Bringing a decade of diverse domestic and global public health experience to the job, Carla Hegwood is the coordinator of
Pasadena’s Office of the Young Child.

Hegwood previously worked in the Virginia Department of Health, where she was the state maternal and child health director and project director for the Title V Block Grant.

In that position, Hegwood managed a $23 million portfolio of investments in state and local health systems, infrastructure, and community-based organizations to improve the health of women, men, children 21 years and under, and individuals with special health needs.

Prior to joining the Virginia Department of Health, she served as regional director of multicultural initiatives at the American Heart Association, where she led strategic planning and program delivery to address health inequities in Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

Hegwood has also held research and public health practice roles at Save the Children, the American Red Cross, the Los Angeles Department of Health, the USC School of Medicine, the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and Virginia Tech.

She earned a master’s degree in public health at UCLA and a bachelor of science degree with honors in psychology at Virginia Tech. She also served as a Global Health Fellow at the World Health Organization in Micronesia, and she completed additional graduate fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh.