Brenda Loya

Brenda Loya is the Climate and Health Organizer for the Chesapeake PSR Chapter.  This new position is co-directed by the chapter and the national office of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Most recently, Brenda was a Public Affairs and Media Associate at the AFL-CIO in Washington, DC where she worked to carry the voice of all working families to advance social and economic justice. Brenda is a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Alumni and worked for Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) during the 111th and 112th Congress. Brenda led the Congressman’s substance abuse prevention, public health and education efforts and served as the Congressman’s Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Liaison.

Prior to this experience, Brenda was a community organizer for the Partnership for Community Action in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There, she launched the Juntos Podemos Coalición Comunitaria, a Spanish-speaking immigrant community coalition and first of its kind in New Mexico. The mission of the Coalition is to engage the Spanish-speaking immigrant community in education reform, public health and public policy advocacy initiatives, focusing on decreasing health disparities, understanding social determinants of health, and increasing access to education and civic engagement.

Brenda was born and reared in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is deeply invested in being an agent of social change in public health issues and being a progressive leader for underserved and underrepresented communities. She continuously explores the intersection of poor health outcomes and disparities as a result of multiple socioeconomic, environmental, demographic and other social and cultural factors. She studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Cuernavaca and Veracruz, Mexico, exploring public health, racial and ethnic disparities, barriers to education and lack of healthcare access.

Brenda graduated with honors from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies and a minor in Chemistry. She lives in Washington, DC and loves the outdoors and the art of horsewomanship.