Carolina Huerta, RN, MPH

Carolina Huerta, RN, MPH, serves as the SDPRC's Research Core Intervention Coordinator and the Communication Coordinator on the Communication and Dissemination Core. As Intervention Coordinator, she supports and oversees Site Coordinators at 3 community partner agencies and works closely with student interns. She is involved in all aspects of intervention development and maintenance, including the creation of a Familias Sanas y Activas promotora training curriculum and a participant workbook. Carolina helped form the Promotora Education Committee, which unites all San Diego and Tijuana area organizations involved in providing training and education to promotores. As Communication Coordinator, Carolina works with students to draft pieces for the SDPRC's obesity prevention advice columns in 2 Spanish-language community papers and oversees the Research Core's communication activities. She also contributes to SDPRC website development.

Carolina has worked in San Diego area communities for over 15 years. She has extensive experience working with promotoras in program development, program implementation, and training and education. She presently heads the Community Health Worker certificate program at San Diego City College, where she is an instructor. As part of her work with the Promotora Education Committee, she created a 2-part "pre-course," which serves as a bridge for promotoras to enter the Community Health Worker program. She has been an RN for almost 20 years, working in a variety of fields including maternal and child health and community nursing. Her communication background includes designing a maternal and infant mortality health education kit and helping create a distance radio training program as an MSI Population Fellows intern with John Hopkins' Zambia Integrated Health Project. Carolina also served as a KPBS Advisory Board Member.

Carolina received her RN degree through East Los Angeles College, as well as a B.S. in Health Science, with an emphasis in Health Education, and an MPH in Health Promotion from San Diego State University. Carolina is originally from Chile and has four children and four grandchildren.