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Esther E. Sciammarella, M.S has a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology and has been involved in clinical therapy, mental health service delivery, and community support and residential services for refugees and mentally ill clients. She is also a fellow graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Hispanic Health Leadership Fellowship Program, where she received extensive training for senior executives in state & local government. She also participated in the 1999 White House Conference on mental health alongside with Tipper Gore. In her ongoing partnership with the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, she collaborated on the book “Salud!” A Latina’s Guide to Total Health-Body, Mind, and Spirit, by Jane Delgado, PhD – President and CEO of the Alliance.
Ms. Sciammarella is the Executive Director of the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition, a 501 (c) (3) non-for-profit organization that she helped establish in June 1991 as a multi-disciplinary membership organization. Its mission is to promote healthy behavior and prevent chronic disease in the Hispanic community. The CHHC maintains a centralized forum for capacity building, coordination, and networking among health and human service providers and consumers. The Coalition also directly provides the Hispanic Community with health education and disease prevention workshops. Ms. Sciammarella currently holds a position at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System working closely with the Family Medicine Clinic Medical Director in the development of Pilsen Clinic-based community health programs and classes to serve the community.
Ms. Sciammarella was a Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Hispanic Affairs at the Chicago Department of Public Health. In this capacity, she acted as a consultant and liaison between the department and the Hispanic community to ensure that programs and services were sensitive to Hispanics and assists in planning health-related programs in the community.
In addition to being on the board of the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition, she is currently Community Co-Chair of Partnerships and Community Engagement for Healthy Chicago 2.0 Department of Chicago Public Health, Investigative Partner for the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) which is the largest study for the Hispanic community, the UIC Latino Community Advisory Council, the UIC Urban Health Program, Steering Committee for the Chicago Cancer Health Equity and Collaborative along with UIC and Northwestern University, and collaborating with All of Us Research Program; which is funded by National Institute of Health (NIH), a historic effort to gather data from one million or more people living in the United States to accelerate research and improve health.
Mrs. Sciammarella was recently appointed, by Governor J.B Pritzker, to the State Board of Health
She can be reached at 312-842-2340 or chhc@ChicagoHispanicHealthCoalition.org