Science in Public Health from the University of Arizona in 2018. In 2018, Ms. Sanchez did a year-long Public Health undergraduate internship with SEAHEC prior to being employed with the organization. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist currently pursuing her Masters in Public Health degree from the University of Arizona. She serves as the Arizona co-chair for the Ambos Nogales Binational Health Council. Brenda oversees SEAHEC programs related to health issues and services along the borderlands and rural/underserved Arizona. Her work is focused around farmworker health, migrant health, rural health, health education and promotion, Community Health Workers and binational collaborations with México. She is passionate about health equity, language justice and providing a space for other first generation students to succeed in higher education. In her free time she enjoys exploring local coffee shops and spending time with her family and friends.

bsanchez@seahec.org

Ycied Talavera, Community Health Worker Site Supervisor

Ycied Talavera is a first generation Mexican American from Tucson, AZ and a recent graduate from the University of Arizona with a Bachelors in Microbiology from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is currently a graduate student working toward her Masters in Public Health with a focus on Maternal and Child Health. Ycied plans to continue her education and attend Medical School, while giving back to her community, and those of rural populations who do not have adequate access to health care. She plans to do so by working toward language justice, and an approach to better health insurance for those of low income communities. Ycied is passionate about caring for others and making a difference in their life along with the life of their families. She aspires to become an Obstetrics and Gynecology or General Medicine Physician. In her current job as SEAHEC Site Supervisor she plans to improve her knowledge in rural Arizona as well as learn the importance of others cultures and experiences and how important it is for community members to work together to provide the most effective resources that can cause a positive impact in their lives.

ytalavera@seahec.org

Paulette Nevarez, Community Health Worker

Paulette is from San Luis, Arizona but is currently in Tucson for school. She is currently a junior at the University of Arizona majoring in Family Studies and Human Development with a minor in Spanish and Pre-Health Thematic. She hopes to one day get into medical school and become an OB-GYN and hopefully go back to her hometown and help there. Something she enjoys the most about her role as a CHW is the interactions that she has with each person she meets. She mentions that everyone has been amazing and just being able to listen to them and make them feel heard is personally one of the best things about being a CHW.

pnevarez@seahec.org

Amy Pacheco-Mata, Community Health Worker

Amy Pacheco was born and raised in Tucson, Az. She a first-generation Mexican American student finishing up her undergraduate degree in May 2022. Amy is receiving her degree in Nutritional Sciences with an Emphasis in Dietetics. Amy enjoys volunteering at the border with the University of Arizona College of Public Health Mobile Health Unit (MHU) that promotes the well-being of Latinos and Immigrants in border towns. She provides health screenings, nutrition education, and scribing services with the MHU. Amy will continue her devotion of helping others at the border as a CHW. Amy is passionate about women’s health, reproductive health and aspires to pursue PA or Medical school to provide her service as a healthcare provider in her underserved community. Amy values her community and works toward being a voice for others in the medical field. She is excited for joining the SEAHEC team in this new chapter as a CHW contributing to make positive impacts across Arizona.

apacheco@seahec.org

Mariana Gonzalez, Program Manager for Health Equity & CHW

Mariana Gonzalez is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona, with a degree in public health. After understanding the inequities people face due to the challenges in the healthcare system, she focused her studies on ‘ Health Systems Theory and Practice.’ She has taken various courses including health economics and policy, public health law and ethics, marketing, and strategic planning.

As a Community Health Worker (CHW) at Southeast Arizona Health Education Center (SEAHEC), she promotes wellness through education to families in vulnerable situations. She promotes vaccination and addresses vaccine hesitancy in rural communities in Southern AZ. She also provides COVID-19 prevention, vaccine and booster information, mental health in relation to COVID-19, and other topics that community members request.

As a Program Manager for Health Equity, she has joined the Salud para Nuestra Gente team, as a leader for the CLAS assessments, training, and capacity building in Southern AZ.

mgonzalez@seahec.org

Elia Medina-Felix, Office Assistant

Elia Medina-Felix, a Southern California native, joined the SEAHEC team in January of 2022 as an office assistant. Elia comes with eighteen years of experience with administrative functions. Prior to joining SEAHEC, Elia worked alongside her father in the trucking industry. She assured the administrating side of the business was in working order. Elia brings to SEAHEC a prosperous experience to navigate the clerical duties around the office. She also received her medical assistant certification from Pima Medical Institute which will accommodate the health care aspect that SEAHEC offers the community. Elia is well organized, and detail oriented. She is always looking for ways to improve herself to better help and support the staff. When Elia is not in the office, she enjoys being in the outdoors, alongside her husband, riding their rzr. As a mom, Elia loves spending time with her 3 kids. The eldest daughter is in cheerleading, the middle daughter keeps her on her toes being her unique self, and her toddler son is always on the move!

efelix@seahec.org

Yolanda Torres, Community Health Worker

Yolanda Torres was born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in both Tucson and Nogales. She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice. Before joining the SEAHEC team Yolanda was a caregiver for 12 years and worked as a home educator for families of young children for 3 years. Yolanda has gained firsthand knowledge of the needs of the community members through her years of work experience. She is eager to learn more ways she can be of service to help keep the families well informed of the resources that are available to them. She loves working with the people and helping spread awareness in the communities as she serves as a CHW in these counties Santa Cruz, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima and Pinal. In her free time, she enjoys spending it with her husband, 4 kids and 2 dogs. She loves to bake, do arts and crafts, and spend time outdoors. She is excited about her new journey at SEAHEC as a Community Health Worker and hopes to learn many new things.

ytorres@seahec.org

Pablo Albelais, Program Manager for Health Equity & CHW

Pablo Albelais was born in Tucson, Arizona, but was raised in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora. Pablo obtained his bachelor’s degree from Universidad de Sonora. He practiced family and civil law in Sonora, for a couple of years. In 2015 he relocated to Tucson and began working for a company that focused in assisting people with disabilities, developing a compassion for those in need for good health care and the needs they face because of their vulnerability. Pablo joined SEAHEC in June of 2022 as a Project Manager for Health Equity and CHW, where he alongside Mariana Gonzalez have developed a training for the National CLAS Standards for Cochise County; this program will advance health equity, improve quality, and eliminate health disparities. He also serves as a community health worker connecting community members to resources with a particular focus on elders, those with disabilities and other underserved populations.

palbelais@seahec.org

Taylor Leigh, Community Health Worker

Taylor Leigh is originally from upstate New York and spent 5 years traveling and working in Latin America in order to learn the Spanish language. In 2020, Taylor moved back to the US, living in Tucson, Arizona so that she could become involved in border issues and attend the University of Arizona. She has since graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies. In her free time, she is an active volunteer on the border, helping those coming to the United States, supplying food and basic necessities in rural desert areas, acting as interpreter and translator in shelters and searching for those who have gone missing. As a Community Health Worker at SEAHEC, Taylor continues working to better the lives of rural and migrant communities in the border region by providing health education and connecting individuals to the resources they need.

Susana Selig, Migrant Healthcare Coordinator

Susana Selig Gastelum comes to SEAHEC with a General Medicine degree, from the Universidad Autonomo de Durango, Mexico. She started her professional career at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue en Rio Negro, Argentina in 2013 and graduated from the Universidad Autonoma in 2019. With her passion for Public Health, Susana moved to Tucson and started volunteering
at Clinica Amistad in 2021, serving the uninsured community in South Tucson. Serving as SEAHEC’s Casa Alitas Migrant Healthcare Program Coordinator, or CHAMPS, she oversees a team of clinical volunteers, assuring that migrant health needs are met and that they are safe to travel to their destination communities. When she is not at work, she enjoys cooking for her family and friends – Susana inherited that talent from her family who owns restaurants in her hometown of Huatabampito, Sonora.