Pinay chairs one of America's top 100 foundations

A multi-awarded Filipina is making waves as by far the only Filipina chair in America’s top 100 foundations. Tessie Guillermo chairs the California Endowment, which created the California FreshWorks Fund (CAFWF) launched at a healthy food summit last July 20. No less than First Lady Michelle Obama had announced the launch of the CAFWF, a public-private partnership that aims to increase access of healthy food in underserved communities in California. Guillermo is the only Filipino-American who sits as chairman of the board of one of the top 100 foundations in the US today, the Asian Journal reported. Guillermo is married to Filipino Reggie Regino from the banking industry. They have two daughters, Melanie and Veronica, and a son, Rennie. “Although born and raised here, Tessie says she ensures that her children are aware of their culture and takes effort to teach them of their Filipino cultural heritage," the US-based news site said. Guillermo has been a member of the California Endowment’s board of directors since April 2003 and was elected chair on April 2010. The CAFWF was created by the California Endowment and a team of partners including grocers, major banks, healthcare organizations, and community groups to develop new and improved places to buy nutritious food. Health and welfare Guillermo’s expertise in the health and welfare concerns of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has been recognized in California and throughout the United States through numerous appointments. She was appointed to the California Department of Health Services Task Force on Multicultural Health in 1993, and served on the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Blue Ribbon Committee on Violence Prevention in 1992. In 1997, she was appointed to the federal office of Women’s Health Minority Women’s Panel of Experts. Guillermo is no stranger to the White House, being appointed commissioner to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders along with 14 others. Her appointment was due to her involvement in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in human services, health, economic, and community development. Guillermo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the California State University Hayward and is an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a graduate of the Gallup Leadership Institute and was a 1997 Fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute. From college, her advocacy led her to work at the Asian Health Services (AHS) in Oakland, a community health center serving indigent monolingual Asian Americans, where she was involved for eight years. After AHS, she co-founded and was the longtime president of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum from 1986 to 2002. Under her watch, the health forum established an extraordinary record of legislative and regulatory policy successes that positively impacted Asian and Pacific Islander communities nationwide. The advocacy achievements included the Asian and Pacific Islander Health Improvement Act of 1990, the 1997 US Department of Health and Human Services API Initiative, and Healthy People 2010 Objectives for the Nation. Also, the health forum led in establishing the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders under the Clinton administration. Included in the map Guillermo lamented that for so many years, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders oftentimes do not show up as a constituency. She cited an example where the US Department of Education does not consider Asians a minority and thus does not recruit them for certain federal programs. “For whatever reason, either because we are not on the map or because there is some myth about us not needing to participate in federal government programs, we are not designated as underserved or the minority [along with Hispanics, African Americans, American Indians] that can participate in these programs," she said. She said she is committed to help pave the way to making Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders count in this country. “We have to make people understand that it is to the benefit of the overall US society to do this because we are an integral part of the society. We are here to stay. We have been making contributions for decades and will continue to do that and so it is in the country’s best interest to incorporate us and to make sure that our health is preserved," she said. — JE, GMA News