Alameda County Medical Center Strengthens Leadership Team in Legislative Affairs, Marketing and Communications

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Alameda County Medical Center (www.acmedctr.com), a leading public health care system based in Oakland and San Leandro, California, announced today that it has hired B. Patricia Barrera, J.D., and Jerri Applegate Randrup as Directors of Legislative Affairs and Community Advocacy and of Corporate Communications and Marketing, respectively.

Barrera and Randrup will join forces to help Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) increase government, media and community engagement for the public health care system, says Warren Lyons, Chief Integration Officer for ACMC.

"We are delighted to have professionals of this caliber join us at this crucial time as we prepare for full implementation of national health care reform," Lyons says. "Patricia and Jerri have extensive track records of success in the government and public relations disciplines of the health care field and we will leverage their talents to drive key initiatives."

About Patricia Barrera

As Director of Legislative Affairs and Community Advocacy, Barrera represents ACMC in federal, state and local legislative and executive branch issues, implements community and legislative affairs programs and provides high level policy analysis and recommendations.

Trained as a lawyer, she has extensive experience in health policy, government affairs, community engagement, strategic planning and advocacy, and is very familiar with Alameda County's health care system. Barrera is committed to increasing access to quality health care, working to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities and improve health outcomes through her policy, legislative, advocacy and community efforts.

Prior to her position at the Alameda County Medical Center, Barrera served as the Policy Director for the Alameda Health Consortium, the association of community based Federally Qualified Health Centers in Alameda County for nearly nine years. She has also worked as the Director of Policy and Acting Director for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, a statewide health policy and advocacy organization focusing on Latino health, and as Senior Advocate at the Latino Institute, a research and advocacy organization in Chicago.

Barrera attended Stanford University and U.C. Hastings College of the Law. She has been a member of numerous legal, health and community boards of directors, government committees and other health related organizations. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Stanford Club of San Francisco, and actively volunteers in various community, social justice, political and artistic endeavors.

About Jerri Randrup

As Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing at ACMC, Randrup will guide and oversee the System's marketing, branding, public relations and employee communications functions.

She brings a track record of success at a number of major private hospitals and health care systems. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Communications and Marketing for Physicians for Healthy Hospitals (PHH) (formerly Valley Health System), a coalition of doctors in Riverside County. She also served as Vice President of the Northern California Division of Catholic Healthcare West as well as Director of Marketing Communications at Catholic Healthcare West Joaquin-Sierra in the San Joaquin Valley.

Randrup's specific expertise lies in development and direction of integrated marketing and communications initiatives and in strategic planning, including brand and reputation management and positioning. She is also experienced in community engagement and has extensive government relations experience. Randrup has served as a spokesperson and media manager in many high visibility and crisis situations from medical responses to disasters to high profile patients.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.

About Alameda County Medical Center

Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) is a nationally recognized public health care system with more than 2,800 employees and 475 accredited beds. It serves the residents of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area through six facilities including Highland Hospital in Oakland. ACMC provides numerous services including family and women's health services, acute care, trauma care and more. The system also includes John George Psychiatric Pavilion for acute psychiatric care; Fairmont Hospital which provides acute occupational therapy and rehabilitation; and three community-based wellness centers in Hayward, San Leandro and Newark, California. ACMC is organized as a Public Hospital Authority and is governed by a Board of Trustees that is appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

ACMC is one of the premier public hospitals in the nation. Its trauma expertise is recognized across the United States and it is a teaching hospital, training tomorrow's surgeons who come from prominent Bay Area medical schools to complete their training. ACMC is ranked #1 in financial performance among public hospitals in the State of California. It is accredited for operations performance and quality of service and care by the Joint Commission, the body that accredits U.S. hospitals. The Joint Commission recognized ACMC for high performance in key quality measures where ACMC outperformed other health care providers within its service areas.

SOURCE Alameda County Medical Center