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A little bit about me

Tania is a public health strategist, feminist leader, and human rights advocate, born and raised in Puerto Rico. She combines a Master's degree in Public Health with over two decades of experience in the social sector, where she has worked at the intersection of community organizing, health promotion, cultural management, popular education, and political advocacy. Since 2016, she has been the Executive Director of Taller Salud, one of Puerto Rico's most respected feminist and community organizations, with nearly fifty years of experience driving innovative responses to structural inequities and strengthening the power and well-being of historically marginalized communities. Her leadership has guided large scale recovery initiatives that have impacted tens of thousands of families in Puerto Rico, during diverse emergency scenarios. With strategic thinking and creativity, she has driven heath equity, gender justice and violence intervention models into well established programs by mobilizing resources, building alliances, and prioritizing community-driven solutions. Tania participates in regional and international networks focused on women's health and rights, reproductive justice, community resilience to climate change, and social transformation in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN), and the Advisory Board of the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortions. She is also a member of the Environmental Justice Resource Mobilization Collective at the Kataly Foundation, and part of the strategy team of the Organizing Resilience coalition. She has received several awards and recognitions, including the New Profit Mental Health Equity Fellowship (2023), the Rafael and Celestina Cordero Award from the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (2021), and the New York Theological Society Urban Angel Award (2020). She has been a TED Talk speaker (2019) and a Vital Voices fellow (2019). She co-founded the María Fund, Puerto Rico's social justice intermediary, and co-chaired it's Board until 2024. She is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Gender Equity Observatory; and recently joined the Board of HASER, the island's biggest provider of fiscal sponsorship. She currently teaches in the Master's in Cultural Management at the Interdisciplinary Studies Program of the University of Puerto Rico. She is the author of two books and dozens of articles and presentations. She is a theater director and teacher. She is a full-spectrum doula and prenatal educator. She is also a proud mother: her son is a talented university student, and her daughter is a brilliant high school student. She is immensely and fiercely happy to be alive.

Some more about me

Tania Rosario Mendez da un mensaje de agradecimiento / Tania Rosario Mendez gives an award acceptance speech

Executive Director at Taller Salud

Panel Caribe Fest

EJRC member at Kataly Foundation

Foro Justicia Climatica

Fellow at New Profit 

Vital Voices Fellowship

Speaker at Tedx Talk Santurce

© 2019 Tania Rosario Méndez

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