Wandy Hernandez has been in the Community Health Worker field for more than 20 years. She has experience growing up as a consumer of services and used her knowledge and experience to teach and advocate for herself and others. This inspired her to get a degree in Human Service Management and has always advocated for CHW’s locally, statewide and nationally. Ms. Hernandez has been a bilingual and bicultural trainer at HealthConnect One (HC One) since 1999 and is a certified Lactation Counselor, DONA Certified Doula Trainer and Certified Childbirth Educator.
Wandy served as President of the National Lay Health Workers/Promotores Network from 2005-2007, and from 2012-2014, served as the Chair of the American Public Health Association’s CHW Section. Wandy served as an active member of the Illinois Statewide Community Health Worker Advisory Board, and in 2015 served as an advisory board member of The Illinois AHEC Network and of the South Suburban College Community Health Worker Technology Advisory Community.
Wandy is a co-founder of the Chicago Community Health Workers Local Network, and the vice president of the Illinois Community Health Worker Association, (ILCHWA) and is a co-authors on a peer-reviewed article entitled “The Journal of Ambulatory Care Management Community Health Workers Part 1.”
Currently Wandy is the president of the Founding Board of the National Association of CHWs, where she brings vision and values to the table in support of unity in the CHW workforce.