Lupita Salazar Weeks, M.S.

Lupita Salazar Letscher B.S.N., M.S., R.N., is the former Deputy Director of Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future, a collaborative partnership between the Northwest Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Trained as a critical care nurse, she has a B.S.N. from Incarnate Word University in San Antonio, Texas, and a master’s degree from the University of Portland’s School of Nursing.

Previously she was Development Coordinator of the Washington-based Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. In her capacity as corporate liaison to the Oregon Planning and Development Department, she represented the clinic—the largest community health center organization in the Northwest—at the community, state, and federal levels.

In collaboration with the Oregon Primary Care Association and other community stakeholders, she participated in health policy development at both state and federal levels. She played an instrumental role in the submission of a successful application to the Health Resources and Services Administration for a new federally qualified health center. Rosewood Family Health Center in southeast Portland provides access to health care for 10,000 people a year who live in poverty and have little or no insurance coverage.

Ms. Salazar Letscher is the outgoing President of the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (affiliated with the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nursing Associations) and a member of the American Public Health Association, the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the Oregon Latino Health Coalition, and Hispanics in Philanthropy. She received the Henrietta Doltz Puhaty Community nurse of the year award from the Oregon Health Science University.