Karen Mancera-Cuevas
Karen Mancera-Cuevas is the Senior Director of Health Equity at the National Health Council. She works to help build health equity as a core competency through collaboration with other National Health Council departments. These works include developing programs, improving patient-centered outcomes, and working on current projects related to health equity. She also is the Chair of the APHA PHEHP Section, APHA PHEHP Delegate for CNHEO, Associate Editor for the PCHP Journal, and the NARO Regional Committee representative for IUHPE.
Growing up in Chicago, Mancera-Cuevas found her passion for health education at a young age. Encouraged her mentor – a health educator – she has done health education since 18 years old.
She received her undergraduate degree in community health education from the University of Maryland, and has degrees in public administration from DePaul University and in health policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She earned her DrPH from Walden University.
The majority of Mancera-Cuevas’ professional career involved health education intersecting health policy and clinical research. She has worked in a variety of settings – community nonprofit, health policy, academic and government sectors.
If she was not a health education specialist, she would like to work abroad, engaging communities through health education practice with a global health organization.