To explore the challenges of underserved populations and to engage in actionable items that address the multilevel facilitating and impeding factors experienced within underserved populations.
To protect our community by serving as a central asset in the advancement of public health practice.
To be a recognized and trusted partner within the public health ecosystem.
To provide expertise, high quality outputs, excellent service and consistency throughout all our projects.
We believe we are equipped to serve as a guiding light, paving the way to addressing the facilitating and impeding factors creating challenges within underserved populations globally.
Our Program Planning and Evaluation Division serves as an external consultant to projects housed at private and public partnerships
throughout the country.
Our Health Research and Analytics Division explores the challenges of underserved populations through the lens of Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities.
Our Health Data Division focuses on taking data from numbers to useable information. We focus on making data available for use by private and public organizations in their respective research and operational and strategic decision making processes.
Project RUSH (Realistic Understanding of Sexual Health) is an innovative community intervention to educate high school youth and their families about sexual risk and interrelated factors that promote optimal health and result in healthy decision-making and teen pregnancy prevention.
A collaborative effort between SALVERE and the University of the Incarnate Word
Accessing the Health Literacy of Refugees in San Antonio
Dr. Howaida M. Werfelli serves as the Founding Executive Director of SALVERE. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Middle Eastern Studies from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Master’s degree in Public Health from UTHealth School of Public Health. She obtained her DrPH in Community Health Practice from UTHealth School of Public Health.
Her focus is on addressing the challenges of underserved populations to create actionable items that address the multilevel facilitating and impeding factors existent within underserved populations. She has seventeen years experience working on federal grants, including SAMHSA/CSAP and U.S. Department of Education. She has authored two papers and has presented her work at local, state, and national conferences.
In addition to her public health experience, Dr. Werfelli is also a long-time entrepreneur and is owner of Tripoli’s, a Mediterranean grill and coffee shop, in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Werfelli feels her combined public health and entrepreneurial skills have served her well in both facets of her work.
She currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Center for Refugee Services
Dr. Jerry Pacheco is an Assistant Professor at Texas State University in the School of Health Administration. He received his DrPH in Community Health Practice and MPH from UTHealth School of Public Health. He has an MS from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
For the past seven years he has engaged with various stakeholders through the Texas Chagas Taskforce to increase education and access to resources regarding Chagas disease throughout the state. He has consulted on multiple community health interventions throughout Texas and is primarily interested in applying the principles of community based participatory research (CBPR) to prioritize health issue throughout various communities.
Karen O’Brien received a Bachelor’s degree in Community Health from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and is currently pursuing an Masters degree in Public Health in Health Promotion and Education at the University of Texas School of Public Health.
She assists in program evaluation for federal grants that include HIV/Hepatitis C and teen pregnancy prevention for at risk populations. She is an active volunteer and advocate for several nonprofit organizations that promote health equity through community engagement, education, and social services.