绿帽换妻

Three-time Cal State East Bay alumna, Jatinderpal “JP” Kaur Sahi — who earned her B.S. in Biology, her M.S. in Health Care Administration and her MBA in ’05, ’06 and ’08, respectively — was named Woman of the Year for California State Assembly District 20.

“JP is a dedicated advocate for public health,” said Assemblywoman Liz Ortega, who bestowed the award last spring. “I was proud to honor her for her strong commitment to public service and her community in all aspects of her life.”

After receiving her M.B.A. in 2008, Sahi began her career in the healthcare field, serving in several senior leadership positions. She joined RotaCare Bay Area in 2015 as a director of clinical operations before ascending to become its CEO 18 months later.

RotaCare was founded by local Rotary Club members in 1989 and consists of volunteer medical professionals serving thousands of Bay Area residents who need access to free healthcare and medicine. As CEO, Sahi oversees 10 clinics from Monterey to Pittsburg. 

But it’s Sahi’s dedication to volunteering in her community that has earned her recognition and support from those around her.

“I'm grateful that I'm able to do all of this with the support of my family and my husband,” said Sahi, who arrived with her parents in the U.S. at two years old, and credits her parents and the Punjabi Sikh culture for instilling the values informing her life’s mission. 

Sahi sees herself as a bridge between her communities and access to fundamental needs that can greatly impact their quality of life.

“Being a first-generation immigrant and seeing a lot of immigrants around me, I understand that folks don’t always understand two areas,” said Sahi. “One is health care…the other is education and the education system.”

Once her child was old enough to enroll in elementary school, she followed her parents’ footsteps and began volunteering at the school. She then joined the school site council and started a Punjabi Parent Association to organize families and advocate for better educational opportunities.

With her efforts at the school, she feels she has helped families understand and navigate the complicated academic paths in the U.S.

On the healthcare front, she is a public health commissioner for Alameda County and sits on the board of directors for Community Health Partnership, an advocacy group pursuing equitable and affordable healthcare access.

But her major achievement as a volunteer that earned the trust of her community occurred at the height of the COVID pandemic.

When the vaccine became available, Sahi collaborated with Sikh temples across Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties to serve as community vaccine centers for not only her Punjabi Sikh community, but also anyone who needed access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Her team of volunteers coordinated with Bay Area pharmacies, public health agencies and nonprofit healthcare providers to vaccinate more than 3,000 patients from all walks of life. It was a success — she recalls people lining up at 6 a.m. in Hayward, waiting for the pop-up clinic to begin administering vaccine doses at 8 a.m.

For Sahi, navigating the cultural and language barriers to instill confidence in the vaccines was instrumental to getting so many inoculated during the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history. 

With the confidence she earned from community members across her hometown, she has decided to run for her local school board following a previous campaign that left her shy of votes but resulted in an elevated profile as a trusted voice representing women and people of color in Union City.

To learn the complex processes and strategies of electioneering, Sahi joined California’s Emerge program, which supports and trains minority women to run for public office. From that experience, she joined the Alameda County Democrat Party Central Committee and is now an elected delegate of the California Democratic Party.

But for Sahi, entering the murky waters of politics continues to be about doing what her parents taught her — donating free time to worthy causes that can shine a positive light on her community.

“I'm not interested in city council. I'm not interested in anything else,” said Sahi. “I grew up in public schools, and my daughter's going to public schools, and I want to be able to represent as a parent in public schools.”

It’s also about the other value her parents taught her, which was to help others. “I go to sleep at night knowing that I’ve helped people…and they’re in a better place,” said Sahi, referring not just to her professional career, but to all the causes to which she invests her free time. “And that makes me feel happy.”