Minority Health Program Staff
Rea Pañares, M.H.S.
Director of Minority Health Initiatives
Rea Pañares is Director of Minority Health Initiatives at Families USA, a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. In this role, she analyzes the impact of health policies and proposals on racial and ethnic minorities' access to quality, affordable health care; develops tools and resources to build institutional capacity within communities of color; and raises awareness about minority health policy issues among key stakeholders, including members of the media and elected officials.
Prior to this position, Ms. Pañares was a program associate at Grantmakers In Health (GIH), a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to helping foundations and corporate giving programs improve the nation's health. She was responsible for leading GIH's work in racial and ethnic health disparities, including language access, immigrant health, and the social determinants of health. She was also involved with projects related to foundation support for public policy and advocacy, public health, and environmental health. Prior to joining GIH, Ms. Pañares served as manager at the Washington Business Group on Health (now the National Business Group on Health), where she led the organization's Health Disparities Initiative, a project designed to provide to employers with information and tools to help them purchase and plan health care for a culturally diverse workforce. Ms. Pañares has also held positions with the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and the Women and Children's Health Policy Center at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Ms. Pañares holds a master's degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley in molecular and cellular biology.
Renee Carter
Wellstone Fellow
Renée Yvonne Carter was born in New York, New York. She was raised in Columbia, SC. She attended Furman University in Greenville, SC where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology 1986. After a year doing pharmacological research, she was accepted into the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Renée received her Medical Doctorate in 1991. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Greenville Hospital System in Greenville, SC in 1994. Dr. Carter is a board certified internist who has had a private practice in Greenville and Charleston, SC. She is also a political activist and a member of several advocacy organizations including Planned Parenthood, National Organization of Women, and the American Civil Liberties Union. She lives in Alexandria, VA and works for Kaiser Permanente as an urgent care physician in their Mid-Atlantic region. She is currently pursuing an MPH in Health Policy at the George Washington School of Public Health in Washington, DC.
