Event Speaker

Natalia Espina

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Healthy Kids Health Clinic

Natalia Espina is a proud long-time Iowa City resident and Chilean immigrant advocate and activist. She emigrated from Chile to the U.S. as a toddler in the early 1980's and has been working with underserved populations in and around the Iowa City area since 2007. She became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 2015.

 

Natalia is employed as the Program Manager for the Healthy Kids School-based Health Clinic, a free clinic based out of the Iowa City Community School District which serves the primary and mental healthcare needs of uninsured and underinsured youth in Johnson County. She’s deeply committed to community volunteerism, engagement and strives to live in a collective and compassionate world. She strives at working within new environments and seeks constant challenge in order to be well and grow. She enjoys a balance of independence and collaboration with others.

 

In early 2017 Natalia and a team of area activists created a non profit called the Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project. She serves as the board of director's community engagement chair. The project’s mission is to provide bail funds to Eastern Iowa’s vulnerable immigrant neighbors so they may access due process within our immigration justice system. The project believes in family unity for all and that socioeconomic status should not be a barrier to accessing due process. She also co-led the Iowa City Community School District's support for immigrant students initiatives which began in November 2016. Natalia's past volunteer highlights were as Local Foods Connection board member, interpreter at New Iowans Legal Advice Clinic, retail clerk at the Iowa City Bike Library, and interpreter at Free Medical Clinic.

 

She has her B.A. In Spanish and Communication studies and a certificate in Non Profit Management. She’s looking to seek her Master's in public policy or social innovation with a focus on the intersections of education, immigration, and health. She’s community engagement chair for LULAC Council 308 and a member of 5224Good’s philanthropic giving circle.