Three new health care board members seated

The San Benito Health Care District welcomed three new members to its board recently. Each elected member serves a four-year term.

The board members were elected in November through a new electoral process in which voters elected the board member from their respective districts as opposed to an “at-large” process. This process is designed to encourage better representation on the board from the community as a whole. The three join incumbent board members Mary McCullough and Josie Sanchez.

Jeri Hernandez was elected as the District 1 representative and joins the board after having served on the Hospital Foundation Board for six years, most recently as president. She has lived in the community for 31 years and has been active in the Hollister Downtown Association as a small business owner with her interior design business. She is also an active supporter of the ag community. She and her husband, Ismael, and they have three daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandsons.

Angie De La Cruz, representing District 5, is a lifelong resident of Hollister. She attended Gavilan College and graduated with an associates of science degree in Health Science in 2014. She has been actively involved in the community volunteering with numerous organizations. She has been married to her husband, San Benito County Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz for 28 years. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Ariel Hurtado, M.D., who was elected to represent District 3, has been a member of the medical staff at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital for five years and is currently the chair of the Surgery Department.  He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a double major in psychology and Spanish while completing pre-medical requirements. Hurtado then went on to attend the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Medical School. He completed a Surgical Internship at U.C. San Francisco, followed by an anesthesiology residency at U.C. Irvine with a specialty in pediatrics. After residency, Hurtado completed a fellowship in regional anesthesia and acute pain management. He is double board-certified in anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesiology. 

Hurtado was born and raised in San Benito County and lives in Hollister with his wife and three children, and is involved in their education and activities.

During a special board meeting on Dec. 8, the board elected McCullough to serve as board president, Sanchez to serve as vice president, De La Cruz to serve as secretary, Hurtado to serve as assistant secretary and Hernandez to serve as treasurer.