Board of Directors
Chair: Deborah Billings
(2009-2011)
Debbie was elected as Chair of the Coalition and began her work in January 2009. She is a sociologist who has worked in public health issues in Latin America for the past 20 years. She has lived in Guatemala and Mexico, working with Ministries of Health, the United Nations and several non-governmental organizations to improve the health care services provided to women and adolescents, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive justice. She aims to continue the excellent work of the Coalition, bringing together people from organizations throughout South Carolina to address the important needs of Latinas and Latinos in our state. She is also currently an Assistant Professor, with a joint appointment in Health Promotion, Education and Behavior in the Arnold School of Public Health and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. You can reach Debbie at her email address: deborahlbillings@yahoo.com.
Vice-Chair, Board Liaison of the Outreach/ Advocacy Committee :Julie Smithwick-Leone
(2009-2011)
Julie became a board member of the Coalition in 2006. She is a bilingual and bicultural social worker with over a decade of experience working with and advocating for Latino communities in the southeastern United States and in Latin America. Julie is the Program Director of the PASOs (Perinatal Awareness for Successful Outcomes) Program of the South Carolina Public Health Institute, which combines community-based education, outreach, and advocacy to foster and support a culture of perinatal health in Latino communities across South Carolina. Her areas of expertise include perinatal health, immigrant women’s health, issues of health care access, culturally appropriate educational interventions, and community outreach techniques.
Get involved with the Outreach and Advocacy Committee. Email Julie at smithwic@email.sc.edu
Treasurer: Viviann Quintanilla
(2011-2013)
I am currently a junior at the University of South Carolina and will graduate in May of 2011. My major is accounting with a minor in Spanish. I am a member of Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity at USC. I currently have two jobs. I work at the Moore School of Business Daniel Mickel Center for Executive Education as a coordination assistant and I also work at Lexington Medical Center as a Spanish interpreter. I plan to get my Master’s degree in accounting as well and I plan on studying abroad in Costa Rica for this coming maymester.
Secretary: Maria Martin
(2009-2011)
Mrs. Martin is currently the S.C. Migrant Health Program’s Outreach/Administrative Manager and has 5 years of experience in ensuring the effective provision of quality, culturally competent health care and enabling services and the reduction of health disparities for migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families residing and/or working in South Carolina. Mrs. Martin has received specialized and extensive training on management and customer service, as well as medical interpreting skills. Mrs. Martin has the experience of working with the Hispanic/Latino community of South Carolina for ten years. She has had a long standing relationship with community advocates and leaders and has volunteered as well as served on a Board level capacity for organizations such as Hispanic Outreach and the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, North Carolina which serves the Mexican population of South Carolina. She currently serves on the South Carolina Hispanic/ Latino Health Coalition and South Carolina Fair Share Boards. Furthermore, she is currently pursuing a social work degree from Columbia College in South Carolina. Her future plans include the completion of the MSW/MPH program from the University of South Carolina.
Community Representative: Amanda Elias Vargas
(2009 - 2011)
I studied Latin American Studies and Spanish at the undergraduate level and received my MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of South Carolina. Currently I work at Lexington Medical Center over Interpreter Services and am the leader of Damas Guadalupanas, a Catholic women’s group at St. John Neumann Church here in Columbia. This group is in charge of coordinating and executing the Marian festivals and also works to raise funds in order to support women in the community. I have been involved on an informal level with the Mexican migrant community since the mid-1990s trying to help orient incoming migrants to the city and overcome linguistic and cultural barriers.
Immediate Past-Chair and Development Chair: DeAnne Messias
(2009-2011)
DeAnne Messias is a Brazilian American community health nursing researcher. She was a founding member of the South Carolina Hispanic/Latino Health Coalition and has served the organization as Chair of the Executive Committee (2006-2008), Chair of the Outreach and Advocacy Committee (2002 – 2005), and Treasurer (2001-2002). She currently chairs the Grants and Development Committee.
DeAnne has extensive community experience in the area of healthcare access among limited English proficient Spanish speakers in South Carolina. Her community-based research activities include the formation of a community-based partnership to address priority health issues among Latinas, the South Carolina Partnership for Cancer Prevention. Findings from that project indicated the extent to which Latinas face barriers to preventive services and the need for an intervention to help limited English proficient Latinas access healthcare in the US. This led to the development and testing of the Language for Healthcare Access (LHA) curriculum, an educational intervention aimed at improving the ability of LEP Latino immigrants in SC to navigate the U.S. healthcare system in appropriate, cost-effective ways. She led the SCHLHC’s Latina Initiative grant from the American Cancer Society and South Carolina Cancer Alliance. The Latina Initiative is a community-based project that involves promotoras in cancer awareness education and healthcare system navigation to increase participation of Latinas in cancer screening in South Carolina. Her current research projects in clued ENLACE, a community-based intervention to increase the level of moderate physical activity among Mexican-origin women in the South Carolina midlands, and the Hispanic Health Research Network, a partnership between the South Carolina Hispanic/Latino Health Coalition, the University of South Carolina, and three clinical partners, to increase the capacity for Hispanic health research.
Communication Chair: Alexis Koskan
Alexis has been involved with the Coalition since Fall 2007 and has been the Communication Chair since 2008. Currently, she is a Ph.D. student in Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, and she is seeking a graduate certificate in Health Communication. She is the program coordinator for the ENLACE grant, a community health worker-led physical activity research study for Mexican immigrant women.
Get involved with the Communication Committee. Email Alexis at alexis.koskan@gmail.com.
Calendar of Events
Mar
15
Four students, who are on a four month, 1500 mile walk from Miami to Washington DC to protest the lack of legislation granting legal status to illegal immigrants are making a stop here on campus at USC. They will be on campus on Monday, March 15, at the Russell House Theater to answer questions about their journey and about immigrant rights.
Mar
16
Outreach and Advocacy Meeting
The next Outreach and Advocacy Committee meeting will take place on March 16 at 3:00 pm at the 730 Devine Street conference room.
Mar
23
Virtual March
Register to participate for the Virtual March for Correct Health Information for SC schools at noon on March 23 in a virtual march for medically accurate reproductive health education in South Carolina schools. The link for the march is http://tellthemsc.org/virtualmarch/.
Apr
1
Dine and Discuss
This meeting will take place from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the 730 Devine Street conference room. The topic is “Substance Use and Latinos: Prevalence, Programs and Outreach”.