Billy Ramirez

Congressional Intern, Presented by Genentech
Hometown: Buena Park, California
School: Stanford University
Major: Human Biology
Placement: Office of Rep. Sam Liccardo

Billy Ramirez was raised in Buena Park, California by a single mother who immigrated from Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. Growing up, he witnessed the effects of incarceration and substance use within his own family, and from an early age, he understood the importance of giving back. In high school, he helped pass stricter regulations on tobacco access in local Buena Park schools, a turning point that sparked his interest in policy. Now, a first-generation student at Stanford University studying Human Biology, he serves as Student Associate Executive Director at the Haas Center for Public Service, supporting high-impact public service events and daily operations.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, he partnered with local students to co-design sustainable health habits, while shadowing surgeons, engaging with traditional medicine, and visiting dengue-affected regions. He then lived and worked in Praia, Cape Verde, a West African island nation, developing gender-based violence policy recommendations alongside the Ministry of Health, local schools, and substance-abuse recovery programs. There, he witnessed how poverty, addiction, and limited access to healthcare intersect and disproportionately impact women.

As a CHCI Intern, Billy is interested in how international models of care can inform more effective approaches to rehabilitation and access in the United States. Every time he reads a policy brief, he thinks about family members who would never be in the rooms where decisions are made, whose lives are shaped by policies they were never meant to access. He aims to build policies that are not only accessible, but that are intentionally designed for communities like his own.