Ralph Forquera, MPH

Ralph Forquera is executive director of the Seattle Indian Health Board. He is a member of the Juaneno Band of California Indians, Acjachmen Nation from the San Juan Capistrano area of California.

He holds a masters in public health (MPH) degree from California State University, Northridge and a BS degree in health science and safety from San Diego State College.

Forquera is clinical assistant professor at the School of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences at the University of Washington. He is past president of the Community Health Council of Seattle/King County and a past chair of the American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian caucus of the American Public Health Association.

He was elected to the Qualis Health Board of Directors in 2000.

He was a co-author of the only population-based study on the health status of American Indians and Alaskan Natives which was published in 1994 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2000, Forquera created the Urban Indian Health Institute as a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board. The institute was created to provide leadership and support for national information on the health of urban Indians and the social factors, health policies and systems of care that affect their health.