Elena Rivera is a public health advocate working to improve child health and well-being in Oregon. She joined Children’s Institute in 2015 and as the Senior Health Policy and Program Advisor she is responsible for building strong linkages between child health and early learning systems through policy, advocacy, and systems change. Her work focuses on identifying opportunities to leverage Oregon’s health system transformation to improve outcomes for young children. Elena also works to integrate health, family support, and community resiliency services at Children’s Institute’s Early Works demonstration sites. Elena has a
Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina, where she co-chaired the UNC Minority Health Conference and completed research on policy efforts to address social determinants of health and supported monitoring and evaluation for global youth reproductive health programs. Elena completed her undergraduate studies in human biology at Stanford University. She currently serves as an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity and brings a passion for health equity to all of her work, which includes a commitment to centering the voice and lived experience of communities directly impacted by disparities and working collaboratively with them to co-create solutions.