Please contact Julia Otani at julia.otani@first5alameda.org or (510) 227-6987, Ten business days in advance if you need translation/interpretation support in Spanish or Chinese.
First 5 Alameda County Commission
Commission Meeting Schedule
DATE | LOCATION | TIME | NOTES |
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Executive Committee Meeting |
No Meeting Scheduled for October |
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Commission Special Meeting September 18, 2024 |
Join by Zoom Zoom Meeting:https://first5alameda-org.zoom.us/j/86485552522?pwd=bhpp1mIdoIUKGmjk2TKdpT4NPtAcdw.4ozexmZtAirguQ6m Meeting ID: 864 8555 2522 Password: 116700 |
3:30pm-5:00pm | |
Commission Meeting October 3, 2024 |
Join by Zoom Zoom Meeting: https://first5alameda-org.zoom.us/j/88639302806?pwd=aTBsoMhv30bX6ccNS34wD2qPeQclU3.1 Meeting ID: 886 3930 2806 Password: 820301 |
9:00am-11:30am |
Teleconference Guidelines
First 5 Alameda County Commission meetings are teleconferenced. Click on the link to access the teleconferencing guidelines.
Past meeting information and documentation is available by meeting date at
First 5 Executive Committee and Commission Documents Archive
An eight-member volunteer commission oversees the work of First 5 Alameda County, which supports the health, development and well-being of our youngest children through their first five years. Commissioners are selected and appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors based upon their expertise in early care and education, health care, social services and children with special needs. The full commission meets up to six times a year.
View the Calendar of Commission Meetings below or download the Year-long Calendar of Commission meetings here. All meetings are open to the public.
Commissioner Bios
Renee Sutton Herzfeld
Commissioner Renee Sutton Herzfeld - Chair
Chair Renee Sutton Herzfeld is the Executive Director of Community Child Care Council (4Cs) of Alameda County. As 4Cs’ Executive Director she is the chief officer over management and implementation of agency operations and programs which include the following: The Resource and Referral agency for southern Alameda County, Child Care Payment programs which provide financial support to assist low-income parents in accessing child care, 4Cs’ Community “Closet”; Hayward Promise Neighborhoods Early Learning Network programming, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance services, CalFresh enrollment assistance, and 4Cs Annual Children’s Faire where the whole community comes together in the spirit of an old proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Renee has held adjunct faculty positions and taught Early Childhood Education courses at Chabot, Ohlone, and Merritt Colleges. She has served as Chair on the Alameda County Local Planning Council and was State President for the California Child Development Administrators Association. She currently serves on the Executive Leaders Group and is the Director of the Early Learning Network for Hayward Promise Neighborhoods. Having served the community for the past 30 years, she has gained considerable expertise in working with child development professionals at various levels.
Renee is passionately dedicated to achieving excellence within the organization she serves, as well as local, state, and national efforts that ensure that children have environments and resources they need to be healthy and strong. She and her husband are delighted to be the parents of two daughters, Hannah and Liane and their constant canine companion, Avi.
Tomás A. Magaña, MD, MA, FAAP
Commissioner Tomás A. Magaña, MD, MA, FAAP
Tomás A. Magaña, MD, MA, FAAP is a Latino physician, program director, educator and advocate dedicated to improving care and health outcomes for the state’s most vulnerable children. Dr. Magaña is a board-certified pediatrician with expertise in the care of at-risk children and adolescents. He is a Lead Physician in the Department of School-Based Health Centers at La Clínica de La Raza, Inc. where he serves the complex medical needs of diverse youth from Alameda County. He is also Assistant Professor/Medical Director in the Masters Physician Assistant Department at Samuel Merritt University and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously, Dr. Magaña was a member of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where he served as Medical Director of Alameda County’s Juvenile Justice Center and attending physician at the Youth Uprising School-Based Health Center in East Oakland, CA.
Dr. Magaña is a leading expert in the design and implementation of health workforce pipeline programs for youth. As a Principal Investigator at the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA, he serves as Founding Director of the FACES for the Future Coalition, a collaborative of statewide programs designed to prepare disadvantaged youth for entry into college and careers in the health professions. He is actively leading the efforts to disseminate the successful FACES model throughout the nation. Dr. Magaña’s work with vulnerable youth has been featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, NBC Bay Area News, the SF Chronicle and in People Magazine.
Dr. Magaña is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and has served on a number of regional and national advisory boards focusing on pediatric health issues, healthcare workforce development and cultural competency in medicine. Dr. Magaña received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, his Masters degree from U.C. Berkeley, and his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his pediatric residency at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Dr. Magaña is a first generation college graduate, and has dedicated much of his life to serving underserved communities. He has a passion for programs that foster leadership, wellness and professional development for youth.
Karina Moreno
Commissioner Karina Moreno
Commissioner Karina Moreno was most recently Chief of Staff at Tipping Point Community. In this role, she worked closely with the Founder CEO and Board of Directors to execute on Tipping Point’s mission to fight poverty in the Bay Area. The organization invests in solutions and promotes policies that helped 20,000 people on a path out of poverty in the last year alone. Prior to joining Tipping Point, she was a Program Officer at the Y&H Soda Foundation where she developed and implemented a local grants portfolio to help low-income families achieve economic prosperity through income growth and asset building. Karina has also worked on policy and advocacy issues affecting underserved children and families as Deputy Director at the Children’s Defense Fund in California. Karina started her career in the social sector at Big Sisters of Los Angeles, where she managed community outreach efforts to recruit women of color mentors for young girls. She is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Cecilia Oregón
Commissioner Cecilia Oregón - Vice Chair
Cecilia Oregón is the Executive Director for Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Policy (IHP). In her role, Cecilia identifies emerging health policy topics and guides the Institute’s portfolio of work. Her specific areas of expertise include access to health care for underserved populations as well as behavioral health, school based health, and early childhood issues. She also leads strategy and operations for IHP.
Cecilia joined Kaiser Permanente in 2013 as the Director of Safety Net Partnerships for the National Community Benefit program. In her role, Cecilia helped accelerate safety net grant strategy and initiatives. She also fostered the development and spread of national and regional safety net partnerships.
Prior to Kaiser Permanente, Cecilia served as a program officer for Blue Shield of California Foundation where she managing the portfolio of grants focused on strengthening California's healthcare safety net. She has also served as a senior program officer with The California Endowment where she provided strategic direction to The Endowment's efforts to promote school health, expand public health insurance coverage, and strengthen the healthcare safety net. Before that she was with the California HealthCare Foundation as a policy analyst. Outside of philanthropy, she has served as a legislative analyst for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in Washington, D.C., and as a special projects associate for the Alameda County Public Health Department.
Cecilia has a bachelor of arts in social welfare, a master’s in public policy, and a master’s in public health from University of California, Berkeley. She is an alumnus of the Presidential Management Fellowship program and in 2012 she was selected as a participant in the Grantmakers in Health Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy. She currently serves as an Alameda County First 5 Commissioner and sits on the board of directors for the California School Based Health Alliance.
Kimi Watkins-Tartt
Commissioner Kimi Watkins-Tartt
Kimi Watkins-Tartt serves as director of the Alameda County Public Health Department. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing overall direction, planning, and organization of the programs and operations of the Public Health Department.
Prior to this, and in the role of deputy director, Ms. Watkins-Tartt was responsible for the oversight of the department’s programmatic divisions, which include Family Health Services, Community Health Services, Public Health Nursing, and Communicable Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, Ms. Watkins-Tartt oversaw the management of internal department policies, program budget, grant coordination, and personnel management. Ms. Watkins-Tartt has worked for more than 25 years within the local public health community and brings a wealth of experience in public health administration, policy development, as well as community health planning and coordination. Prior to taking on the role of deputy director, Ms. Watkins-Tartt led the Division of Community Health Services, driving the division’s strategic initiatives including the launching of new efforts that aligned with the department’s strategic direction to achieve health equity. Ms. Watkins-Tartt was instrumental in helping the department design and implement its health equity and local policy efforts and spearheaded the department’s first Chronic Disease Prevention Planning process.
Ms. Watkins-Tartt has a long standing passion and commitment to health equity and social justice. She is a founding member and current co-chair for the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) and serves as vice chair of the Health Equity and Social Justice Committee of the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO).Clarissa Doutherd
Clarissa Doutherd
Clarissa Doutherd is the Executive Director of Parent Voices Oakland, an East Bay chapter of Parent Voices California. Clarissa has been a strong advocate for mothers like herself who were caught in the crosshairs of ineffective public policy. As a collaborative movement builder, Clarissa has forged deep partnerships with large local government agencies including the Alameda County Social Services Agency, Public Health, and Behavioral Health Services. After stepping into leadership as the Co-Chair on the Alameda County Early Childhood Policy Committee with First 5 of Alameda County, Clarissa led efforts to refocus the group to become a cross sector collaborative which brings together community based organizations, parents and service providers to advance innovative strategies for County-wide systems change; and works to elevate parent leadership in public policy. Clarissa has received the following honors: Gloria Steinem "Woman of Vision" award; East Bay Women's Political Alliance's "Advocate of the Year"; First 5 of Alameda County "Parent of the Year" award, an award for excellence in Human Relations from the Alameda County Human Relations Commission. Clarissa resides in Oakland, California with her son Xavier.
Lena Tam
Lena Tam
Lena Tam joined the Friends of the Park Foundation Board in January 2015. She served as an Alameda City Councilmember for eight years and was elected Vice-Mayor in 2006. Lena has been instrumental in funding recreation, parks, and open space in Alameda during her tenure on the Council. She collaborated with the Alameda Boys & Girls Club to provide after-school programs for the youth. She advanced the renovation of the Encinal Pool and secured $2M in dedicated funding for the 22-acre Jean Sweeney Open Space Park.
Lena was also a founding board member of the City of Alameda Health Care District Board of Directors and served on the Board of Save the Bay. She was the Manager of Water Resource Planning with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. In November 2022, Lena was elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for District 3, which covers parts of Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hillcrest Knolls, and Hayward Acres.
Andrea Ford
Josh Thurman
Josh Thurman,Human Services Programs Manager
Josh Thurman is the Human Services Programs Manager for the City of Livermore. In his role, Josh oversees the City’s Human Services Grants, homeless services, and manages the Livermore Multi-Service Center, which includes seven non-profit organizations. His specific area of expertise is coordinating the various health, unsheltered, and social service programs throughout the Tri-Valley region. He also serves as the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Mass Care and Shelter Coordinator.
Josh joined the City of Livermore in February 2020 as a Management Analyst overseeing the City’s unsheltered programs. In his role, Josh coordinated health and safety services to the City’s unsheltered population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to joining the City of Livermore, Josh served as a Policy Analyst and Deputy Chief of Staff to former Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty for 18 years, focusing on Health, Social Services, and Juvenile Probation policy. In his role, Josh had the privilege of working on the design and makeup of the initial First Five Alameda County Commission. He also played a part in the development of County policy after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented and served on several County Advisory Boards, including the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition, Violence Prevention Task Force, Fire Advisory Commission, and General Assistance Task Force. Before coming to Alameda County in 2000, Josh served as a Field Representative to then State Assemblymember, Ellen Corbett.
Josh has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from California State University East Bay. In addition to serving on First Five Alameda County Commission, he also serves as an Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless Commissioner, and Mayors Conference representative to the Alameda County Continuum of Care (CoC) Leadership Board.