As president, Carmella Gutierrez oversees all public policy, advocacy and education efforts for Californians for Patient Care. In this executive role, Ms. Gutierrez is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the organization, including identifying the barriers in delivering patient-centered care and collaborating with community groups, patients, healthcare providers, research institutions, and policy makers to find the common threads that help benefit patient access to care in California.

Ms. Gutierrez brings more than a dozen years of healthcare public affairs, policy and communications experience to Californians for Patient Care. Previously, she managed regional affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Donna Shalala, advising Administration officials on community issues. She also served as a senior manager for Lumetra Healthcare Solutions, one of the largest Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) for Medicare at the time, where she led one of the first and largest QIO public education programs in the nation for Medicare providers and beneficiaries. Most recently, she directed public affairs and other initiatives for Catholic Healthcare West, the largest hospital system in California, headquartered in San Francisco. She has also worked at Kaiser Permanente and the American Cancer Society. 

Ms. Gutierrez served on the San Francisco Board for the Women’s Initiative for Self Employment, the nation’s largest non-profit micro-enterprise training and funding organization. Ms. Gutierrez has also received numerous awards and recognitions for her work.