Ana Rebecca Valencia-Verdin(a.k.a. "Becky" Valencia) born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, has been an influential leader, motivational public speaker and professional business development consultant to both the public and private sector. With an interest in global social justice, national healthcare, increased awareness in issues of public health affecting women, children, and the elderly, Ana has been a key decision-maker and influential latina-woman business leader within numerous wellness organizations and government funded initiatives. Among the named organizations working diligently to reduce barriers to healthcare for women and the elderly are The County of Los Angeles Office of Women's Health (DHS/DPH), and the County of Orange Health Care Agency's Cancer Detection Partnership where Ana served as Chief Consultant and Program Director, respectively. In directing the Cancer Detection Partnership for the County of Orange, Ana represented women of all socio-economic backgrounds in Sacramento through the California Department of Health Services, Cancer Detection Section, Every Woman Counts Program and received state recognition for Orange County and its proactive partnership of all service line organizations, community based organizations, ethnic specific task forces: Latina, Asian, African American.,cancer survivor support groups, health promoters/educators, along with fellow professional staff, providers, and regional support groups.
Ana continues to initiate, develop, and spearhead committees and open forums in order to influence key decision makers in the political arena regarding pressing factors affecting public health,healthcare access, and education. As a Healthcare and Business Management Consultant, Ana contributes to healthcare organizations more than just solutions and success. Ana and her consulting firm pledge to increase human capital assets, viability, expertise, and roi via thorough training,evaluation, empowerment, and effective Executive Training--the results--an increased level of reliability and accountability in the creation of improved human relations and organizational capacity, thus increasing business at all levels.
Ana Rebecca "Becky" Valencia-Verdin graduated from U.C.S.D with a degree in Public Policy/Political Science/International Relations with a concentration in National Security. She has remained active in politics as an organizer and leader of significant special projects with various-now-highly respected officials. In 1991 she was a Project Manager in raising funds for Ivonne Brathwraite-Burke for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and was able to build coalitions between professional and diverse supporters and business, thus paving the way for cross-cultural/multi-ethnic coalitions. In 1999-2000, Ana worked arduously to elect Antonio Villaraigosa for Mayor of Los Angeles. At this point, Ana ("Becky") was being strongly recruited by both the Becerra and the Villaraigosa Campaigns. Ana wrote letters to the Becerra campaign asking for the immediate support of Antonio Villaraigosa in an effort to reunite the already divided Latino endorsement, while envisioning Villaraigosa's success in the absence of a split Latino Vote. Ana furthermore, coordinated community outreach and education workshops in order to help latinos mainstream their political thoughts, strategies,and critical thinking skills, with the objective of building a stronger support group for Antonio Villaraigosa. Ana emphasized the need of optimizing networking between ethnic groups throughout Los Angeles. Her success rate was high, considering the political climate of that time, which proved to set the foundation for Villaraigosa's improved African American support base in the following election; in which Ana again worked diligently to help elect Antonio Villaraigosa, to what is perhaps the most important mayoral seat in the nation.
Ana is a highly motivated strategist and advocate for women, children, and the elderly and continues to build on her past and present political work via continued service.
During 2000, Ana strongly opposed the Los Angeles Unified School District's (L.A.U.S.D) smooth operating ways of influencing parents of children with special needs to mainstream their children's education (placing them in regular classes) in order to be able to use Special Ed Funds as unrestricted funds. This in turn led Ana to advocate for Mayoral/City control of L.A.U.S.D and every other school board, state-wide, that fails to perform for the benefit of its students. After all, "it has been 23 years since the National Commission on Excellence in Education warned President Reagan and the nation of a "rising tide of mediocrity" in American schools with its report, A Nation at Risk. Since then very little has improved. Meanwhile, as the international economy has evolved in the last two decades into what Thomas Friedman describes as a "flat" world of globally connected entrepeneurs, the nation's stagnant education system, bogged down by those vested in the status quo has left new generations of students even more at risk in an increasingly competitive society...our student's tenuous academic standing in the international community takes on a practical urgency." (The Center for Education Reform, Wash. D.C., The American Education Diet: Can U.S. Students Survive on Junk Food?,Sept. 2006) In order to meet this "urgency", extreme measures are needed.
For almost a decade now, Ana Rebecca "Becky" Valencia-Verdin has been contributing her efforts to improving public health and the delivery of health services through staff training and education. Ana envisions more partnerships between the public and private sectors for more adequate healthcare funding. Ana believes that reform is needed in all areas: provider compensation by insurance groups, high costs in medical treatment,excessive deductibles causing working families financial strain, and the irony of having uninsured children in America, while other less industrialized nations take care of their children and the elderly better than the U.S.
Ana is determined to continue contributing her passion for: helping groups help themselves, building efficient teams of great thinkers and doers in all settings, and increasing our nation's literacy level as a whole- and education in general.
Presently, Ana "Becky" Valencia is seeking support for the Santa Ana City Council/ Ward 3 seat, in which she plans to work to continue to build collaboratives in order to bring business to Santa Ana and create a safer and more involved citizenry that intends to improve Santa Ana's image via improved Public Safety, Education, and public/private partnerships. Ana believes in clean and safe communities, neighborhood integrity that can become contagious in Santa Ana with its unique homes throughout the entire city, and to improve city-pride. Ana can be reached at valencia4citycouncil@ana4santaana.com