Board of Directors

The Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, charitable organization and is governed by a board of directors.  Directors are members of the Native American community and hold various roles in their everyday lives from homemakers, business owners, lawyers and physicians amongst other trhings.

Take a moment to meet our directors below...

John Ammon (Hoopa)
President

John Ammon graduated from Hoopa High School in 1960, and then enrolled at Humboldt State College. He is the first member of his family to graduate from college and taught for 37 years in the East Side Union High School District. He raised his family and both of his children are college graduates and teachers. John also has been active in the Indian community. He has been part of the Indian Education Program in San Jose since 1974. He was the first parent chairman of the Title IV program at the Alum Rock Elementary School District in San Jose. He and his wife, Gloria, for the past 13 years, personally host the Indian elders monthly Saturday lunch and social gathering. He is currently a board member of the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley and an advisory board member at Evergreen Valley College EOPS. He and his wife, Gloria created a non-profit, Native Doors Networking Senter (NDNS), that provides after school help for students kindergarten through high school.

Lisa Lee Pate (Choctaw-Miami)
Vice President

Lisa was born in Newport Beach in southern California. Lisa holds a law degree from Bolt College at UC Berkeley where she graduated in 1989. She practiced commercial law for 11 years (real estate, employment, securities, and labor law) before going to medical school. Lisa is also a medical doctor; she graduated in June 2006 from Stanford University. Lisa found the IHC in 1997 because she had moved to the neighborhood and was planning on becoming a doctor, and was happy to find an Indian clinic in the area. She did a project in the summer of 1997 with Dr. Verstraete and then joined the Board in March 1998. Both of Lisa's grandparents were Indian; her grandmother taught her how to do beading and her grandfather taught her how to grow traditional foods. Lisa would like to use her doctoring skills to work in the American Indian community.

Pablo Viramontes has served on the IHC Board of Directors since 2005. Pablo is a teacher at the Foundry School in San Jose. He has been teaching for 33 years. As a lifelong educator, Pablo has a bachelor of arts, teaching credential and a master's degree from San Jose State University. Pablo is a father of three and lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He is very active in the American Indian community. As an avid runner Pablo participates in the 500-mile American Indian Spiritual Marathon and the Sacred Run.

Cheryl Marsden (Tlingit-Haida-Tsimpsian)
Secretary

Cheryl has been on the Board since April 2006. She is a member of the IHC's Diabetes Community Advisory Committee (DCAC) and has been involved with the Committee's efforts to reach out and educate the community about diabetes. She is also a Patient Advocate in the Community Health Partnership's Patient Advocacy Program that trains clients how to speak to legislators and other officials about the need for health care services. Cheryl has volunteered at many IHC events over the last two years. Cheryl has been the Recording Secretary and Vice President of the Tlingit/Haida San Francisco Central Council.

Heidi Trenholm is from the Oregon Coast and is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She is currently a student at Stanford University where she is majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Global Health and Development of Underserved Communities and will graduate in June 2011. During the summer of 2010, Heidi will spend two months in New York City studying Brain Cancer Research at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. To further her studies, she will be studying abroad in Russia, starting in August-December 2010. Heidi is the newest member of the Board, having joined in February 2009. Heidi is very interested in healthcare and healthcare administration and looks forward to a career in the field.

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