Partners for Health Foundation is delighted to welcome Denise E. Herrera, PhD, MCHES, as our new Executive Director, effective September 14, 2026.
Denise joins PFH with more than 25 years of experience in public health, philanthropy, community partnership, and organizational development. She brings an authentic practice of listening to communities, building meaningful relationships, and recognizing that lasting change and equitable systems are created with people, not for them.
Those commitments feel very much at home at Partners for Health.
“From our first conversations with Denise, we saw a leader whose values and approach to philanthropy strongly align with who PFH has become and where we hope to go,” said Casey Castañeda and Ammar Idelbi, Co-Chairs of the PFH Board of Trustees. “She brings tremendous experience and expertise, but also curiosity, humility, and a genuine desire to listen and learn. We are thrilled to welcome her.”
A Career Centered on Health Equity
Denise has built her career around a question that also sits at the heart of PFH’s work: What will it take for every person and every community to be healthy and thrive?
She currently serves as Senior Advisor to national and regional foundations, including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, advising senior leaders on health equity strategy, multidisciplinary research, and culturally responsive evaluation. Her experience also includes place-based health philanthropy in New Mexico and Central Texas. Denise has partnered with Indigenous and Tribal communities, rural communities, and peer funders throughout the U.S. to reimagine the role of grantmaking and pooled funds, while strengthening governance and organizational capacity. At St. David’s Foundation in Central Texas, she led community capacity-building efforts and helped shape the Foundation’s rural strategy, strategic planning, and Covid-19 recovery and rebuild efforts.
Across these roles, Denise has worked to shift both what philanthropy supports and how it works, centering community voice and partnership, shared learning, and the conditions that shape health.
That experience will be invaluable as PFH continues to deepen its work in the communities it serves.
Building on a Strong Foundation
Denise succeeds Pam Scott, whose leadership helped shape the Partners for Health we know today. During Pam’s tenure, PFH deepened its commitment to health equity and evolved its approach to philanthropy, grounding its work in place, listening and learning alongside community, and strengthening nonprofit partners. We are deeply grateful to Pam for her leadership and the strong foundation she leaves behind.
Denise’s arrival marks both a continuation of that journey and PFH’s next chapter. Her experience will help PFH continue asking: How can we leverage what we have—our grants, relationships, knowledge, voice, and convening power—to advance health equity?
Denise said, “This work is very personal to me. I am deeply grateful to my predecessor, Pam, and other staff and Trustees who led before me and am committed to practicing PFH’s core values and building upon the work already so deeply rooted here.”
Denise holds a PhD in Health Education from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Family Studies and Human Development from the University of Arizona.
For all of us at Partners for Health, Denise’s arrival is more than welcoming a new Executive Director. It is welcoming a new partner in our shared pursuit of thriving communities and health for all.
Welcome to Partners for Health, Denise.