Healthcare Happens Together | El Cuidado de la Salud Comunitaria se Realiza Conjunto

Dear Friends,

The first few weeks of 2025 have brought widespread devastation to residents of LA County. Watching the news and viewing the alarming images of dramatic winds driving tenacious firestorms inspires our compassion and concern even as it hits close to home, triggering a sea of emotions for those of us who experienced the disastrous Tubbs Fire in 2017.

In 2017, I was working as a hospital social worker at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. I remember arriving at the hospital around 5:00 am the morning of the fire, still in my pajamas, and walking into the cafeteria. It felt unreal as I approached the room, which was filled wall-to-wall with individuals, mostly elderly, who had been dropped off or walked into the hospital not knowing where else to turn.

The following hours blurred into days as my fellow medical teammates and I worked around the clock to triage individuals into medical beds, transfer them to appropriate levels of medical care, find emergency lodging, and locate and notify their loved ones.

What I remember most about this time was the incredible community coordination. Hospitals, shelters, local organizations and businesses, and concerned citizens all came together to function as one united body. One of the first things I did was call my good friend and former coworker, Jennielynn Holmes, now the CEO of Catholic Charities Santa Rosa. I told her that we needed vans to transport individuals and she immediately said, “We will be there within the hour.” I have no doubt a similar dynamic is alive right now across Los Angeles.

The memory of those days has become a North Star in my personal and professional life, guiding me to what is truly possible when done in community.

While 2025 brings uncertainty and fear for many in our community, we at the Healthcare Foundation are committed more than ever to our goals for health equity and access, and the wellbeing of every member of our community, in this same fervent spirit of solidarity that has protected, nurtured and ultimately strengthened our community in the darkest times.

In introducing this month’s newsletter, I want to highlight our ardent collective thank you to outgoing Board Chair, Wanda Tapia-Thomsen, who in that role has ably and wisely steered our organization through many important strategic initiatives. And with personal gratitude I want to also say Wanda has made my transition into the role of executive director a warm and successful experience. Thank you, Wanda, for your passionate and steadfast dedication to the Healthcare Foundation and to this community.

This parting opens the door for our new Board Chair, Mona Hanes, who enthusiastically steps into the role and whose experience and compassion make her guiding hand another incredible asset to the mission of the Healthcare Foundation. Thank you, Mona!

I am also thrilled to announce that Daisy Cardenas will be our new Vice Chair. Daisy started with the Healthcare Foundation as a Mental Health Talent Pipeline scholarship recipient and now is a tenured Counselor with Santa Rosa Junior College. Daisy brings tremendous experience, deft facilitation skills and a generous and resolute personality to the position and we are grateful for her.

I hope you enjoy this month’s edition of our newsletter and we hope to see you at our upcoming “Healthcare Is Love” Drag Brunch Fundraiser at the Flamingo Hotel on February 9th! You won’t want to miss it.

I’m so proud to work in a community with you all.　

As always, please reach out any time.

Sincerely,

Amy Ramirez
Executive Director

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Jennifer Risher on the growing power — and still untapped potential — of Donor Advised Funds

These days there are many ways to give to your favorite causes and organizations. One way that is becoming an increasingly popular option among philanthropic households is the Donor Advised Fund, or DAF. At the same time, many donors are still unsure what a DAF is or why it might be a reasonable option for them. In the interests of informing our community of supporters about philanthropic options available to them, we spoke with Jennifer Risher about the benefits and trending appeal of DAFs.

Jennifer Risher is a public speaker, philanthropist, investor, and author of We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth (2020), which explores the impact of wealth on identity and relationships with the aim of helping those with wealth move out of guilt, shame, or a desire to keep money hidden and into meaning, joy, and purpose. As a beneficiary of the dot-com boom, Jennifer believes abundance can fuel action and drive change — and has been using her voice and resources to create more economic, gender, and racial equity. Jennifer has also been investing with women-of-color fund managers with the goal of achieving financial and social returns. She is on the board of Women Moving Millions and is a member of Women Donors Network and Solidaire.

In 2020, Jennifer and her husband, David, launched #HalfMyDAF to inspire more charitable giving. Indeed, specifically timed to drive charitable giving during the off-season, the #HalfMyDAF match campaign runs from March through September. Over the last five years, the couple has contributed millions in matching funds, rallied donors and nonprofits, and created a community that has moved over $70 million to nonprofits. Beyond direct funding, #HalfMyDAF has created a sense of urgency and excitement around giving and provided a spark of innovation within the philanthropic sector. 

We are grateful for Jennifer’s generosity in sharing her time and her expert’s eye on the subject of DAFs with our community of supporters.

Full Article (5 min read)

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To make a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) gift supporting local community health or to learn more about DAF’s, please click here
or reach out to Mary Ott, Development Director at 707-395-4928 or mott@healthcarefoundation.net

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Board Member Spotlight: Welcoming Pamela Torresdey!

The Healthcare Foundation is extremely pleased and grateful to be welcoming five outstanding individuals to its Board of Directors in 2025. This month we spotlight Pamela Torresdey, who joined Rachel Glitz, Rosa Gonzalez, Zenia Lemos Horning, and Jed Weissberg, M.D., as the Healthcare Foundation’s newest Board members in January. (Stay tuned for conversations with our other new Board members in the weeks ahead.)

Pamela arrived in Sonoma County two years ago and is currently an Operations Supervisor at Providence, where her work has encompassed all three of its hospitals across Sonoma County, in Healdsburg, Petaluma, and Santa Rosa. 

A native of San Diego and the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, Pamela holds a Master in Public Health degree from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science from UCLA. In addition to her day job, she volunteers as a mentor to college students embarking on a career in healthcare and is an active member of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE). 

Pamela comes to the Healthcare Foundation with pertinent lived experience as well as strong expertise in policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and data-driven decision-making. We spoke with her recently about what draws her to the work she does at Providence and, now, as part of the Board of the Healthcare Foundation.

Full Article (3 min read)

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Welcome to our new board members!

Look for their Board member spotlights in upcoming newsletters.

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CELEBRATE | CONNECT | CONTRIBUTE

Individual tickets and private table sponsorships are available HERE. Individual tickets are selling fast, secure your spot today!

Join us for the Healthcare is Love – Drag Brunch, our first community event and fundraiser of the new year, which will take place on February 9th from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM in the Vintage Space of the Flamingo Resort & Spa in Santa Rosa. Taking the unexpected form of a Drag Brunch, funds raised by this lively midday extravaganza, hosted by THTR Productions, will go toward supporting and strengthening local healthcare access for the region’s more vulnerable communities.

Thank you to our sponsors! (Full list here)