Villablanca will be presented the award at a ceremony on Wednesday, May 27, by David Maxwell-Jolly, director of the California Department of Health Care Services, and Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health.
Awarded each May as part of California's celebration of Women's Health Month, this prestigious award is presented to a woman who exemplifies excellence in the field of women's health.
"Dr. Villablanca has served in leadership capacities with several heart health programs and works tirelessly to raise awareness of heart disease among women," said Maxwell-Jolly.
Villablanca served with Helen Rodriguez-Trias as a founding member of the State Advisory Council to the California Office of Women's Health for 12 years. She founded and became the director of the Women's Cardiovascular Medicine Program at UC Davis Medical Center in 1994. In 2005, this program was recognized as one of only six model women's heart programs in the country by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health for delivering comprehensive heart care to high-risk women.
"We are pleased to honor Dr. Villablanca as she truly embodies the spirit of the award's namesake, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias," said Horton. "Along with her groundbreaking work to establish women's health programs in California, we recognize Dr. Villablanca for her ongoing contributions to women's health on both a state and national level."
During the last few years, Villablanca has represented California on the Governor's Task Force on Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and received a research award from the federal Office on Women's Health to deliver preventive heart care intervention and education to African-American women in community settings nationwide.
Villablanca is one of four spokeswomen for the National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's "Heart Truth" Campaign, a national campaign aimed at raising awareness that heart disease is the leading killer of women. In this capacity, she develops numerous public-health announcements to raise awareness of heart disease among women. Additionally, Villablanca helped to establish the Women's Center for Health at UC Davis and now serves as its associate director.
"I am honored to receive this prestigious award named after a dear friend and colleague," said Villablanca. "We will continue our efforts to educate women about heart disease and what they can do to prevent its onset."
Established by the former California Department of Health Services in January 2002, the Helen Rodriguez-Trias award honors the memory of this nationally recognized health-care leader who was a strong, effective force in the fight for women's and children's health care, health-care rights and reproductive freedom. She challenged racial and gender inequities in health care and was actively involved with the growing problem of HIV/AIDS infection among women and children. The goal of the award is to help raise awareness of health issues facing women today.