Cástulo de la Rocha
President and CEO, AltaMed Health Services Corporation
PARTNERS’ 25TH ANNUAL VISION & EXCELLENCE IN HEALTHCARE
LEADERSHIP TRIBUTE DINNER
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025, 6-9PM
FAIRMONT CENTURY PLAZA IN LOS ANGELES, CA.
A trailblazer in community health is committed to the underserved.
Under the leadership of Cástulo de la Rocha, AltaMed Health Services Corporation grew from a single storefront clinic in East Los Angeles – staffed by volunteers – into the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in the United States. The key to its success? “The fact that we have always stayed true to our mission,” said the 2025 recipient of the Partners in Care Foundation’s Vision & Excellence in Healthcare Leadership Award.
De la Rocha, President and CEO of AltaMed Health Services Corporation, said that he is “privileged and honored to be included in the illustrious groups of individuals” who have been recognized by Partners in Care Foundation.
“I have long admired Partners in Care Foundation and have witnessed the remarkable work they have accomplished over the course of two decades,” he said. “While I’m honored to be recognized as a leader in the health care industry, what is most important is that the work that AltaMed does in underserved and communities of need is being recognized.”
At more than 70 sites scattered around Orange County and Los Angeles, AltaMed Health Services Corporation has 5,600 employees and serves almost 648,000 patients annually. It’s come a long way from the small clinic that de la Rocha walked into in 1977.
De la Rocha immigrated to the United States at a young age and worked hard to earn his bachelor’s degree in political science at UC Santa Barbara, later graduating from the UC Berkely School of Law. After graduating, he worked as a staff member at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Francisco. His personal journey has shaped his understanding of the challenges facing immigrant populations, fueling his commitment to improving access to services for those in need.
“A friend who worked for Mayor Tom Bradley suggested, ‘Hey, if you want to get more involved in the community, why don’t you check out this clinic in East LA?’ I came and I applied and got the job. I tell this story all the time. I drove up in a beat-up Volkswagen, and after having been at Berkeley, I had long hair and a goatee and probably interviewed wearing sandals.”
He recalled the first time he saw the clinic that would eventually become AltaMed. “On one side of the building it said East LA Barrio Free Clinic, and on the other side it said La Clínica Familiar del Barrio,” he said. “There was a long line of people outside of the clinic waiting to get a ticket, because they only had X number of slots. It reminded me of what we see at the carnicerías or meat markets, where you take a number, and you wait to receive your order. That’s what people were doing, coming in early, pulling a number, and coming back at 4:30 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon to see a volunteer doctor.”
“I saw the line and told myself, I think that I could make a difference here. Either I was very foolish and naive or perhaps very cocky, or maybe both. I was given a three-month contract, and here I am 48 years later.”
When he was hired, the clinic was six months behind in paying rent. Two positions, including his, were funded through the federal Comprehensive Employment Training Assistance (CETA) program. “The doctors, a couple of nurse practitioners, all the lab people – everybody was a volunteer,” he said. “We had a big five-gallon jug, and patients put a quarter in or put a nickel in, and that’s all the money we had.”
“At the time, we were primarily serving working class families – mostly Mexican, and first generation Mexican-Americans – folks with nowhere else to turn. And while AltaMed is still providing services to the underserved, uninsured populations, we’ve now expanded our reach far beyond East LA to cover a much larger geographic area.”
One thing that remains constant for de la Rocha and AltaMed is their commitment to eliminate disparities in health care access and outcomes by providing superior quality health and human services.
“Our goal was to narrow those gaps and to address the issues of our community in a bilingual setting, and to deal with what today we refer to as social determinants of health, which is violence, which is discrimination, which is hunger and poverty,” said de la Rocha. “Those are issues we’ve been dealing with for as long as I’ve been at AltaMed.
“In the early years, it was strictly confrontational politics. Creating community clinics was a struggle, as well as getting people to understand that a social environment is equally, if not more, impactful on people’s lives and health than what we were able to deal with in the clinical setting.”
“There’s been a huge learning curve in terms of managing the kind of care that we provide in underserved communities. For the general community to understand that and to commit to work in those communities, that’s been a huge struggle. But as an organization, we have adapted and, in many cases, we have innovated to deal with the challenges of providing care in underserved communities.”
“While it was challenging many years ago, there is a lot more collaboration and cooperation with institutions than we ever saw in the past. We’re seen now as innovators and pioneers in the communities where we work. I think that’s part of the respect that people now have for what AltaMed stands for in our community. Our patients’ satisfaction and employee engagement is very high, and our brand is very respected in our communities. This is something I’m very proud of.”
While AltaMed’s growth and impact under Cástulo de la Rocha’s leadership are undeniable, his journey is just as compelling. In the next part of our conversation, de la Rocha reflects on his early life, the challenges he overcame as an immigrant, the mentors who shaped his path, and his vision for the future of healthcare access.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
