District 5 Commissioners
Mitzy De La Peña Medina, Vice-Chair
Mitzy De La Peña Medina was appointed to the Alameda County Public Health Commission by Supervisor Carson in 2022. With over a decade of experience in national government relations and public policy, both in the public and private sectors, Mitzy comes to the commission with expertise in communication strategies to drive civic engagement, campaign work, and political organizing. Mitzy has held leadership positions in the life science industry for the past two years. Currently, Mitzy is a Director of Local Government for a global biotech company, where she leads external engagements with elected officials and philanthropy efforts in support of community-based organizations to strengthen the student-to-STEM workforce pipeline, predominately in underserved communities. An Alameda County native, Mitzy is the eldest of five children and the daughter of Mexican Immigrants who have shaped her passion for health equity and social justice reforms. Mitzy received her Bachelor of Science from San Jose State University in Political Science with a concentration in law.
Koren G. Temple Perry
Koren Temple Perry, District 5 Commissioner. As a professional writer and science communicator, Koren has spent the last 15 years providing people with the information and agency to take control of their health and lives. She has worked extensively in the areas of patient and community health education, health advocacy, and scientific communications for hospitals, research institutes, and healthcare organizations. She currently manages her own communications consulting firm, Temple Communications LLC, providing scientific writing and communications services to public health organizations. She served as Consulting Communications Director for March for Science, where she led the media and communications campaign for the global marches and as Interim Communications Director for the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. She spent many years as a writer at hospitals throughout New York. Koren earned her master’s degree in journalism from the S.I. School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and earned her bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from Santa Clara University. She joins the Public Health Commission to improve health equity, especially for younger generations. Koren is an avid traveler and has perpetual wanderlust after living in New York, London, and New Zealand. A Bay Area native, she lives in Oakland with her husband, two children and dog.
Jason Budge
I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Santa Barbara, where I focus on LGBTQ+ inequality, health disparities, and survey research methods. I started as a Commissioner for District 5 of the Alameda County Public Health Commission in the summer of 2022 during the Mpox outbreak that primarily affected gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, and transgender women. I wanted to bring my personal and professional experience to the commission to ensure an adequate public health response for this stigmatized community. I now serve on the Health Equity in All Policies sub-committee where I hope to continue my work on improving health disparities. I am also looking forward to learning from the experience of others on this commission to better understand how the public health system operates here in Alameda County.
