Quirina Vallejos is a Chicana who grew up in Colorado, participated in Latine student groups in high school and college and discovered a passion for social justice by participating in spring break community service trips while an undergraduate at Duke University. Quirina earned a Master of Public Health focused on community health education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She first met colleagues from the North Carolina Farmworkers’ Project (NCFWP) when she was a Project Manager at Wake Forest School of Medicine for studies focused on the health of farmworkers and NCFWP was a main community partner in the research. Quirina was President of the NCFWP Board of Directors for 7 years before becoming the Executive Director in 2022.
Quirina has deep respect for the outreach team and their dedication to serving farmworkers. It is her honor to be able to work alongside these amazing people to create a community in which farmworkers are visible, respected, feel cared for, and are able to access the care they need to keep themselves healthy. Quirina is especially passionate about encouraging the NCFWP staff to take as excellent care of themselves as they do of the farmworker community. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her large family and being active, preferably outdoors. She likes cycling, hiking, walking the dogs, hot yoga, learning to sail, paddling, swimming, camping, and all things that involve sun and fresh air. She also loves sharing good food with the many good people who she is blessed to call her friends and family.