Jim Garcia Named New Executive Director for Clinica Tepeyac

DENVER, Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinica Tepeyac, one of Denver's most respected safety net clinics, has tapped its founder to be its new executive director.

Jim Garcia is returning to the clinic he started in 1993. Over the years, the clinic has become a model for providing health education, prevention, and primary medical services to the Latino population in Metro Denver. The clinic, at 5075 Lincoln Street in Denver, serves uninsured, underinsured and low-income families.

"Jim Garcia possesses the ideal skill set to lead Clinica Tepeyac," said the facility's Board Chair, Dan Euell. "He has exceptional healthcare management credentials, extensive knowledge of the community, and his compassion for our patient population is unparalleled."

Euell compared Garcia's return to Clinica Tepeyac to Starbucks founder Howard Schultz's return in 2008 to the company he founded more than two decades earlier. "They both returned to reestablish the values, vision and principles that made their organizations great," he said.

Clinica Tepeyac works closely with other public health agencies in the Denver metro area to ensure its patients have access to specialists and programs that assist patients with low incomes. A key leader from one of those agencies, Dr. Chris Urbina, director of Denver Public Health and Clinica Tepeyac board member, said he is enthusiastic about having Garcia now serve as executive director.

"Jim brings passion, commitment and history to his new position as executive director at Clinica," says Urbina. "He is well respected in the Latino community. We are fortunate to have him."

Garcia brings to Clinica Tepeyac more than 17 years of executive management and leadership experience in community health, education, and human services programs. Garcia's recent posts include site director for Making Connections Denver, a 10-year initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation designed to promote school readiness and economic self sufficiency in four Denver neighborhoods. Garcia was also the co-founder of Escuela de Guadalupe and a founding trustee of Arrupe Jesuit High School.

"For the past 17 years, I have had the opportunity to further the mission of Clinica Tepeyac by serving in a variety of volunteer capacities," Garcia said. "To now be in a position to lead such a wonderful organization as the executive director is an incredibly humbling experience."

Clinica Tepeyac's roots were established in 1993, when Garcia and a committed group of parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and North Denver residents took action to address the problem of lack of affordable healthcare for working poor individuals and families in their community. With limited financial resources, but with abundant faith, hundreds of volunteers came together to transform a run-down house into a thriving health clinic. This nonprofit clinic, which moved to a new, modern space in 2006, would eventually serve tens of thousands of uninsured men, women and children, regardless of immigration status, race, religion or income.

Garcia has served, and serves, on numerous boards and committees, including the University of Colorado School of Public Health Advisory Board. He is also currently Chair of the Colorado Health Foundation's Philanthropy Committee, which allocates over $100 million annually. Recent awards include the 2009 Denver Public Library Cesar Chavez Legacy Award, the 2008 National Philanthropy Day in Colorado Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2006 Colorado Rockies Hispanic Leadership Award.

For more information on Clinica Tepeyac, go to: http://www.clinicatepeyac.org.

SOURCE Clinica Tepeyac