Ileana Maria Ponce-Gonzalez, MD, MPCH, CNC

Ileana Maria Ponce-Gonzalez, MD, MPH, is Senior Advisor for Scientific and Strategic Planning at MCN and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. She obtained a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Nicaragua, a Clinical Genetics degree at the University of Chile and a Master in Public Health degree at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. Before joining MCN, Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez worked as a Scientific Review Officer (SRO) for the Division of Scientific Review at the Agency for Health Care Quality Research (AHRQ), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for twelve years. Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez contributed to the missions of NIH and AHRQ by delivering high quality peer review of proposals and grant applications to advance science and medical research in complex areas such as drug development, infectious diseases, clinical research, global infectious diseases, opportunistic disease, preventive medicine, bioinformatics, and health services research. At AHRQ, she was the Designated Federal Officer, managing the peer review of the Health Effectiveness and Outcomes Research (HEOR) Study Section for four years (http://www.ahrq.gov/funding/process/study-section/heorrst.html). Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez also served as the AHRQ spokesperson for the Latino community and she was the face for the national Spanish-language campaigns as Tomas las Riendas de Tu Salud and Conoce las Preguntas. In addition, she participated in the AHRQ-sponsored Hispanic Outreach Project by preparing the public access of the health columns for AHRQ’s Spanish-language webpage. Her activities have effectively contributed to AHRQ efforts in improving health care and health awareness of Latinos. As a Public Health Intern at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez worked for the National Latina Health Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and strengthening networks of Latino leaders in public health, and building local and national community health partnerships. She addressed the health concerns affecting Latinos and their families by promoting leadership, advocacy, community health partnerships, and initiatives within the Latino communities, and developed public health policy by promoting improvement to medical care services, research, and evaluation of HIV and AIDS health promotion programs. Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez has extensive community and public health systems experience in Nicaragua, Chile, and the United States. Currently , Dr. Ponce-Gonzalez funded the Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees (CHWCMR) a a passionate group of passionate volunteer dedicated to the promotion, empowerment, leadership, continuing education and integration of CHWs into the health care system to improve the quality of life of migrants, mobile poor and refugees: https://lcf.nationbuilder.com