Mayra E. Alvarez
Mayra E. Alvarez is president of The Children's Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to advance child health equity by ensuring all children have the resources and opportunities they need to grow up healthy and thrive. In 2021, she was named by President Biden to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. In 2023, she was nominated by California Governor Gavin Newsom to serve on the Covered California Board of Directors, and in 2019, to serve on the Early Childhood Policy Council. Since 2017, Ms. Alvarez has served on the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC), nominated by Attorney General Rob Bonta in 2021 and previously by then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra in 2017.
Prior to The Children’s Partnership, Ms. Alvarez completed a several-year set of assignments at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the administration of President Barack Obama. She served as the director of the State Exchange Group for the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and led a team responsible for supporting states in the establishment of Health Insurance Marketplaces. Previously, Ms. Alvarez served as the associate director for the HHS Office of Minority Health, where she led the coordination of OMH’s work related to the Affordable Care Act, community health workers, and language access. Prior to this role, Ms. Alvarez served as director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at HHS where she had primary oversight responsibility for coordinated and timely implementation of the public health, prevention, and health care workforce policy provisions in the Affordable Care Act.
Before joining the Obama Administration, Ms. Alvarez served as a legislative assistant for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and for then-Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (D-CA). Ms. Alvarez began her professional career as a David A. Winston Health Policy Fellow in the office of then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).
She completed her graduate education at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley. She is originally from outside San Diego, CA, and is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants.
