California Primary Care Association

Carmela Castellano-Garcia, Esq., is the president and chief executive officer of the California Primary Care Association (CPCA), overseeing a membership association of over 800 nonprofit, community-based primary health care clinics that serve more than 4.7 million patients a year, over half of them Latino. Ms. Castellano-Garcia has been committed to advancing multicultural health policy issues for over 20 years, focusing on areas such as cultural and linguistic competency in health care delivery, ensuring the viability of safety net providers, health care reform, and access to care for vulnerable populations.

Ms. Castellano-Garcia is also the founder of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC), a health care policy and advocacy organization seeking to improve access to health and human services for California’s Latino population.

Ms. Castellano-Garcia is a Public Advocates Pillar; her legal background includes six years as a managing attorney with the firm. She has litigated in the areas of employment discrimination, insurance redlining, and ensuring access to the information superhighway for California’s minority, low-income populations.

Ms. Castellano-Garcia is a graduate of Yale Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. While a student, she spent a year at La Universidad Central de Venezuela as a Rotary Foundation International Scholar.