

Advocate for Local Leadership | Abogando por el Liderazgo Local
This month, we're proud to introduce this year's Wetzel Community Leadership Award recipient, Alexander Valley Healthcare's CEO Deborah Howell. We'll also give you a closer view on our newest Mental Health Talent Pipeline student, and our reflections on the SCAN Foundation's recent ECO Group summit.

Dear Friends,
The Healthcare Foundation held its annual Board Retreat on October 11. In addition to our Board of Directors and staff, we invited our incoming 2025 Board members as well as several members of our wider community (grantees, donors, and friends) to participate in a lively and vital process that focuses on where we’ve been, what we have accomplished, and what tomorrow’s needs are in the community.
Our next steps will be to analyze the information received and begin our strategic planning, including building our internal capacity to continue our work at the Healthcare Foundation as an organization dedicated to eliminating health inequities and supporting the vibrancy and impact of our region’s system of care.
Among other things, we had the opportunity to take a deep dive into four categories of our work:
- Advocacy & Partnerships
- Healthcare Workforce Pipelines
- Capacity Building Grants, and
- Evidence-based, Community-led Solutions
This concentrated discussion, informed by the perspectives of community partners, results in each Board member building personal strength in communicating our message to the community.
My favorite part of this retreat, however, was imagining where our community will be in 50 years due to the successful advocacy and partnership for healthcare access and equity we’re all embarked on!! I left the retreat feeling confident and inspired as well as armed with the knowledge to lead the way forward in partnership with our Board, Community, Grantees and Donors. Together, we’re tackling the issues of systemic change and healthcare access using our four Categories of Work.
As the year quickly draws to a close, we are also preparing to share our yearly Impact Report, highlighting the results, both quantitative and qualitative, of the partnerships and programs we’ve variously created, administered and continued throughout this year. In the upcoming Report, you can follow our work on Community Wellness Centers, the ECO Group empowering Cloverdale’s elderly residents as partners in health equity, our Mental Health Talent Pipeline scholarship program for local aspiring bilingual and bicultural therapists, and more.
Meanwhile, in this month’s newsletter, you will find a profile of one of our three latest MHTP scholarship awardees, which speaks to the generational investment we are making in community mental health with your support. You’ll also find our executive director’s reflections on The SCAN Foundation’s ECO Group summit, which she recently attended in Los Angeles. And you will learn, too, about Alexander Valley Healthcare’s formidable CEO, Debbie Howell, whose leadership and dedication to our region’s health we are honoring next month with our 2024 Wetzel Award in Community Leadership.
Enjoy!

Wanda Tapia-Thomsen
Board Chair
Mental Health Talent Pipeline Spotlight: Meet Leslie Guerrero Mendoza

Born in Santa Rosa, Leslie Guerrero Mendoza moved with her family to Windsor when she was in second grade and she has lived there ever since. “What I most enjoy about northern Sonoma County is that even as it’s getting bigger it still feels homey and small,” she says. “And I’m so blessed to have most of my family living here. That keeps me here, too.”
The first person in her family to go to college, Leslie graduated this year from UC Davis with a degree in sociology. In August, with support from a Mental Health Talent Pipeline scholarship, Leslie entered USF Santa Rosa’s graduate program in counseling psychology.
Leslie credits her upbringing with her passion for education. She says it also sparked her commitment to social justice.
“Growing up with a single mom who does not speak any English means there are a lot of issues around access and equity you face,” she explains, “in regard to getting Medi-Cal or making appointments, for instance. By the time I was 12 or 13, when my mom needed help, I took on that role—helping her fill out forms, going with her to her appointments. I was her advocate.”
New Friends and Inspiration at The SCAN Foundation’s ECO Group Summit

In late September, Dr. Danny Domínguez (CEO of On the Margins) and I had the opportunity to attend The SCAN Foundation’s “United for Health Equity in Aging” summit in Burbank, California.
This unique event consisted of a half-day conference for members of those organizations, including the Healthcare Foundation, facilitating Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Groups in California; and a full-day conference for statewide providers, policy makers, government officials and advocates working with and for California seniors.
For those unfamiliar with our local ECO Group work, the Healthcare Foundation received funding from The SCAN Foundation in partnership with the California Health Care Foundation to collaborate with other local health nonprofits in organizing and facilitating a group for Latinx seniors in Cloverdale.
The purpose of this group is to learn more about the experience of being a Latinx senior living in Cloverdale and, more pointedly, to support low-income seniors in identifying the challenges to and solutions for greater health equity and wellbeing. The ECO Group allows us the chance to learn more about the elderly populations we serve but also, just as importantly, offers the seniors the opportunity to gain skills in advocacy, learning how to use their voices for social change.
Wetzel Community Leadership Award: Deborah Howell
We’re proud to introduce this year’s Wetzel Community Leadership Award recipient, Deborah Howell, CEO of Alexander Valley Healthcare

Deborah (Debbie) Howell’s family moved to Sonoma County from Dallas, Texas, in 1970. By the 1980s, she and her husband had moved to Cloverdale to start and raise their own family “in a small town environment, similar to our childhood experiences in the rural communities of Windsor and Healdsburg” she says.
Debbie’s professional career started in the for-profit sector in business administration, and even after a significant time away, spent as a stay-at-home mother, she expected to someday resume that course. But a medical emergency in 1995 changed her plans.
“My son had a bicycle accident and needed medical attention immediately,” she recounts. “I went to Coppertower Family Medical Center, a Rural Health Clinic at that time, and received urgent care services for my son.
“I was very impressed,” she remembers, “as the office did not worry about insurance status or being assigned to another primary care physician. They just addressed my child’s urgent medical need and followed up later with financial questions.”
The medical staff having delivered her son’s care successfully and compassionately, Debbie was left with both a strong affection for the organization and an inspiration she would act on a few years later.

SOLD OUT
We are proud to honor this year’s Wetzel Community Leadership Award recipient Deborah Howell, CEO of Alexander Valley Healthcare, and Spirit of Wetzel Award recipient Jade Weymouth, Executive Director of La Familia Sana. Longstanding champions of our region’s health and wellbeing, both Deborah and Jade demonstrate extraordinary community leadership and service in both their professional roles and across years of volunteer service. We couldn’t be more excited to be honoring these two remarkable women! To view prior Wetzel Awards honorees, click here.
Thank you to our sponsors! (Full list here)
Related News + Stories
Invest in Our Community
Your support is vital to our collective vision of eliminating health inequities in northern Sonoma County.
Donate