Our leadership

Lived experience, public health expertise, and operational discipline.

Community Harvest is guided by leaders who bring Community Health Worker leadership, chronic disease prevention, nonprofit operations, bilingual education, quality improvement, and community engagement.

MB

Founding Board Member / Registered Agent

Maria E. Bustamante

Maria Bustamante works on health initiatives focused on chronic condition prevention, management, and control for agricultural workers and other underserved populations. She is a Certified Community Health Worker Instructor with experience conducting in-person and virtual trainings, developing bilingual and culturally responsive curricula, creating materials and evaluations, and supporting quality assurance.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and has worked with the National Center for Farmworker Health, TMF Health Quality Institute, and the Texas State Office of Rural Health.

BSO

Founding Board Member

Brenda Sanchez Ortiz, MBA, PMP

Brenda Sanchez Ortiz is a seasoned leader with more than 25 years of experience in program operations, project management, nonprofit leadership, partnership development, healthcare quality improvement, and community engagement.

Her leadership experience includes executive and operational roles with the Better Business Bureau, Karisha Public Benefit Corporation, Austin Health Commons, and TMF Health Quality Institute. She brings expertise in strategic and systems thinking, quality improvement, team development, cross-sector partnerships, and program evaluation.

CA

Founding Board Member

Cresencia Alvarado

Cresencia Alvarado has more than 20 years of experience as a Community Health Worker, advocate, educator, and instructor of Community Health Workers. She founded the Promotoras / Community Health Workers Association of Travis County and has served in Austin Public Health’s Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention program.

She has worked locally, statewide, and nationally to advance the CHW profession, taught hundreds of community-based diabetes education classes, mentored CHWs, and helped establish community health ministry efforts in underserved areas.

Board strengths

Community health expertise

CHW leadership, chronic disease prevention, diabetes education, and health promotion.

Program and operating capacity

Curriculum, training, evaluation, project management, quality improvement, and nonprofit leadership.

Community connection

Experience with rural, agricultural, resource-limited, and culturally diverse communities.