MANP Connects Live Panelists

M. Gabriela Alcalde, MPH, DrPH
Executive Director
Elmina B. Sewall Foundation

Gabriela is a public health leader with 20+ years of experience and commitment to equity and social justice. Gabriela joined the team of the Sewall Foundation as Executive Director in the summer of 2019 and in this capacity leads the integration of environmental, human and animal health and welfare as the foundation works to center equity and community voices in all of their work and strategies. 

Prior to joining the Sewall Foundation, Gabriela served as the first Managing Director for Equity and Health at Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF) and as Vice-President for Policy and Program at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Gabriela has worked in the philanthropic, academic, government, nonprofit and grassroots sectors throughout her career and served in various volunteer capacities to promote equity.

She earned a DrPH in health administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MPH in maternal and child health at Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Louisville. A native of Lima, Peru, she currently lives in Maine with her husband, children and pets.

Recent blog posts by Gabriela:

Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH, FAAP
Chief Health Improvement Officer
MaineHealth

Raised in rural Maine, Dr. Mills practiced in a variety of places including Los Angeles and Tanzania before returning to provide primary care in her hometown. She was then tapped to lead public health for Maine for nearly 15 years, then for the University of New England, and now for MaineHealth, the state's largest hospital-based healthcare system. As a board-certified pediatrician and public health leader in the most rural state in the nation with an increasing diverse population in its urban areas, her work has focused on addressing health issues across the spectrum - from tobacco to environmental health issues, pandemics (HIV, H1N1, and COVID), obesity, the opioid epidemic, maternal child health, and health disparities, to name a few. Her work has been widely recognized, including receiving ASTHO's McCormack Award, the AMA's Nathan Davis Award, American Academy of Pediatrics Special Achievement Award, and state awards, including the highest awards by the Maine Medical Association and Maine Public Health Association, as well as an honorary degree conferred by the University of Maine. On a personal note, she splits her time between Portland and her lake cottage in rural Maine, and enjoys a number of year round outdoor activities with her two young adult children as well as other family and friends.

Blog post by Dora:

Webinar featuring Dora:

Julia Trujillo Luengo
Director of Economic Development Coordination
Department of Economic and Community Development, State of Maine

Julia serves as the State of Maine Economic Development Plan Implementation Director. Prior to her role as Implementation Director she directed the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) at the City of Portland to assure access for under-served populations, including immigrants/refugees, to relevant, high-quality job training and workforce preparedness opportunities while also improving linkages between job seekers and employers; convene regional stakeholders to work collaboratively to identify gaps and existing initiatives in order to develop evaluative metrics to measure the collective effort’s impact, and overall serves as a connector among service organizations, employers, and job seekers. 

Prior to OEO, she served as Director for Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services’ Multicultural Affairs Office (OMA). The Office provided support to state agencies, non-governmental organizations and community partners in order to develop sustainable projects and initiatives to address the needs of Maine’s racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse populations. She was also responsible for supporting the long-term economic self-sufficiency of Maine’s refugee population by overseeing all workforce development, ESOL classes, health promotion, and programs and grants stemming from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. 

Prior to that, Julia was part of Maine’s Department of Education Federal Programs/No Child Left Behind Team (NCLB), as the Title I, Part C Maine’s Migrant Education State Director. She oversaw all the activities of the Statewide Migrant Education Program. 

Julia has a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Southern Maine and a Masters in International Cooperation for Development from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. She is from the island of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, Spain. She also prides herself of having a strong cultural influence from Extremadura, Spain; where her mother is originally from. She lives in Portland with her two daughters Elia and Vera.

Recent webinar led by Julia:

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