Sandra R. Hernández

Sandra R. Hernández is president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation. Prior to joining CHCF, she was CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. She previously served as director of public health for the City and County of San Francisco. In 2023, she was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to serve on the state’s Health Care Affordability Board. From 2018 to 2023, she served on the Covered California board of directors, after having been appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. In 2019, she was also appointed by Governor Newsom to the Healthy California for All Commission. During her time at the San Francisco Foundation, she cochaired San Francisco’s Universal Healthcare Council, which designed Healthy San Francisco. It was the first time a local government in the US attempted to provide health care for all of its constituents. She practiced at San Francisco General Hospital in the HIV/AIDS Clinic from 1984 to 2016 and was an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine; she previously served on the UC Regents Health Services Committee. Currently, she serves on the board of the company 23andMe and sits on the Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Leadership Council. She is a graduate of Yale University, the Tufts School of Medicine, and the certificate program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.