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.

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.

Bianka Velez

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Julia Fernandez

Agustin Martinez

Ricardo Romero

Daniel Garcia

Daniel is an environmental sociologist and El Centro native who has worked on or studied environmental justice in the Imperial Valley for the past 10 years. He first became interested in environmental injustices in Imperial Valley as a college student and completed a study of the New River for his master’s thesis titled, “Environmental Knowledge, Perception, and Resistance along a Toxic River: The New River in California.” Daniel came to work at CCV soon thereafter and the rest is history. His areas of expertise are environmental justice, environmental sociology, race, and gender. Daniel earned a bachelor's degree from Boston University, a master’s degree from DePaul University, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Boston College Sociology Department.

Stephanie Figueroa

Yuridiana Zamudio

Esther Guadalupe Vasquez

Fernanda Vega

Melanie Echeverria

Richard Montenegro Brown

Brown comes to Comite Civico del Valle after an extensive career in print and digital journalism spanning nearly 30 years. Brown most recently came from the Calexico Chronicle/Holtville Tribune, where he took over as editor at the start of the pandemic. A print-first weekly, Brown shifted the publication to a digital-first format and led the redesign of the website to become a vital link to COVID-19-related information and breaking news during the darkest days of the pandemic. The publication recently won eight major California Journalism Awards as a result, spanning all coverage areas. Brown also spent time as breaking news editor of the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, one of the three largest metro dailies at the time. He was on the staff in 2015 when the San Bernardino mass shootings occurred and was part of the news team awarded a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. He started his career at the Imperial Valley Press, where spent 23 years.