Rodrigo Avila

Rodrigo Avila was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Rodrigo is the first in their family to have earned a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Cal Poly Humboldt. They later earned a Master’s in Social Welfare from the University of California Berkeley. Rodrigo participated in CHCI’s Graduate Congressional Fellowship in the fall of 2019-2020 and interned at the office of Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-CA 25th).

In their current role, Rodrigo helps lead Behavioral Health services in San Francisco’s 1st public health drop-in primary care program for underserved individuals living with HIV+ at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Through this program, Rodrigo has helped develop this pilot program into its own full clinic, expanding services and providing psychotherapy to queer-identified community members. They additionally provide gender-affirming clinical services to the Trans community and assist building networking series for the Bay Area HIV provider community. As the Secretary for the Northern California Chapter, Rodrigo hopes to build and deepen the CHCI community in the area and expand mental health awareness in the CHCI community.