As the Chief Program Officer at Community Catalyst, Valerie L. Rochester brings over two decades of experience as a public health strategist, providing programmatic, administrative, and technical support services in the health equity, public health and health philanthropy fields.
In May 2025, Valerie was appointed as Executive Director of The Women’s Collective in Washington, DC, assuming this role upon the retirement of the organization’s founder. Prior to this role, Valerie was Chief Health Equity & Impact Officer with CHC: Creating Healthier Communities — a nationwide nonprofit that aligns communities, nonprofits, and businesses around a shared commitment to improving health and wellbeing in communities most impacted by health inequities. There she provided strategic direction for the organization’s health equity, social impact and community engagement focus, as well as development of culturally humble and responsive program initiatives.
Valerie has served as Chief Program Officer at AIDS United, a national HIV advocacy, policy and grantmaking organization in Washington, DC, guiding the organization’s program, capacity building and grantmaking portfolios, directing resources to communities most affected by the domestic HIV epidemic. She has also been Director of Programs & Training with the Black Women’s Health Imperative, leading the national programmatic responses to address racially and gender-based health inequities.
Valerie centers her work on engaging with communities to help bring about improved health outcomes locally and nationally. She serves on the boards of national and community-based organizations, including NMAC (formerly National Minority AIDS Council), and Mayday Health. Because of her commitment to addressing health inequities in communities of color, Valerie is a past recipient of the Congressional Black Caucus Healthcare Hero Award.
Originally from Indianapolis, IN, Valerie currently resides in Laurel, MD.