Rosario Quintanilla
Public Health Specialist and Advocate
Rosario Quintanilla served the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration for 30+ years as a Public Affairs Specialist(PAS) for the FDA’sLos Angeles District service area. She spearheaded and coordinated all communication with FDA’s diverse publics and strategized, implemented, and delivered programs covering public health messages, particularly to at risk populations. Lead internal and external communication programs, and managed media and key official interactions for the FDA’s local district, laboratory, and import operations.
Rosario received her BA degrees (Psychology and Ethnic Studies) from the University of Southern California. She commenced her career working for State funded health programs utilizing media as an outreach tool and then went into the non-profit sector before joining the federal government in 1988 at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She was recruited by FDA and joined the Los Angeles District Office in 1990 as a public affairs specialist and focused on: conducting outreach and media work targeting the underserved and at-risk communities; collaborating with various health coalitions and task forces for joint programs; developing communication strategies for internal and external audiences; and delivered educational programs for diverse constituents including industry.
She served details in the FDA’s Office of Media Affairs early in her career and volunteered for a number of National FDA committees. Rosario is a Spanish speaking bilingual and as such has served FDA in numerous occasions on national campaigns utilizing the Spanish language media market. She served on the HIV/AIDS Health Fraud Task Force for FDA and presented a poster at the International HIV Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1998. She is a certified Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) trainer, has been Diversity Coordinator for the District, and has served in lead Public Affairs Branch roles as needed.
