Hasta la Raíz.

A proud Tejana, originally from the border region of El Paso, Texas, Vivian has utilized her legal training to efficiently and successfully merge business strategy, development, organizational management, and health policy to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and economic security.

As Founder & CEO of The Nava Collective, Vivian honors generational roots of hard work, ingenuity, and the tenacity to keep moving forward with an appreciation for how we are all connected. 

Vivian’s career spans higher education, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors, serving as Director of Community Impact and California Partnerships for The SCAN Foundation, where she led the strategic implementation of the foundation’s first-ever internal equity and inclusion framework, and managed programs and partnerships within the foundation’s Health Equity and Aging Initiative.

At the National Council on Aging, she led the organization’s engagement with national and community partners to include growing the programming and development of the National Senior Center Network, partnerships and programs focusing on supporting low-income older adults, and NCOA’s Equity in Aging Collaborative, a coalition to support advocacy efforts that elevate the importance of financial security and health policy for all older adults. Her deep commitment to connecting NCOA to diverse groups and coalitions working toward achieving greater economic and health equity for all older adults led the organization to a historic $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, providing funding and technical assistance to hundreds of community-based organizations working on behalf of underrepresented populations to provide lifesaving COVID-19 and influenza vaccines to older adults and people with disabilities.

Prior to NCOA, Vivian led strategic partnerships efforts in Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania at Enroll America, a Washington, DC nonprofit aimed at connecting individuals to health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. At Enroll, Vivian saw the power in partnerships, relationship building and how messaging to specific communities could connect over 7 million people to health insurance coverage. Dedicated to access and opportunity, Vivian spent the early part of her career working with law and graduate students at both Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (Phoenix, AZ) and Howard University School of Law (Washington, DC). At both institutions Vivian focused not just on how to provide greater access to underrepresented student populations, but also strategies to ensure that these students- often first in their families to attend law and graduate school could thrive with the right resources, wellness focused programming, and mental health support.

In El Paso, Texas, Vivian worked with public school educational programs like AVID and other early college access programs, giving her a deep appreciation for the needs of students and the dynamics involved in building supportive pipelines essential to thriving communities from early childhood to older adulthood.

Vivian received her Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ. She is also a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, where she earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Legal Reasoning, a Master of Science in National Security Studies, and an Associate of Arts from El Paso Community College.

Vivian embraces with love and dedication the many titles she holds - granddaughter, daughter, sister, titi (Aunt), wife, and friend. She enjoys running, gardening while listening to Chicano oldies, and spending time with her husband Jake and their four dogs.