What is the Healthy Illinois Campaign?

Carmen Velásquez is the founder of Alivio Medical Center and the immediate past Executive Director. In the mid-1980s, she was very passionate and involved with issues surrounding barriers to healthcare. Troubled by the fact that the medical needs of so many Mexicans living in Pilsen, Little Village and Back of the Yards were being severely neglected, she garnered the support of fellow Latino community members and spearheaded a drive called Project Alivio.

Ms.Velásquez and Dr. Ann Garcelon, a colleague of Ms.Velásquez and former Alivio board member, approached Mercy Hospital’s CEO, Sister Sheila Lyne. When Sister Sheila supported the creation of a community health center to address the issues of access to health care, the work of Alivio Medical Center was initiated.

In 1988, Ms.Velásquez was hired as Alivio’s first Executive Director. Soon after, while walking through Pilsen in search of clinic space, she saw a muffler shop parking lot bursting with trucks. When Ms.Velasquez went in and asked the owner if the lot was for sale, he said, “Offer me something.” So she did and offered the owner an amount which Project Alivio did not yet even have. That day, they launched a campaign to raise $2.1 million for the lot, the construction of the clinic and all necessary equipment. This site became the home of Alivio’s very first clinic.

Every human being has the right to access education and has the right to access healthcare, no matter what their color, and no matter if they’re rich or poor.

Carmen Velásquez, Alivio Founder and First Executive Director

Tovia Siegel is the Director of Healthy Illinois, a campaign to make quality, affordable healthcare coverage accessible to all people in Illinois, regardless of immigration status. She leads a coalition of stakeholders to organize and build power to change policy. Previously, Tovia was an organizer at Families Belong Together, the immigration campaign of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, to organize supporters across the country to drive campaigns and shift culture to create a broad pro-immigrant base in the United States. Before that, Tovia worked at the National Immigrant Justice Center, where she coordinated a program to provide free immigration legal services and Know Your Rights trainings to Chicago residents. She holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology from University of Chicago.

As Illinois Business Immigration Coalition’s executive director, Rebecca Shi works directly with a steering committee of 68 Illinois-based CEOs, University presidents, chambers of commerce and immigrant advocates to develop and implement strategy that support the passage of immigration reform. IBIC has been extraordinarily effective in moving the politics of the state, winning public bipartisan support from the majority of Illinois’s Congressional delegation.

Rebecca was the campaign manager for Illinois’ SB 957 “Road Safety, Mandatory License and Insurance for All Act.” She led the successful passage of SB 957 by building a broad coalition of Illinois CEOs, chambers of commerce, law enforcement, faith and immigrant leaders to license and grant mandatory insurance to 450,000 undocumented immigrants in Illinois.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Rebecca was named a “20 in Their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business. Rebecca emigrated from China when she was 10 years old. She is fluent in Chinese and conversational Spanish.

Esther Corpuz is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 30 years of experience in both community health centers and hospital markets. Before Alivio Medical Center, Ms. Corpuz was Vice President of Government & Civic Relations for Vanguard Health Systems, Chicago Market. Serving in a number of progressive leadership roles since joining MacNeal Hospital in October 1994, Corpuz led Vanguard’s engagement in Chicago’s diverse civic and community outreach initiatives.

Early in her tenure at MacNeal Hospital, Corpuz was instrumental in establishing a number of hospital-wide initiatives that address the specific needs of Latino patients, MacNeal’s fastest growing patient population. Corpuz was a lead supporter in introducing Illinois legislation that requires healthcare institutions to provide trained medical interpreters, a program she established at MacNeal Hospital in 1998. As a volunteer, she saw the need for increasing the bilingual workforce in healthcare and assisted The National Latino Education Institute (NLEI), formerly The Spanish Coalition for Jobs, in funding and implementing the first Bilingual Medical Assistant (BMA) Program. Before her arrival at MacNeal Hospital, Corpuz served as the Director of Primary Care for Mount Sinai Hospital and was responsible for the overall operations of 14 primary care centers. She has also worked in various consulting assignments, assisting with provider and physician development initiatives.