Carmen Rita Nevarez, MD, MPH

Carmen Nevarez is a public health practice thought leader with over 40 years of experience working on collaborative leadership development for solving complex problems. She is senior vice president emeritus, external relations and preventive medicine, at the Public Health Institute (PHI), a senior executive position she held from 1998-2021 and since 2011, is co-director of PHI Center for Health Leadership & Impact (CHLI). She is also the creator and director of D4H (Dialogue4Health.org), since 2008.

As the CHLI’s co-director, she oversees programs including the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health, advancing health by increasing the capacity of leaders (1627 globally to date) to transcend boundaries, work collaboratively, and transform their communities. The California and National Overdose Prevention Networks (COPN and NOPN) promote best practices in overdose prevention and response among local coalitions, statewide and national, and Pathways, dedicated to public health workforce development.  

Nevarez has experience across a broad variety of positions including public health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers, community health, clinical services, advocacy, and national organizations, serving as clinician administrator, director, board member, consultant, and practitioner. Her content expertise ranges from Latinx and women’s health issues, prevention of chronic disease, and advocacy strategies. 

Nevarez has worked in both non-profit and government sectors. She is an innovator in web-based communications space, and is the creator and director of Dialogue4Health.org, an internet-based broadcasting platform for conversations and skills building on a broad range of health topics, considered from multiple perspectives, with a national subscriber base over 26,000. As past president of the American Public Health Association, current board chair of the Langeloth Foundation, and director of the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health, she contributes broadly to the national conversation about health. For 40 years, she practiced medicine part‑time, providing services in low-income diverse settings.