Staff

May Lynn Tan, MHS, Executive Director

As Executive Director, May Lynn works with GPA staff, board members, and donors to implement GPA’s long-term strategies for outreach and expansion, while supporting the day-to-day administration of programs in Latin America. May Lynn has over 10 years of professional experience in international public health and community nutrition. Before joining GPA she was a project coordinator for the California Department of Public Health, conducting training, research, and evaluation for an environmental health program. Previously, she managed food assistance programs in San Francisco serving low-income families and seniors. She has also worked as a nutritionist for Second Harvest Food Bank of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties and a nutrition consultant to the City of Daly City. May Lynn has an undergraduate degree in nutrition from Cornell University and a master’s degree in health science from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2007 she served as a volunteer health educator in Huancayo, Perú, providing training to orphanage caregivers on child nutrition and sanitation.

Alejandra Álvarez, Program Director

Alejandra is a Mexican native and has worked in community development in Chiapas for over thirty years. Her role as a social worker in Chiapas has included management of preventive health education for the State Health Ministry of Chiapas, organizing women’s cooperatives, guiding development of several community organizations, and other grassroots community projects. She established and ran a non-governmental organization that provided health care and other relief to Guatemalan refugee camps in Chiapas during the Guatemalan civil war, and supported the repatriation process for these refugee communities. She worked for many years as consultant and later as staff at Seva Foundation, where she served as Director of the Community Self-Development Program for Chiapas and Guatemala – a program she started and developed over many years. In this capacity, with support from Seva, she continued expanding and strengthening the community development and health work with numerous communities and non-governmental organizations in Chiapas and in Guatemala, including establishment of midwifery training programs for indigenous communities.

Monika Jarosz, MA, Program Director

Monika has over 10 years of experience in social research and analysis, conflict resolution, reconciliation, advocacy and project management in various community development projects in Latin America. Before joining GPA she worked as a social researcher on the impact of economic crisis on indigenous women’s lives and their participation in organizations. In addition, she developed and implemented a participatory study of maternal mortality among women living in remote communities in Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas. Previously she worked as a program evaluator of women-focused microfinance programs offered by Alternativa Solidaria (Alsol). Her interest in human rights led her to Kenya where she authored a project aiming at peace building and resolution of inter-clan and ethnic conflict in the northern part of the country. During her M.A and PhD training in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, she focused on human rights, economic development and indigenous mobilization in Mexico. Her experience in participatory research, organizing training projects, and establishing multi-level community relationships with diverse stakeholders has helped her to understand manifold dynamics of economic and social development that affect marginalized communities.  

Juan Carlos Vazquez Perez, Chiapas Program Coordinator

Juan Carlos has lived and worked in Chiapas, Mexico his entire life. He has been extensively involved in the organization and development of midwives into a civil association, and is active in the day-to-day coordination of trainings, meetings, and on-going projects. He is bilingual in Spanish and the native indigenous language Tzeltal, and is a certified Community Health Technician who is trained to provide diagnoses and treatment of common illnesses, basic medical care, and preventive health education. He also has extensive experience with social service organizations including computer literacy programs, environmental education, and other community services.

Claudia Dorana Marín Ramírez, Program Associate

Her training and experience working with marginalized women, children, and youth has made Claudia an integral part of strengthening GPA’s activities in Chiapas. From an early age, Claudia has been engaged in activities related to social work, beginning with her undergraduate studies in communication sciences and theater, and later as an associate in international cooperation and humanitarian aid, specializing in social development projects for the Madrid (Spain) community and the European Social Fund. Claudia has worked in countries like Ecuador, where she coordinated two maternal-child health projects in indigenous (Quechua) areas;  Costa Rica, where she worked for a project on adolescent gender equity and sexuality; Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast (Africa), where she coordinated a development project for children in armed conflict zones; and Spain where she worked for an organization strengthening children and youth through sports. In addition, she has worked in the state of Veracruz (where she is from) on a project with at-risk children of migrant parents.

Dení Cervantes Reyna, Midwife Trainer

Dení has a degree in general medicine from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and extensive experience planning and implementing workshops for health promoters and traditional midwives in rural villages of Mexico. She also has over 10 years of experience developing literacy and popular education programs for adults and youth. She is an organizer of medical brigades to isolated areas in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas that lack basic health services, and a passionate promoter of preventive health programs for vulnerable populations. Dení has been collaborating with GPA since May 2011 facilitating workshops for new and experienced traditional midwives in Chiapas in the prevention and identification of obstetric emergencies to reduce maternal and child mortality in the region. She is currently involved in several other volunteer works, including an HIV clinic and a Tuberculosis Prevention Program in San Cristobal de las Casas.

Scott Cohen, MD, DTM, Founder and Medical Director

Scott has been practicing pediatric medicine since 1989, serving primarily high-risk, low income patients in the U.S. and Latin America. In 1988, as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, he served pediatric patients in Gabon, West Africa, and he has delivered pre- and post-operative care to surgical patients in Cuba and El Salvador. In eastern Guatemala, he provided primary care for indigenous villagers of all ages and taught basic Western medicine to local health promoters. He received his M.D. from Tufts University in Boston in 1989 and his Diploma in Tropical Medicine from Royal College of Surgery in Ireland in 2000. He completed his pediatric residency at Oakland Children’s Hospital in 1992. He was attending nursery physician at Alameda County Medical Center and assistant director of an inpatient unit at Oakland Children’s Hospital. He is a lead editor for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ newsletter on international child health and wrote several chapters on pediatric medicine for Updates in Emergency Medicine and Handbook of Bioterrorism and Disaster Medicine. He is fluent in Spanish. Currently, Scott is a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente, San Rafael, California.

Volunteers

GPA is grateful for the generous support of the following individuals for their services:

Isabel Oh – Translation

Tom Neill – Translation

Nikhol Esteras Roberts – Communications and Photography