Luis Olmedo

Executive Director of Comite Civico del Valle, Inc., Luis is a community advocate who advises on local, regional, and state environmental health programs and is a member of various state and national networks that focus on environmental policy, civic leadership, and environmental justice. Luis Olmedo has served as Executive Director for nearly two decades where he has led a team of local visionaries in development of evidence-based health interventions, sensor measurement engineering, programming, and crowdsourcing, designing new government frameworks and service programs, and crafting new multi-media collaborative models all with a goal of leveling the playing field for disadvantaged communities. Luis Olmedo values the power that comes from collaboration and is evident in his partnership with diverse expertise including academia, government, community-based organizations, business, youth, healthcare, and community.

Gustavo Morales

Gustavo is Comite Civico’s accountant, maintaining accounting controls by preparing and recommending policies and procedures. He plays a role as part of Human Resources, helping employees to enroll in their offered benefits and facilitate inter-staff communications.

Esther Bejarano

Ms. Bejarano has extensive experience working as a lead promotora in Imperial County. She is bilingual and bicultural and possesses over 15 years of experience working as a promotora on asthma health-related studies. Ms. Bejarano’s current assignments include managing community health workers (CHW’s) Asthma Linkages, Asthma Management Academy, and Calexico Asthma Education Program. Ms. Bejarano has experience working with schools, health care providers, Imperial County Air Quality District and in the area of public health and education.

Martha E. Ponce

My name is Martha Ponce. I have been working in CCV for three years. I am currently involved in different health programs such as asthma academy, home visitation, and providing immigration information. My vision and passion are to help and inform the community so that they are knowledgeable about what is happening in our communities. I have a strong commitment to bringing them the most relevant and legitimate information.

Christian A. Torres

Torres is the Air Monitor Tech for the IVAN Air network operated by Comite Civico del Valle. He works in sustaining the IVAN Air monitoring network in optimal conditions while working towards providing the Imperial Valley community with air quality data so they can make informed decisions. Torres graduated from California State University Northridge with a bachelor’s in Biology. He previously worked for the SDSU Research Foundation before arriving at Comite Civico.

Edgar Ruiz

Edgar Ruiz is the air monitor technician for the IVAN Air program operated by the Comite Civico Del Valle. He works in the maintenance of the monitoring network of IVAN Air in optimal conditions. Edgar Ruiz graduated from the Universidad Politécnica de Baja California with a degree in Energy Engineering.

Victor Beas

Victor joined the team of Comite Civico with a Marketing, Outreach and Engagement role. He has an extensive career in traditional media and multimedia. Graduated from UABC with a Bachelor’s in Communications. As a son of migrant farmworkers, and as a farmworker himself in early years, Victor learned about the workforce needs and disadvantages they face day by day. He enjoys working with and for the community, to make a change for the environment and the society.

Elizabeth Swerdfeger

Michelle Flores

In addition to her academic work at San Francisco State University, Michelle Flores has interned with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, UNI Global Union and played a prominent public role in the enactment of the 2015 San Francisco Retail Workers Bill of Rights (RWBR).

Michelle grew up in Seeley, which has the second highest unemployment rate in California. Her grandparents —undocumented immigrants from Mexico who worked in the fields of Imperial Valley—raised Michelle. She is the first member of her family to attend college. Throughout her studies, Michelle has worked at Safeway, which provided her with an insight into the low wages, poor benefits, lack of full-time work and erratic schedules that affect many retail workers. This experience motivated Michelle to campaign for the RWBR, pioneering legislation that provides more full-time work and predictable schedules for 100,000 retail workers. Michelle’s RWBR work has been profiled in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, Mother Jones and other publications. In 2015, Michelle, along with other SF retail workers, was awarded the Jobs with Justice annual Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award.

Michelle also has experience with community research methods that value lived experiences as well as private sector equity research projects.

Ana Luisa Pedrero

Ana Luisa is currently in the Asthma Mitigation Program and is preparing everyday so that she may help teach, motivate, and improve our community’s health and nutritional values in any way possible. She has gained experience working alongside doctors and assisting patients with their nutritional needs. She graduated from Universidad del Valle de México campus in Mexicali, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition with an emphasis on treating patients with chronic disease and implementing professional diets into each individual’s everyday life in order to satisfy their nutritional needs. Her professional goal is to help promote health education. “Instill in people the value of nutrition as the preventive medicine“

Matthew Maldonado

Isamay Pasillas

Jose Flores

Jose grew up in Brawley as a migrant student working with siblings and parents in the fields since the 1970’s. He taught U.S. History & Government for 27 years. Throughout these decades Comite Civico del Valle was the primary partner that mentored his [state/national award winning] students that excelled in Civic/Environmental Literacy. Jose was also a member of the Ca. K-12 statewide effort producing CDE Blueprints in Civics Education and Environmental Literacy. The last 4 years of his teaching career he was an Instructional Quality Commissioner for the California Department of Education focusing on integrating Civic/Environmental Literacy & Justice in our states’ K-12 blueprints, frameworks and standards. He is also currently part of CAELI which stands for California Environmental Literacy Initiative. Jose’s role at Comite Civico is research and advocacy.

Rosa Adams

My name is Rosa Adams. I am currently working as a Community Health Worker. I possess a Bachelor's degree in Human Services and have over 6 years of experience in case management and counseling. My goal is to serve and educate our community with different programs we offer here at Comite Civico del Valle.

Luis Lopez