Community Engagement Manager and Creative Minds Artistic Director
I am driven to promote equity while focusing on whole-person wellness to support brain health.
Current Work
Gloria works in San Francisco neighborhoods and community-based settings that are underserved and often marginalized to engage community members around brain health and creative aging. She is the Artistic Director of Creative Minds, the San Francisco community arts for brain health initiative, and supports dynamic experiences for Atlantic Fellows participating in the Community Outreach Program.
Personal Hero
Marie Curie
Words of Strength
Overcoming the "impossible!"
Vision
As an artist with an advocate’s heart, Gloria is working towards a future where community members, clinicians, and artists are co-creating stable, non-pharmacological solutions that support healthy cognitive aging and reduce stigma.
Strategy
Gloria seeks to protect brain health and promote healthy aging in diverse and vulnerable populations through a blend of creative engagement opportunities, health support groups, and by supporting community-based brain health education led by clinicians of the Community Outreach Program at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.
Motivation
Gloria is motivated each day by the resilience and wisdom of the community members who participate in our programs, learn and create with us, and embody a wide range of lived experiences.
Gloria completed a bachelor's degree in psychology at Florida International University (FIU) with an interest in Art History and Criminal Justice. She completed additional training in the field of mental health counseling at FIU before pivoting to return to community-based work assessing the long-term care needs of older adults in South Florida, working closely with Cuban exiles in Miami.
She is currently an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity based at The George Washington University and focuses on creative expression and community engagement to support brain health. Gloria joined GBHI in 2019.