India Ornelas, Associate Professor
UW Health Services
Engaging Communities to Address Latino Health Disparities
Dr. Ornelas will describe some of the major health disparities experienced by Latinos in Washington state and discuss strategies for working with communities to address these disparities.
Bio
Dr. Ornelas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She is also the Research Director for the Latino Center for Health at UW. She received her bachelors in Health and Society from Brown University, her MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences is from the University of Washington, and her Ph.D. in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently teaches and mentors undergraduate and graduate students in public health, on social determinants of health, health disparities and community engagement. Her research focuses on understanding how social and cultural factors influence the health of vulnerable populations, especially Latino immigrants. She also collaborates with communities to develop and test culturally relevant interventions in the areas of mental health, substance use and cancer prevention.
Steffani Powell, Immigration Attorney
Steffani Powell graduated from University of Louisville, School of Law, in Louisville, Kentucky in 1992. Prior to moving to Washington State, she worked with the Russell Immigration Law Firm in Louisville following her departure from Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services where she was Director of the Office of Immigration Services for over 12 years.
In 2000 and 2001 she worked in London, England as an immigration attorney securing visas for entertainers entering the UK to perform in the theater. Steffani has focused her legal career on Asylum, Consular Processing, Deportation Defense, Family Immigration, General Immigration, Business Immigration and Naturalization cases. She has represented clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), Department of Labor, Executive Offices of the Immigration Courts throughout the U.S., and before U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide. She is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.