Today the National Partnership for Women & Families announced Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, J.D. as vice president for Health Justice. She will officially take over the role full time on March 30. Hernández-Cancio previously served as the founding director of Families USA’s Center on Health Equity Action for System Transformation, where she led efforts to reduce disparities in health care outcomes and advance health equity.

Hernández-Cancio comes to the National Partnership as the organization’s Health Policy Team repositions as the Health Justice Team. More than a name change, health justice reflects the National Partnership’s focus on race equity and other social factors that impact the well-being of women, families, and communities across the country. The organization will work to increase access to quality affordable care for all women, especially women who have been marginalized, and whose needs have been poorly met, by a health care system riddled with racial bias and sexism.

“We are delighted to have Sinsi-a champion for comprehensive, culturally centered and affordable care-leading our team during this time of profound challenges,” said National Partnership President Debra L. Ness. “We know that we can rely upon her strategic skills and expert knowledge to guide our work on the public health crisis brought on by the Coronavirus. She is a passionate advocate and knowledgeable policy expert whose life work has encompassed centering the needs of vulnerable and marginalized communities and finding common ground among unlikely allies.”

Under Hernández-Cancio’s leadership, the Health Justice Team will address the social factors that impact health, including systemic racism and inequality, and it will continue to use its deep expertise to make the health system more responsive to the people it serves. As the team works to expand coalitions with organizations led by women of color-maternal health and the disproportionate rates of maternal mortality among women of color will continue as a core issue.

“I’m extremely excited and deeply honored to join the stellar team at the National Partnership,” said Hernández-Cancio. “I can’t think of a better time or place to continue fighting to achieve health equity for every single human being in our great nation, and especially for women of color. We have been neglected and undermined for far too long.”

Before joining Families USA, Hernández-Cancio advised and represented two governors of Puerto Rico on federal health and human services policies, and worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as a senior health policy analyst and national campaign coordinator for their Healthcare Equality Project campaign to enact the Affordable Care Act.